COVID-19 hurt Fayette Black, Hispanic students more than whites in reading, math

The COVID-19 pandemic had a worse impact on young Black and Hispanic students than on white students in Fayette County Public Schools, and district officials say they are worried about it.

The disparities are evident in reading and math test score data for kindergarten through eighth-grade students obtained by the Herald-Leader under the Kentucky Open Records Act.

Although district officials said students continued to learn after school buildings shut down in March 2020 and overall scores in reading and math were at or above national benchmarks at every grade level, data analysis shows that student scores in the spring of 2021 were lower than 2019.

“We are particularly concerned that the difference in scores for our African-American and Hispanic students are larger than white students, thereby increasing existing achievement disparities,” said district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall.

“We recognize that the pandemic has had an impact on academic achievement, despite the incredible work of our families, teachers, and students during the past 17 months,” said Deffendall.

Fayette County Public Schools uses an assessment called Measures of Academic Progress or MAP to gauge whether students are on track to master skills in reading and math at each grade level.

“Like school systems across the nation, we experienced an interruption of learning caused by the pandemic,” said Deffendall.

The lower grades were hurt the worst with scores lower, several significantly, than pre-COVID levels. The exception was kindergartners in math, the Herald-Leader found.

Sixth- through eight-graders did not lose as much ground in reading or math as those in lower grades. White students in grades 4-8 saw differences of 4 points or less in reading scores.

First-graders appeared to have the largest declines in both reading and math, with larger drops for Black students. Declines in math were worse, especially so for Black and Hispanic students, in grades 1 through 4.

The differences — often called achievement gaps — between the scores of white students and their Black or Hispanic counterparts worsened at most levels in reading and in the lower grades in math. But the biggest disparities between white and black students existed before the pandemic in grades 5 through 8 before the COVID classroom closings. After, those disparities persisted.

School board member Tom Jones had requested the test score data for students of color a few weeks ago.

Deffendall said leaders and teachers at each school in the district have already begun to examine the needs of the students they serve and develop targeted plans. The district will use millions in federal COVID funds “to ensure that students not only master concepts from the previous grade, but also accelerate learning for their current grade,” she said.

The district’s Summer Ignite program has started that work, providing seven weeks of extended learning to more than 7,000 students across 69 schools and special programs, Deffendall said.

This story was originally published July 10, 2021 at 11:33 AM.