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A new analysis of North Carolina 2022-23 test results indicates clear signs of continued academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. This latest evidence of post-pandemic recovery in the state’s public schools was presented today to the State Board of Education by Dr. Jeni Corn, director of research and evaluation in the N.C. Department of Public Instruction’s (NCDPI) Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration (OLR).
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Superintendent Catherine Truitt created the OLR in March 2021 to help recover the lost instructional time resulting from disrupted educational experiences across the state. The mission of the OLR is to serve Public School Units (PSUs) by providing the information and support needed to make evidence-based decisions and to mitigate the impact of lost instructional time while accelerating learning for all students. One important undertaking of the OLR was a report that would measure the pandemic’s impact on learning across all grades and subjects for North Carolina’s students.
Released today, the 2023 Year-Over-Year State Analysis Report indicates further progress toward the recovery thresholds, meaning that North Carolina schools are steadily continuing to recover from the pandemic with gains virtually across all grades and subjects. Two of 16 standardized assessments (EOG Reading Grade 3 and EOC English II) already show gains above the recovery thresholds.
On average, the data shows that North Carolina schools are showing signs of academic recovery in nearly every subject – with the strongest gains measured in EOG Reading Grade 3. Notable gains are also found in reading and math for grades 3-5 and science grade 5.
Using the findings, NCDPI will better understand learning recovery and acceleration programs that are most needed and highlight those that have best served students. This report will continue to serve as a benchmark to monitor progress over time and ensure students continue to accelerate in their learning.
“Our continued improvement as identified in this report is a testament to the commitment and diligence of educators across North Carolina and a result of what can be done when there is intentionality in strategically implementing programming to support students who were most affected by the pandemic,” Truitt said. “This report provides the information we need to continue designing academic programming in subjects where students need additional support while allowing us to better target resources to specific grades and content areas.
“Tracking academic recovery across a decade – spanning from 2013 to 2023 – is something that has enabled our agency to chart a roadmap out of the pandemic and put our students on the path to recovery. While there is more work to be done, our agency’s Office of Learning Recovery and Acceleration has worked closely with school leaders to help them design recovery programs and strategically target resources based on this data. North Carolina’s students are resilient, and I know we will continue to see improvements with time.”
For the past several years, NCDPI and SAS Institute Inc. (SAS EVAAS) collaborated to provide educators, policymakers and other stakeholders with insight into the impacts of the pandemic on the K-12 public school system. The “Lost Instructional Time Impact Analysis” and “Recovery Analysis” presented average differences between students’ expected and actual performance during 2021 and 2022, respectively, and defined recovery as progress back towards those expectations. These reports have been critical, as the data allowed the agency to better target resources and programming to specific grades and content areas pending where additional supports were needed.
As part of NCDPI’s continued commitment to evidenced-based policymaking and transparency, the agency developed and share a new report for North Carolina education leaders known as "2023 Year-Over-Year State Analysis Report." The analysis focuses on how state achievement changed from one year to the next spanning from 2013 to 2023. This new analysis looks at achievement trends prior to the pandemic, impacts of the pandemic and benchmarks for recovery. Districts received local reports to help inform local discussions about recovery from the pandemic.
The purpose of the 2023 Report is to provide insight into understanding the extent to which students have recovered across the state since the pandemic and answer a common question: “How will we know when students have fully recovered from negative impacts due to the pandemic?” This report includes new visualizations and tables that help answer this question in new ways.
“The data from this new Year-Over-Year report allows state and local leaders to better understand the impact of the pandemic within the context of historical performance on standardized assessments,” Corn said. “Using this ten-year lens for the first time, education leaders can set recovery targets empirically and focus on those tested subjects where supports are most needed.”
Prior to the pandemic, achievement was relatively stable for most assessments with small positive or negative trends. Current data shows considerably more variation among schools within the state in terms of the pandemic impact and recovery thresholds.
The new report shows there continues to be room for improvement in math, as it was more negatively impacted by the pandemic than reading. Math assessments have a greater distance to the recovery thresholds both one year and two years later than reading. While the drop in overall school performance in Science Grade 8 in 2023 was unexpected, NCDPI is working with experts in the field to better understand the possible causes of the drop in performance and identify promising STEM-focused interventions to accelerate science learning for middle school students.
To address challenges in math and science, enrichment programs funded through PRC 189 now allow public school units to incorporate science and ELA in addition to math. These programs are academic year, after- or before-school programs. Several districts have opted to have a STEM focus on these programs to increase engagement in grades 3-8.
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