Gov. Ron DeSantis tried to get ahead of New York Times story that math and reading scores plunged across the country due to COVID, according to the latest report card from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
In the first NAEP report since 2019, just 26 percent of eighth graders were considered proficient in math, down from 34 percent at the last test. Only 36 percent of fourth graders were proficient in math, a drop from 41 percent.
At 4 a.m. today, DeSantis announced NAEP report showed Florida students were “well ahead of their peers, especially with younger and educationally at-risk students who were harmed the most from distance learning in other states.”
In the press release, the governor’s office stated, “In 2022, Florida’s 4th and 8th grade students earned the state’s highest ever rankings in each assessment and demonstrated historic achievement gap closure for at-risk students at all levels. Florida’s Hispanic students, black students, and students with disabilities all scored in the top 10 in every category.”
Florida’s math scores for eighth graders, 23%, were actually three percentage points below the national average, 26%. Reading scores for Florida eighth graders, 29%, were two points below the national average, 31%.
Florida’s fourth graders fared much better. Scores were higher than national average – Math: Florida 41% to National 36%; Reading: Florida 39% to National 33%. Only Utah, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Wyoming performed better in Math than Florida’s fourth graders. Only Massachusetts fourth graders did better than Florida’s.