MCAS Scores Dip Shows COVID-19 Learning Recovery May Take 'Years'

MASSACHUSETTS — Education Secretary James Peyser said a statewide drop in English scores in the spring 2022 MCAS tests indicates it could take years for Massachusetts students to recover from lost and disrupted learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released the 2022 results on Thursday showing English Language Arts declined 5 percent among students in Grades 3 through 8, and 6 percent in Grade 10, compared to 2021 when a "half test" was administered in younger grades because of the pandemic.

Scores in grades 3 through 5 showed a sharper decline, DESE said, "indicating challenges in early literacy."

"These results show that it may take a few years for students to recover academically from the COVID-19 pandemic," Peyser said in a statement. "Many students need more time learning, whether it is in the form of tutoring, acceleration academies, early literacy, after-school programs or summer learning."

Results in math and science were better with science scores improving by 1 percent in grades 5 and 8. Grade 10 students took the "next generation" biology and introduction physics tests for the first time so they are not comparable to prior years.

Math scores increased 6 percent in Grades 3 through 8 and declined 2 percent in Grade 10, though DESE noted the 2022 decline was less than in 2021.

"We know that with time and the right supports our students can achieve and exceed their previous success," DESE Commissioner Jeffrey Riley said. "We also continue to work with teachers and districts to improve early literacy instruction and, through deeper learning initiatives, make Massachusetts schools more relevant, engaging and creative places to be a student or teacher."

The dip in scores comes as the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted in August to increase the MCAS graduation score to 486 on both math and English competency tests.

The current scores to graduate are 472 for English and 486 for math. The new standard will be in effect for students who this year entered ninth grade.

The MCAS tests remain a much-debated measure of student achievement across the state with many districts pushing to devalue the tests at the same time the state education officials press to make them more consequential.

MCAS opponents argue the reliance on test scores leads to educators teaching to the test rather than overall student learning, increased dropout rates, and that English learners are being left behind at a time when learning gaps have widened following the pandemic school closures.

District-by-district MCAS scores for the 2022 spring test session are available here.