Ventura County schools see math, English test scores plummet during COVID-19 pandemic

Ventura County students tested lower than the state average and well below pre-pandemic levels on statewide standardized tests taken in spring, according to state data released Monday.

Just 45% of students met state English language arts standards on Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments for the 2021-22 school year, down from 48.4% in 2018-19.

Math results were even worse, with only 31% of students meeting state standards, a marked drop from 36.9% three years ago.

"There is no question that the pandemic’s impacts are reflected in the new test scores statewide and here in Ventura County," César Morales, the superintendent of the Ventura County Office of Education, said in response to emailed questions Tuesday. "The priority now is to give students the academic and emotional support they need to accelerate learning and catch up where they fell behind."

Karling Aguilera-Fort, superintendent of the K-8 Oxnard School District, said in a Tuesday statement that administrators across the state expected the decline.

"The pandemic forced teachers to shift their instructional practices and strategies to meet the needs of all students during a time of uncertainty," he wrote.

Aguilera-Fort said test scores were not the only metric of student achievement, but that his district would use the numbers to "understand where students are so we can provide interventions and support to accelerate learning."

"While academic learning may be unfinished, it is not 'lost,'" he said.

Ventura County has regularly performed below the state average in Smarter Balanced testing since it replaced the Standardized Testing and Reporting program in 2014.

Statewide tests were called off in 2020 with schools closing down due to the pandemic. The county saw its test results dramatically improve a year later, though Dave Schermer, a spokesman for the Ventura County Office of Education, said just half of the county's students took the tests that year.

State and county test results fell back to earth in the most recent round of exams.

Schermer said county officials were treating the recent results as a "new baseline," given the "disruption" of the pandemic and noted the last two versions of the Smarter Balanced test were shortened to make it "easier to administer."

"These new results can’t be meaningfully compared to prior years," Schermer wrote.

State education officials directly compared the most recent results to pre-pandemic numbers, saying in a news release Monday that the statewide percentage of students meeting standards fell by 4% in English-language arts and 7% in math.

California students also saw a decline in performance on last school year's national standardized tests though it was less than the average drop nationally. Those results were also released Monday.

"These baseline data underscore what many of us know: that the road to recovery is long and our students will need sustained support over many years,” said Tony Thurmond, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Isaiah Murtaugh covers education for the Ventura County Star in partnership with Report for America. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or 805-437-0236 and follow him on Twitter @isaiahmurtaugh and @vcsschools. You can support this work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ventura County schools see math, English test scores plummet