Reflecting a statewide trend, third through eighth grade students in the Austin Independent School District are struggling in mathematics while their reading proficiencies vary across grade levels, according to recently released scores from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness.
Compared with last year, reading scores declined for those grade levels except for sixth grade, which increased by 2 percentage points, and seventh grade, which remained the same.
Austin students’ math performance has worsened since before the COVID-19 pandemic. In spring 2019, 52% of third-graders met grade-level requirements, compared with 42% this year. The smallest margin of difference is for seventh graders, as 26% met grade-level requirements in 2019 and now 23% do.
“While we continue to see progress in other areas … it’s clear that math performance is not where students need it to be for success after graduation,” Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said in a news release. “Pandemic-induced disruptions to learning exacerbated students’ difficulties in mastering fundamental math concepts.”
On the flip side, Austin district students have increased their reading proficiency this year compared with 2019, before the pandemic. Third and seventh graders saw increases from 51% to 56% and 47% to 53%, respectively. Sixth graders have seen an even greater growth of 15 percentage points, with 54% meeting grade-level requirements in 2024.
David DeMatthews, associate professor in the University of Texas department of educational leadership and policy, said comparing test results year to year can be tricky given that the students taking the assessments change annually, and the testing system has changed since before the pandemic. The Texas Education Association redesigned the STAAR and implemented the new version in the 2022-23 school year to closer align with what is being taught in classrooms.
“For example, Algebra I scores from 2022 and 2023 are often compared by policymakers, journalists and even the general public,” DeMatthews said. “Yet the students taking Algebra I in 2022 are not the same students taking Algebra I in 2023, so comparing those scores is not very helpful. This is particularly important as we move beyond the pandemic and make sense of how the pandemic and learning disruptions influenced different cohorts of students.”
DeMatthews said that although test scores are an important accountability measure within the public education system, those scores are not a perfect measure of the quality of instruction the students are receiving.
Standardized test scores “often reflect broader issues within our society, including poverty and systemic racism,” he said. Students who do not have stable housing or access to reliable health care “are more likely to struggle in school and … on state assessments than their peers who come from more affluent families and communities with greater resources. So test scores are partly measuring those social and economic factors which are beyond the school’s control.”
Austin school district Superintendent Matias Segura said the STAAR is just one of many data points the district looks at to track students’ learning success in the classroom. Students complete other informal and formal assessments.
“We’re very balanced. We try to make sure that we’re never overassessing, because we want the educational experience in our classrooms to be vibrant,” Segura said. “We want our students to have fun and understand and enjoy learning.”
He said that overall there weren’t any surprises in this year’s scores, but the results help inform the administration about areas where educators might want to focus, though many of those plans are already in action.
“What we’re really wanting is enough time for the adjustments to take root, so that over time you see true academic outcomes begin to progress in the way that we expect,” Segura said.
After the pandemic, Segura said the district focused on improving literacy, which has now stabilized. The next focus will be numeracy, he said.
As a father of two Austin district students, Segura said he believes it is important to relay to students that the score they received on the STAAR doesn’t define them.
“We want vibrant schools where students feel supported and the educational experience is fulfilling,” he said. “But that doesn’t always always translate to a high score on the STAAR test.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin students thrive in reading, struggle in math, STAAR results show
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