BALTIMORE — Education assessments released Monday show the majority of Maryland’s fourth-grade students and eighth-grade students were not proficient in math and reading as of last year.
Baltimore City Schools CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises said Monday that the assessments were disappointing but “not a surprise.”
“We’ve got to give more attention to math and we are adjusting accordingly,” Santelises said.
Dr. Peggy Carr of the National Center for Education Statistics called declines across the board nationwide a “national trend.”
But none of the declines are worse than eighth-grade math.
The assessment is paired with teacher surveys at Carr’s press briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Monday. The surveys show that teachers feel overwhelmed and overworked.
“We see a mass exodus and not people to fill their shoes, and higher class sizes just make it tougher to reach the individual needs of students,” Maryland State Education Association President Cheryl Bost said. “The pandemic really showed where our inequities are. We have broadband issues. We have technology issues.”
The tests are administered every two years, though the pandemic pushed 2021’s tests back a year. Students in Maryland took the tests in January during the Omicron surge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some of our most vulnerable young people are going to be the ones who have the least amount of safety nets to buffer against this type of crisis when you shut down schools for two years,” Santelises said.