By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Bowling Green City Schools saw student language arts scores drop and student math scores take a nosedive during COVID.
The district isn’t alone. Across the nation, schools saw similar drops in state test scores, according to Angie Schaal, director of teaching and learning for Bowling Green City Schools.
Schaal presented a report to the board of education on Tuesday evening – and promised that the students would make great strides this year to recover some of the lost ground.
When COVID-19 hit early in 2020 and Gov. Mike DeWine ordered schools closed, the state assessments tests were put on pause.
This spring, when the tests were once again administered, the results across the state were dismal – but not completely unexpected.
“Students really struggled and did not perform as well on assessments,” Schaal said, stressing, “it isn’t unique to us.”
While English/language arts test results dropped, the performances on math tests plunged.
“We are not happy about those scores for proficiency,” Schaal said.
Following are the spring 2021 state testing scores for Bowling Green elementaries:
- Third grade – English/language arts: 57.4% compared to 67.7% in 2018-2019; Math scores: 47.4% compared to 66.7% in 2018-2019.
- Fourth grade – English/language arts: 57.3% compared to 65.8% in 2018-2019; Math scores: 46.9% compared to 71.2% in 2018-2019.
- Fifth grade – English/language arts: 72.7% compared to 71.8% in 2018-2019; Math scores: 37.4% compared to 57.6% in 2018-2019.
Schaal noted that Kenwood Elementary students scored higher than Conneaut or Crim elementaries in language arts skills. Kenwood – the elementary school that had been put on the state’s EdChoice list for poor scores – had benefited from two years of a different language arts curriculum, she said.
Following are the spring 2021 state testing scores for Bowling Green Middle School:
- Sixth grade – English/language arts: 51% compared to 58.1% in 2018-2019; Math: 36.5% compared to 75.4% in 2018-2019.
- Seventh grade – English/language arts: 57.8% compared to 74% in 2018-2019; Math: 34.4% compared to 73.1% in 2018-2019.
- Eighth grade – English/language arts: 48.5% compared to 63.4% in 2018-2019; Math: 26.9% compared to 64.8% in 2018-2019.
Following are the spring 2021 state testing scores for Bowling Green High School:
- Algebra I – 52.5% compared to 68.4% in 2018-2019.
- Biology – 72.7% compared to 89% in 2018-2019.
- English/language arts I – 20% compared to 78.4% in 2018-2019.
- English/language arts II – 66% compared to 78.3% in 2018-2019.
- Geometry – 33.6% compared to 57.2% in 2018-2019.
- U.S. government – 84% compared to 82.4% in 2018-2019.
- American history: 63% compared to 92.8% in 2018-2019.
“There are definitely some challenging numbers to look at,” Schaal said. “The impact of the pandemic is real.”
But a district leadership team and building teams are working on helping students make up for lost time. The leader of an education consulting firm has been contracted to coach the leadership team.
Schaal assured the school board that the next test scores will show great improvement.
“We are doing some really cool things in the district,” she said. “We are rocking it. Our teachers are amazing and our kids are going to make a huge amount of growth this year.”
Across Ohio, using fall 2020 data, this is how the pandemic affected the 2020-2021 school year:
- Using the Language and Literacy domain of the kindergarten readiness tests, 47.6% of the participating students scored not on track, significantly more than in 2019 (39.7%), 2018 (39.1%) or 2017 (38.3%).
- A higher percentage of children taking the readiness tests scored in the lowest performance level than in any previous year (23.7% compared to 22.5% in 2019, 22.7% in 2018 and 22.4% in 2017).
- Fall 2020 third grade proficiency rates were approximately 8 percentage points lower than in 2019 (37.1% in fall 2020 compared to 45.1% in fall 2019).
- More than 87% of districts had a decrease in their percent of students scoring proficient or higher from 2019 to 2020. The average decrease in students scoring proficient or above was slightly more than 9%. This included decreases in students scoring in advanced, accelerated and proficient performance levels; with an increase of students scoring in the basic and limited range.
Across Ohio, using spring 2021 data, this is how the pandemic affected the 2020-2021 school year:
- Across most grades, English language arts proficiency rates generally decreased by about 8 percentage points and math proficiency rates decreased by approximately 15 percentage points.
- Based on Ohio’s state assessments, third-grade students demonstrated roughly 20% less learning on average between November 2020 and April 2021 (between the fall and spring administration of the English language arts exam) as compared to students in prior years.
