A nationwide report card on schools is out for the first time since the pandemic. The testing shows drops in learning and lets us compare how students in Texas compare and those across the country.
The department's website shows that 9-year-olds showed the first-ever decline in math and the largest drop in reading since the 1990s.
Schools have laid it on thick. Tutoring, extra hours in the day, all in the hope of making up the learning losses. The state's tests show positive trends and kids are on the right track.
"Proficiency is up" said Mike Morath, Texas Education Commissioner last month in a State of Education address.
But new national numbers show kids aren't doing as well. Dallas' scores were lower than peers around the nation but higher than other districts in Texas like Fort Worth.
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The tests are significantly different, and the national one has a smaller sample size, but where are we when it comes to learning?
"You have to remember they're snapshots in time and tell a particular story. it helps us inform instruction as we move forward," said Bob Popinski, policy director of the education advocacy group, Raise Your Hand Texas
Both tests show math is a struggle, both show readings a little better but the scores were worse on the national model.
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Fort Worth ISD showed they were testing worse than their peers, and they welcome that information.
"Where we see districts doing well or better than us recovering faster that opens the door to conversations about what they are doing so we can learn from them," said Sara Arispe, Associate Superintendent of Fort Worth ISD.
School leaders generally are not big fans of tests like these, but in Austin and DC lawmakers use them to push or changes in policy and procedure and those debates are starting with new fire behind plans to revisit how we look at these tests and the value they bring.
