Fourth and Eighth Graders Falling Behind in Math
Declines since 2019 on national scores echoed by test results for Wisconsin students.
School classroom. (Pixabay License).
Math scores for U.S. fourth and eighth graders declined significantly last school year, compared to 2019, according to the latest results from the National Center for Education Statistics, or NCES.
The NCES data is not broken down by state, but the trends it points out can be seen in Wisconsin.
Since before the COVID-19 pandemic’s widespread school shutdowns, the average mathematics score for fourth graders has declined by 18 points. Scores for eighth graders declined by 27 points.
Students in the United States are also performing significantly worse in math than their counterparts in other countries.
Among 63 education systems, average scores in 21 systems were higher than the U.S. average for fourth graders. Among 45 education systems, average scores in 11 systems were higher than the U.S. average for eighth graders.
“Globally, we are seeing declines in achievement, even in traditionally high-performing systems,” NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr said in a statement.
The sharpest declines among U.S. schools are in the lowest-performing districts. That mirrors the results in the Nation’s Report Card.
Score gaps between high- and low-performing fourth-graders widened in mathematics by 35 points and science by 26 points.
At eighth grade, low-performing students’ scores declined 19 points in mathematics between 2019 and 2023 but were not measurably different in science.
A report released earlier this year by researchers at Stanford and Harvard found Wisconsin reading achievement scores are returning back to 2019 levels, but students are still struggling to make up for pandemic learning losses in math.
Wisconsin public school student proficiency rates in math were 49 percent during the 2023-24 school year, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.
Students participating in Wisconsin’s Private School Choice Programs last school year had a 28 percent proficiency rate in math, according to DPI data.
Changes to UW-Madison’s School of Education math requirements
Steffen Lempp, a math professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says over the last decade, the School of Education has changed how prospective K-8 teachers are taught math content to fully prepare them to teach children in the subject.
The UW-Madison math department used to teach these math content courses. Those courses are now taught by the School of Education, in classes that blend content and pedagogy in one. Lempp feels that short-changes the math content preparation, especially for those teaching math in upper elementary and middle school grades.
“To me, it seemed the middle school teachers are not necessarily really qualified to teach math, because they don’t know the underlying math concepts well enough,” Lempp said.
The elementary education program at UW-Madison requires 60 credits. Those credits include three math courses: Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching Elementary Mathematics 1;Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching Elementary Mathematics 2; and Teaching Mathematics.
Todd Finkelmeyer, a spokesperson for the School of Education, said two years ago, the school changed the math courses in response to changes in DPI certification requirements.
“The integration was motivated by the need for more coherence in the elementary education program, and what we know from best practice and research (is) that to be a good math teacher, one needs to both understand the content — while also learning how best to convey the math to students,” Finkelmeyer said.
The elementary education math courses are led by math educators from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, with expertise in mathematics and pedagogy, he said.
Going back to work on unfinished learning
Mary McClung is a sixth grade math teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Port Washington in Ozaukee County. She said she doesn’t believe the problem with students falling behind in math has to do with how teachers are being educated.
McClung started teaching in 1992. She took several years off to stay home with her family, and has been back to teaching full time for the last six years.
She thinks student attendance has had a negative impact on learning since the pandemic.
“When I’m trying to build something for them where they can participate and move forward in their math learning — if they’re not present to engage, to do the work of the mathematics, to actually carry the cognitive load, they will continue to fall behind,” McClung said.
Nationally, an estimated 26 percent of public school students were considered chronically absent last school year, up from 15 percent before the pandemic, according to data compiled by the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute.
In Wisconsin, about a quarter of students in public and private schools missed at least a month of school last year, according to DPI data.
“If they’re not here, they just missed the opportunity, and I can’t recreate that,” McClung said. “Because when they’re here, they’re collaborating, they’re looking at different strategies, they’re coaching others, they’re making mistakes. When they’re not here, they don’t have the opportunity to work together and ask questions and work to get unstuck.”
Missing a year of in-person education due to the pandemic has also had a long-term effect, McClung said.
For example, her sixth graders missed second grade. They would have been learning place value, the number line and how to understand the number system. Not having that foundation has set some students back, she said.
The eighth graders, who are performing poorly on tests, were at home during fourth grade when they would have been learning decimals, fractions and multiples — all building blocks for middle school math.
“Now we continue to go back and work on unfinished learning to help bring them forward, but that was a gap,” McClung said. “So what we really try to do is try to look for is the unfinished learning.”
Last week, McClung introduced ratios to her sixth graders. She brought in hot chocolate mix and the students used it in 1-1 and 1-2 ratios, having a great time learning.
“What I loved is at the end of the lesson, every single one of my classes, they all felt so good about what they learned,” McClung said. “That’s why I’m in education, because I really want these kids every day to know that they are capable of learning math and to actually be able to do it themselves and see evidence of their own learning.”
US fourth and eighth graders fall further behind in math was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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I am very glad to see that Corrine Hess, the author, went beyond the simplistic reasons that are often given for low test scores. There are many reasons that impact achievement which most are beyond the ability of the teachers to change. One of the most reliable correlations to high test scores is family income. When a school in a poor Milwaukee neighborhood does well on test scores, you never see Milwaukee Journal Sentinel go in and find out what the school is doing to achieve these outcomes. Readers will regularly see articles on complaints about MPS and public education from school choice supporters.