HAYESVILLE, Ga – According to data presented during the November board of education meeting, Clay County students are beginning to experience the online learning slide.

Two separate diagnostic tests, I-Ready and NC Check-ins demonstrated concerning statistics, specifically in mathematics. I-Ready diagnostics align with the curriculum. NC Check-ins breaks down the EOG tests and developed by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

“Math is a subject that is going to be much more impacted by infrequent attendance in school. Missing steps, lessons, that sort of thing, Math has taken the biggest hit,” Superintendent Dale Cole said.

I-Ready tested students in kindergarten through second grade in math and second through fifth grade in reading. Students took the first diagnostics between August 24 and September 4. The second test takes place after Thanksgiving, and results will be presented at the December 14 board meeting.

I-Ready breaks students into three tiers: one, two, and three. Tier One recognizes students who are at grade level or above. Tier Two represents students testing below grade level. Tier Three students are considered at-risk.

Last year in math, the I-Ready diagnostic placed 28 percent of students in Tier One, and now, 19 percent of students are Tier One. The number of Tier Three students decreased by three percent.

“There’s that expansion in Tier Two that shows a significant portion of students have fallen a grade level behind. With [COVID-19], they’ve gotten half the instructional time, face-to-face this fall,” Cole explained, “I do think there are some things you can do through online teaching, but math is harder.”

Fourth grade, in particular, exhibits several students falling behind in the curriculum, but the at-risk numbers drop from fourth to fifth grade. Eighth grade students shot up in proficiency from seventh grade.

However, in reading, the elementary students have demonstrated marked improvement from the last school year. Still, from year to year, the Tier Three students increased from first grade to second grade.

Current seventh grade students are a concern for Superintendent Cole in reading as several students moved down a tier from last year to this one.

NC Check-in Results

Students in third through eighth grade took the NC check-ins for reading and map. Fifth and eighth grade students took the science check-in. The tests were given in October and November and aren’t required by the state. NC Check-in tests to standards. Since the state dictates the standards, teachers might not have taught those at the test time.

“It gives us three data points to look at for our students. It’s dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket on one number – that number might not be accurate. We can look at our diagnostics, NC Check-in, and teacher grades,” Cole stated.

In reading, the average test scores across the grades fell around 60 percent, except seventh and eighth had a score of 59.4 percent.

Cole felt that an average score of 60 percent was decent for these tests, given that teachers had yet to teach all the standards.

In math, third and fourth tested with average scores of 40 percent. Fifth, sixth, and eighth received average scores within the 30 percent range. Seventh grade had an average score of 27.9 percent.

“We had much more of a concern for math. You’re going to see a big drop off for math as compared to reading,” Cole said. “Math is a struggle in online learning. I’m not going to make excuses; the scores are what they are. We’ve got to get better.”

He also hopes to see changes now that students will be back in the classroom for four days. Additionally, Cole urged parents to motivate and engage students to complete their work.

The average score for science in fifth grade was 59.2 percent and 67.6 percent in eighth grade.

The MTSS will provide students with tools to succeed.

Failing students are being encouraged to return to in-person instruction. So far, 30 students have returned to school. The number of failures in a remote cohort/online learning went down by 13 between the first and second progress reports. Students declining in all four subjects went down from 12 percent to 7 percent, but subject-specific failures went up at the middle school. In particular, math failures increased.

A mentoring program is in place at the high school to help students get back on track. Students and teachers will have weekly meetings, goal setting, and parent check-ins. Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) is being used to help students and teachers improve the quality of learning. It uses data to build “scaffolds” around each student to promote achievement. Some students will require more support than others. It focuses on instruction, curriculum, and environment.

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