Column: Pandemic eroded basic skills but teachers, parents can aid recovery

The release of scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showing that American students lost historic ground in basic math and literacy skills during the pandemic has generated three responses.

The first brings a glass half-full approach to the bleak results from skills testing done in fall 2022, arguing that while declines, especially in math basics such as numeration and multiplication, are alarming, they’re fixable.

“Not to say that basic number sense and calculations aren’t important, but that’s a gap that can be closed,” said Lisa Kopka, a Maryland National Board certified math teacher, at a press event explaining the 2023 NAEP Long-Term Trend assessment results for 13-year-olds, who were fourth and fifth graders when COVID-19 upended schools.

The students, mostly eighth graders now bound for high school, took the test during the 2022-2023 school year. Scores plummeted since the test — designed to provide a more extended national perspective on student performance over time — was last given in 2019-2020. Typically administered every four years, the long-term NAEP was moved up a year to provide data on post-pandemic student performance.

“It’s a small problem to close a gap in basic math skills and something that can be done while addressing higher order math. Trust math teachers that they will attempt to close that gap, and not at the price of critical...