The nation’s report card is out, and the grades are mostly D’s and F’s.
The National Assessment of Education Progress measures math and reading proficiency in 4th and 8th graders around the country. Compared to 2019, the year before the pandemic, the numbers are dismal, but not in Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
“We definitely have to do more. We focused on proficiency levels, on continuing to narrow the achievement gap, however, we have to celebrate the fact that when you look at the results, our school district did not lose ground, did not experience those significant academic losses that you see across school districts when you look at the NAEP scores and results,” said Superintendent Dr. Jose Dotres at a news conference Monday.
For example, national math proficiency in 2022 dropped five points among 4th graders and 8 points among 8th graders since 2019, and national reading proficiency went down by three points in each grade. However, Miami-Dade finished at the top in 4th grade reading and math, first in 8th grade reading and second in 8th grade math.
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Dotres says the numbers should be even better.
“A hundred percent, we absolutely will be focusing on the proficiency across all grade levels of our students,” he said.
Overall, the state of Florida finished 7th in 4th grade math scores, but only 34th in 8th grade math, so it’s hard to see any correlation in the scores between states which reopened schools early in the pandemic versus later. Some states, such as California, opened school later but did better in some categories. Dotres says Miami-Dade’s numbers are proof that investing in teachers pays off, pointing out the district already has its “A” grade from the state.
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“Now today we have national comparison results that show Miami-Dade as ranking and sustaining that level of attainment so if this is not a representation of the value of school to this community, nothing else is,” Dotres said. “At the end of the day, these results have everything to do with the quality of teachers that we have in Miami-Dade County Public Schools.”
The superintendent is now using the NAEP results to pitch the renewal referendum issue to voters. It picks up for the expiring 2018 referendum, which allows the district to raise salaries to recruit and retain teachers with money raised through an increase in property taxes.
In Florida, the NAEP testing was done in Miami-Dade, Duval, and Hillsborough counties. Broward was not included.
