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D.C. students made slight progress on last year’s standardized tests, a development that city leaders say is the result of millions of dollars spent in recovery efforts after the pandemic.
Broadly, 34% of D.C. students are meeting or exceeding expectations in reading — a 0.3% increase from the year prior. And 22.8% of students are meeting or exceeding expectations in math — a 0.7% bump — according to new data released by the city’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE).
The data is based on standardized tests that students in third through eighth grade and high school took last spring.
Paul Kihn, the city’s deputy mayor for education, said a different cohort of students takes the exams each year, and the latest data reveals that students who took the most recent tests “learned a little bit more than the cohorts in the grades last year.”
The trends in D.C.’s data are similar to those in Virginia. This week, Virginia education officials reported marginal improvements in student test scores from last spring. However, the scores still haven’t returned to where they were before the pandemic.
“We are pleased with these results,” Kihn said in a briefing with reporters, “and we are not satisfied.”
Despite the overall data, education officials touted gains seen in specific grade levels. For one, there was a 1.6% increase in middle schoolers who are meeting or exceeding expectations in math.
There’s variation in math scores across grade levels because “math skills are relentlessly progressive, meaning that the skills build on each other,” said Kelley Scholl, the city’s assistant superintendent of data, assessment and research.
In response to math test score trends, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee said the city has “started to implement more rigorous professional learning experiences for teachers and support families around the need to have a clear understanding of math concepts.”
And third graders, Kihn said, are showing improvement in reading scores.
“That’s why you see us focusing on, well, where did we see the most improvement? Third grade,” Kihn said. “So what we are doing in the younger grades that’s so awesome that’s causing these kids to learn more and more. That’s where we’re focused on the learning.”
In the aftermath of the pandemic, D.C. has poured millions into high-impact tutoring, which uses small groups to empower students to ask questions and get direct help. The city’s fiscal 2025 budget includes money for math and reading tutoring and $2 million for instructional materials for teachers.
Education leaders are also putting an emphasis on chronic absenteeism, to make sure students are actually in class to learn material.
Last spring, students took the D.C. CAPE exam, which the city describes as a “rigorous assessment that measures proficiency of the District’s high grade-level expectations,” according to a news release. It’s similar to the PARCC exam, which D.C. used from 2015 to 2023, and uses the same number and type of questions and length of assessment.
Ferebee, the DCPS chancellor, called the latest test scores one of many ways the city tracks student achievement.
“This is one of many measures that we use to measure success,” Ferebee said. “But for me, I think the ultimate goal post is preparing students for college and careers.”
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