(Austin) — Kids across Texas are going back to school this week. And, this year, there is a focus on math, because math standardized test scores have plummeted. Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath says they have to do more to bolster those scores during the new school year.
“Covid disruption, or course, caused a massive decline in mathematics achievement. But you can see in the most recent year, recovery has essentially stalled out,” said Morath.
Morath says pulling kids out of the slump that started with COVID is something they have to do. He says some of the gains that were made prior to the pandemic have not come back. The scores largely started to fall when kids were sent home.
“We are still well below our pre-Covid levels of mathematics proficiency,” said Morath.
Morath says the TEA has a plan to improve those scores. He says they want to focus on math in the earliest grades to start closing the gap.
“Problems in mathematics manifest because students have not actually memorized the (multiplication) times tables, and those chickens come home to roost by the time you get to algebra,” said Morath.
Morath says this is a big deal for the state’s public education students. He says proficiency in mathematics is directly linked to how much a person will earn once they become an adult. The latest scores show that, while math has not returned to pre-COVID levels, reading levels continue to rise.