Differences in COVID-Related NAEP TUDA Score Declines Between 2019 and 2022 Based on County-Level Health and Socioeconomic Data

• In Event: Using NAEP Data to Understand Student Experiences and Achievement During the Pandemic

Abstract

In the wake of the disruptions caused by COVID-19, there is considerable interest in ascertaining changes in school performance that have occurred, particularly on the National Assessment of Educational Performance (NAEP), our nation’s best tool for measuring what our students know and can do across time and location. In addition to the importance of NAEP and its standard measurement scales, NAEP is representative of students and schools among a variety of participating “large city” districts (TUDAs), which can be examined for differences in their contextual features that may be associated with differences in these school performance changes.

Given the literature basis for the association of neighborhood health with children’s school readiness and achievement, the current investigation aimed to examine if NAEP grade 4 reading performance between 2019 and 2022 NAEP (assessments conducted just before and after the height of COVID-19) varied by contextual health factors among the set of approximately 700 NAEP TUDA schools that participated in both assessments.

Select variables on the health and socio-economic features of these schools’ surrounding communities were drawn from the 2022 County Health Rankings & Roadmap data and linked to NAEP school zip codes to examine these differences. Latent class analysis (LCA) of the schools’ community health characteristics revealed three underlying subpopulations of schools—each with a distinctive county health profile based on county-level indicators of child and adolescent well-being, adult health, and social and economic factors. Specifically, one set of schools fared notably better on the totality of the indicators, and a second fared considerably worse. At the same time, the third fell between the other two in its average levels of health and socio-economic well-being.

Aligned with these profiles were marked differences in their average NAEP performance in 2022 and change in performance between 2019 and 2022: the healthier and higher the socio-economic well-being of schools’ location counties, the smaller the decline in performance—which aligns the contextual health literature with performance on NAEP. Overall, these findings point to the value of linking external data—and health data specifically—with NAEP to help contextualize performance and performance changes, with the COVID-19 pandemic as a particularly appropriate case in point.

Authors

• Markus Broer, American Institutes for Research

• Lisa Marie Yarnell, American Institutes for Research