In NBC Nightly News interview, SPS leader talks about academic impact of pandemic

Springfield Superintendent Grenita Lathan was interviewed Thursday by an NBC Nightly News reporter about the results of a national exam, showing student scores across the U.S. plunged during the pandemic.

Lathan, interviewed by reporter Stephanie Gosk, was asked if there were classes that will have to start with curriculum from the prior year because students are not performing at grade level.

Lathan said yes. "Some of our classes will have to start from two years ago."

Gosk noted Springfield Public Schools will conduct regular testing. Lathan brought in a new screener, approved by the school board, that will show teachers where students in all grade levels are at the start, middle and end of the year.

"From that we will develop a learning plan for all of our students, especially those students that are behind," Lathan said. "But I also want to make sure that we are growing those students that arrived to us on grade level."

The story was about results of the 2022 NAEP exam, often called the Nation's Report Card, which specifically looked at reading and math assessments for 9-year-old students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It showed average scores for 9-year-old students in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 pointes in math compared to 2020.

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According to NAEP, this is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990 and the first ever score decline in math.

NAEP reported scores for 9-year-old students who were already struggling in reading and math going into 2022 declined more, compared to 2020, than the scores for higher-performing students.

The report showed where students live matters. Scores for students living in cities fared better in reading, remaining largely flat, but dropped more in math.

In reading, the scores for Black and Hispanic students fell the same amount as whites but Black students lost more ground than any other racial or ethnic group in math. The scores for students with special needs dropped more in math than their counterparts who do not have special needs.

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NAEP tested 15,000 9-year-olds, a representative sample from across the U.S., to see the impact of the pandemic, which forced many students to learn virtually or in a hybrid model in parts of 2020 and 2021.

The results were not broken out by state.

A Springfield parent, Kristin Carter, was also interviewed for the report. The mother of two elementary students, one of whom was in kindergarten when the pandemic hit.

"We've worked hard with our kids to practice reading and math and all of these things but now you see they have kids in their classroom that are all over the board," she said, in the interview.

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt has an average daily viewership of 6 million. The story also featured educators from Boston.

Claudette Riley is the education reporter for the News-Leader. Email news tips to criley@news-leader.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: SPS leader talks about COVID's impact on scores on NBC Nightly News