HUTTO – While student scores on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test have been slowly increasing overall, they still have not regained the ground lost during the pandemic, according to scores for spring 2023, released in August. Math scores have been especially slow to recover.
“In math, the significant effects of the pandemic still linger, but this year’s results present encouraging signs that the intensive supports offered by Texas public school systems are working. Five of the six tested grade levels saw an increase in the percentage of students that met grade level, while results for Texas sixth graders mirrored 2022 results,” according to the Texas Education Agency.
The agency says that overall, just 4% of students who perform below grade level catch up within two years.
That delay in recovery has been observed by Hutto Independent School District leaders as well. Melissa Haney, Integrated Systems Manager for HISD said students who elected to continue remote learning for longer seem to struggle more to catch up.
“I’ve seen study after study saying math was the hardest hit during COVID. It’s an interesting idea that inherently parents know to read with a child or practice spelling but it’s really hard to identify, for most parents, “how do I do math with you?” especially for students who ended up in the remote environment for longer,” she said.
Haney said when reviewing test scores, she focuses on gains in the number of students who score in the “meets grade level” or “masters grade level” region, because they are the students who are expected to pass the next grade without targeted help. Students who score in the “approaches grade level” area technically pass the STAAR test, but are not expected to pass the next grade without additional resources. Students who score in the “did not meet grade level” window do not pass the STAAR exam.
“While ‘approaches grade level’ is passing, it is not the goal and the standard we have for our students. We are searching for kids to hit that ‘meets’ and ‘masters’ grade level performance. We want to see that they’re ready for the next grade level,” Haney said.
Hutto students saw the biggest improvements in fourth and sixth grade math, sixth grade reading and eighth grade science.
While there were no large drops in the math scores, that still leaves 47% of last year’s seventh-graders having failed the math portion of the STARR exam and on shaky ground as they now try to comprehend eighth grade math.
“We implemented a new math curriculum and so we have seen gains from that, but it does take time,” Haney said. “It’s definitely something that has been worked on diligently so I’m really excited to see some of that come to fruition as we’re now in year two of our new math curriculum in elementary and year one for grades six through nine.”
Meredith Roddy, director of curriculum, added that the district has invested in resources to improve the consistency of instruction as well as student ownership of their individual success.
“Our teachers created student tracking sheets this summer to set students up for success so they can track their STAAR data (among others), so, I think just letting students drive a little bit here and know their data is really going to help us,” Roddy said.
Roddy also commented on the district’s policy shift toward having teachers use more consistent teaching tools.
“We are being much more hard-nosed about using high quality instructional materials as our core instructional resources. It’s not going to be painless. You might hear some complaints about having to stick to this but we’re doing this for a reason. We want to prevent a rigor slide. We all need to get on the same page if we want to level the playing field.”
