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Dear John,
It is week 252 of our new reality and we are thinking about the power of testing to help us understand where we stand.

The longest-running nationally representative assessment of American students is the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Back in September 2022, NAEP released results on 4th and 8th grade math and reading on the national, state and local levels, which provided a first look at the changes in achievement since the 2019 NAEP. Here is what we wrote in the Week 130 Roundup ([link removed]) : “The results put an end to the debate about whether widespread learning loss during the pandemic is real: it is and it is just as bad as so many parents feared.”

Now we are on the eve of a new release.

On Wednesday, January 29, the 2024 NAEP ([link removed]) reading and math results for 4th and 8th grade will be published for national, state and participating local districts. This release will provide a window into the recovery period of the past two years and help answer the question of how successful we have been as a country in that recovery and–crucially–which states and large districts have led the way forward.

We will be providing a special edition of the Roundup on January 29th to provide a one-stop-shop of all the best data and analysis from the release.

We’re also just two weeks away from the 15th anniversary of National School Choice Week, and it’s shaping up to be the biggest yet. It will kick off on Monday, January 26th and the team at the National School Choice Awareness Foundation are expecting over 27,000 participating schools and 60 flagship events around the country. I hope you’ll all take a look at all of the events ([link removed]) planned and pledge to get involved ([link removed]) .

Best,

Marc Porter Magee, PhD
50CAN Founder and CEO

@marcportermagee ([link removed])

Address the parent information gap in Wisconsin and across the country
Last week, we released ([link removed]) the latest in our state-focused survey reports, The State of Educational Opportunity in Wisconsin. Along with our local partners, the Wisconsin Institute for Liberty and Law, we were troubled by major gaps in Wisconsin families’ right to know the academic progress of their children.

As WILL President Rick Esenberg wrote in the key findings, “Parents overestimate how well their children are doing in school. 43% of parents say that their child is ‘above grade level’ in math, and 45% say the same in reading. However, according to state testing data, only 8.1% of students were rated as ‘Advanced’ in English/Language Arts on the 2022-23 Forward
Exam, and only 9.5% were in math.”

Wisconsin’s survey results and policy implications were discussed ([link removed]) in a piece by Corrinne Hess for Wisconsin Public Radio, featuring WILL’s Will Flanders and 50CAN’s Marc Porter Magee.

One cause of this disconnect is the report card being sent home from school. As high school teacher Tim Donahue wrote ([link removed]) in an op-ed in The New York Times, “A is now the most popular high school grade in America. Indeed, in 2016, 47 percent of high school students graduated with grades in the A range. This means that nearly half of seniors are averaging within a few numeric points of one another.”

The problem, Donahue notes, is getting worse. “Grades have only gone up since 2016, most notably since the pandemic … Were this a true reflection of student achievement, it would be reason to celebrate, but the metrics have it differently. From 1998 to 2016, average high school G.P.A.s rose from 3.27 to 3.38, but average SAT scores fell from 1026 to 1002.”

In a blog post last fall, Chad Aldeman examined ([link removed]) the other side of the coin, by looking at the timing of standardized tests and when parents and students receive results. “Too many states,” Adelman writes, “are putting parents last” by releasing results after the new school year has started and making it harder for these tests to provide parents with a useful comparison point to the grades their students are getting on report cards.

“States could give parents preliminary results and take their time before releasing the final results to the public. This is what Ohio did. Last year, they passed a new rule providing parents their child’s state exam results no later than June 30th of each year. Virginia did something similar. I saw my children’s results at the end of the school year last Spring. Parents in other states are still waiting,” Aldeman noted.

* The task this week is to demand districts and states address the major gaps between student outcomes and parent perceptions of their children’s progress.

Leverage technology to make assessments more useful
Emily Oster and the team at ParentData ([link removed]) recently released an analysis of state assessment results from across the country to better understand how well students are recovering from pandemic-era disruptions and school closures. Of the 29 states where 2024 results could be compared to 2019, Oster found “overall, only 4 states from this sample have surpassed their 2019 ELA proficiency levels in 2024: Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Iowa. Only 3 states have surpassed their 2019 math proficiency levels in 2024: Mississippi, Rhode Island, and Iowa.”

In order to better visualize these patterns, ParentData created Zelma ([link removed]) , a new AI-powered tool–developed in partnership with Brown University and the Walton Family Foundation–that allows the public to explore state assessment data at the state, district and school level. Available now to the public, Zelma is a useful tool for researchers, policymakers and advocates looking to understand the impact of legislation and areas of need that must be prioritized.

Using Zelma, the team created charts that show the change in achievement during the initial pandemic period (2019-2021, indicated by red dots) and during the last five years (2019-2024, indicated by blue dots.)
What about the 21 states not on these charts? They’re missing because they changed their state assessment in the post-pandemic period, making a comparative analysis impossible.

* The task this week is to explore Zelma for deeper insights into student needs and to share those insights with elected officials and coalition partners.


JerseyCAN Executive Director Paula White contributed ([link removed]) an op-ed at NJ.com highlighting the decline of reading scores in the Garden State, the package of bills passed last year to address the issue and advice for districts.

GeorgiaCAN Community Organizer Associate Missy Purcell was featured, along with her son Matthew, in an Atlanta News First investigative report ([link removed]) on the Georgia State University’s role in promoting Reading Recovery and balanced literacy.
New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation used 50CAN’s State of Educational Opportunity survey ([link removed]) to make the case ([link removed]) for the need for dramatic change in The Land of Enchantment’s schools.

50CAN President Derrell Bradford, writing ([link removed]) for CharterFolk, shared four principles for the next chapter of charter schools in America.

Step Up for Students’ Travis Pillow, a 50CAN National Voices alumnus, writes up ([link removed]) ten insights into what’s trending in education in 2025.

Christian Barnard, writing ([link removed]) for Education Next, looks at the cost of Arizona’s choice programs and concludes that universal ESA programs do come with a price tag for states, but one that’s worth investing in given high parent satisfaction numbers.

EdWorkingPapers published ([link removed]) a new study by Stanford University’s Sarah Novicoff and Thomas S. Dee, which found that a literacy program in California based on the science of reading led to significant and cost-effective gains in ELA achievement.

Brookings hosted ([link removed]) a webinar on chronic absenteeism, featuring AEI’s Nat Malkus, CEO of Baltimore Schools Sonja Santelises and Transcend’s Jenee Henry Wood among the panelists.

John Bailey believes in the power and potential of AI Tutoring, John Warner thinks it’s all hype. The two discuss ([link removed]) their disagreements in a conversation over Sal Khan’s new book ([link removed]) in Education Next.

60% of undergraduates use ChatGPT regularly for academic related tasks, but often overestimate the capabilities of the tool, according to new research ([link removed]) published by EdWorkingPapers.

The 74 Million’s Lauren Camera examined ([link removed]) a new study from Urban Institute finding that preschool and elementary math scores are more predictive of earnings at age 30 than any other factor, including friends, reading scores and physical health.


50CAN’s Executive Directors huddled with members of the national leadership team last week to map out their plans to drive big changes for kids in 2025. We will be rolling out their 2025 policy goals in the coming weeks and providing updates throughout the year in the Roundup.

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ABOUT 50CAN

50CAN: The 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now is a nonprofit organization that works at the local level to advocate for a high-quality education for all kids, regardless of their address.

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