Nation’s Report Card: Ohio’s 8th grade gains, 4th grade stagnation shows pandemic impact lingers

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Fourth-grade student scores in Ohio on a test known as the Nation’s Report Card show little improvement since the COVID-19 pandemic.

And in some areas, they are worse or have not budged since the early 2000s.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics posted the Nation’s Report Card, formally known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is required by federal law. It tests fourth graders and eighth graders in reading and mathematics every two years.

While the Ohio School Report Cards are another closely-watched metric because they focus on individual schools and districts, the Nation’s Report Card provides a broader picture of educational progress from state to state. A handful of urban school districts are also evaluated separately, although none are located in Ohio.

READ MORE: Ohio report card day: Cleveland schools shows improvement, outperforms Columbus, Cincinnati

While Ohio eighth graders showed improvements in reading and math, fourth graders did not.

Their age when the pandemic struck could be a factor.

Fourth graders who took the tests last year were in kindergarteners in 2019-2020, when the pandemic hit and students were sent home for remote learning. Last year’s eighth graders were fourth graders in 2019-2020.

In subsequent years after the pandemic hit, students were frequently sent home if they showed signs of sickness. Many missed numerous days, which resulted in significant learning loss that has also been reflected on the state report cards.

To this day, schools in Ohio and across the nation are fighting what’s known as chronic absenteeism, when students miss at least 10% of class time. Chronic absenteeism may contribute to still-lagging scores, said Peggy Carr, the National Center for Education Statistics commissioner, in a Tuesday call with reporters, ahead of the report card’s release.

READ MORE: 1 in 4 students is chronically absent. Find out the cultural shift causing it, and your district’s rate here.

“There’s a strong relationship between absenteeism and performance in these data that we’re looking at today, and we should care, because students who are lower performers, and their scores are the lowest of the performance data we are sharing with you today,” she said.

Carr said performance has been uneven.

“Overall, student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic performance,” she said. “Where there are signs of recovery, they are mostly in math and largely driven by higher-performing students. Lower-performing students are struggling, especially in reading.”

In Ohio, 9,900 students participated in the NAEP 2024, which involved testing between January and March 2024. That represents just a sample of the 121,102 fourth graders and the 124,110 eighth graders enrolled in the state’s public schools last school year.

Despite improvements among eighth graders on the Nation’s Report Card, Ohio students who are Black, economically disadvantaged and male also showed on many of the tests they took last year that they lag other groups.

Some have been lagging for decades.

Fourth-grade reading

The average Ohio score in 2024 was 216, which was not statistically different from either the nationwide average score of 214, nor the 2022 Ohio score of 219.

It was, however, lower than the 2002 score of 222.

Black students in Ohio scored an average of 31 points lower than white students in 2024, a gap that’s not significantly different than in 2002, when it was 27 points.

Fourth-grade boys scored an average of 10 points lower than girls.

Economically disadvantaged students scored an average of 27 points lower than their non-disadvantaged peers, a gap that’s not statistically different from 2002.

Ohio’s fourth grade reading scores last year were not statistically different from neighbors Kentucky, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

Ohio had higher average scores than Michigan and West Virgina last year.

Nationally, no state or urban school district’s fourth grade reading scores were higher in 2024 than in 2022. Five states scored lower and 47 states had no statistically significant change.

As with fourth-grade reading, no states or urban school districts scored higher in 2024 than in 2022. Eight scored lower and 44 had no significant change.

Eighth-grade reading

Ohio’s average eighth-grade reading score was 260 last year, slightly higher than the average national score of 257, but close to Ohio’s 2022 score of 268.

Black Ohio eighth graders scored 30 points lower than white students last year, a gap that’s not statistically different from in 2002.

Eighth-grade Ohio boys scored on average 11 points lower than girls last year.

Economically disadvantaged students scored on average of 29 points lower than their non-disadvantaged peers, a wider gap than the 16-point difference in 2002.

As with fourth-grade scores, Ohio’s eighth-grade scores were on par with those in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Kentucky and lower than Michigan and West Virginia.

Fourth-grade math

The average fourth-grade Ohio math score was 239 in 2024, which is not statistically different from 2022’s 237 average score.

Nor was it statistically different than the average score across the nation, which was 237.

But Ohio’s 2024 score was higher than the average score in 2000, which was 230.

Black Ohio fourth graders scored an average 36 points lower than white students in 2024. This performance gap was not significantly different from that in 2000.

Economically disadvantaged students scored 27 points lower than students who were not disadvantaged last year, a gap that’s not significantly changed from 2000.

Ohio’s score was not statistically different than neighbors Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Kentucky. West Virginia’s score was lower.

Nationally, 15 states or urban school districts scored higher in 2024 compared to 2022. One scored lower and 37 had no significant score change.