Why Should Delaware Care?
The Nation’s Report Card assesses students nationwide on subjects like mathematics, reading, science and writing. Critics of the Public Education Funding Commission — which has been tasked with providing recommendations to answer how the state’s public education funding formula should change — say that Delaware is one of the top-spending yet lowest-performing states for test scores. But Delaware’s new results could provide insight into improvement areas.
New results from national student testing show that Delaware’s youngest learners are making post-pandemic gains in math, but reading remains a subject of concern for younger and older students.
The 2024 results on the National Assessment on Educational Progress, or better known as the Nation’s Report Card, found that students nationwide are struggling in reading. A third of all eighth graders were found to be “below basic” reading levels while 40% of fourth graders were found to be the same.
In Delaware, the results are even more concerning as 40% of eighth graders and 45% of fourth graders were found to be “below basic” proficiency levels on the assessment.
The mixed results in Delaware come as the First State looks to potentially overhaul its public education funding system, and test scores have been at the forefront of educators’ and advocates’ minds.
The state has previously been marked by low proficiency levels, poor testing outcomes and high rates of chronic absenteeism, which has been attributed in part to how funding is distributed.
Although Delaware’s Department of Education says it is now fully in line with a subsequent settlement obligation that required it to invest $25 million in Opportunity Funding, the state’s scores for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show there is still more work to be done.
The Nation’s Report Card, which assesses students nationwide on subjects like mathematics, reading, science and writing, was released Wednesday morning. The organization assessed students from January to March 2024, assessing more than 100,000 students in more than 5,000 schools.
Test scores overall are still below pre-pandemic levels nationwide, particularly in their reading scores, said Peggy Carr, the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.
“Among the most encouraging news are scores in mathematics. Scores are up, but the overall good news stops there,” Carr said during a Jan. 28 media briefing.
Math sees early gains
For fourth graders, Delaware was tied for the largest year-over-year improvement in average math proficiency, with an 8-point improvement to reach 233. The national average saw a 2-point increase to 237.
That increase was driven by improved math scores in students who are part of the 25th and 75th percentiles, indicating the lowest and highest percentiles, respectively. Delaware was one of only eight states to improve scores in both those subsets of fourth graders, alongside others like Maryland and Massachusetts.
Those were significant percentile increases, according to NAEP. In 2022, fourth-grade math students in the 25th percentile scored at 210 and while the 75th percentile scored 258. This year, those groups scored 215 and 262, respectively.
Delaware’s fourth-grade math students also saw a rise in NAEP proficiency scores, with a 9-point increase compared to a 4-point nationwide increase.
Those scores are performance standards that describe what students should know and be able to do and students performing at or above the NAEP proficiency level demonstrate “solid academic performance and competency over challenging subject matter.”
Despite the clear improvement for the state’s fourth graders, Delaware’s math and proficiency scores for its eighth-grade students did not significantly change in 2024. The average math proficiency dropped by 1 point to 263.
Reading still struggles
Delaware’s fourth and eighth graders did not find the same success in their reading scores as those from math.
The state’s fourth graders saw no significant change to their reading scores with the average fourth-grade score rising 2 points to 210, but still under the national average of 214
Meanwhile, eighth graders saw a 4-point decrease from 2022 to an average score of 249. The national average was 257.
Although Delaware’s reading scores for fourth and eighth graders may not be ideal for education advocates, states across the country are seeing similarly low scores.
Could funding changes help?
Delaware’s Public Education Funding Commission members have been tasked with providing recommendations to answer the question of how the state’s public education funding formula should change.
That group has also looked at using a weighted formula to better address the needs of student groups like those who are multi-language learners, are economically disadvantaged or have disabilities and potentially address test scores.
Economically disadvantaged fourth-grade students saw an increase in their math scores, with the 25th percentile reaching a score of 192 and the 75th percentile reaching 242.
Yet the state’s economically disadvantaged eighth graders also saw a decrease in their reading scores; students in the 50th percentile saw a decrease of almost 10 points. Students with disabilities in the 25th and 50th percentiles also saw significant decreases in their scores, down by 15 and 12 points, respectively.
While NAEP also looked at assessments for students with disabilities and students who are English learners, Delaware’s fourth and eighth-grade math students did not see a significant increase or decrease in any of those categories.
This is a developing story that will be updated today.