Alabama’s fourth graders continue to buck national trends and improve in reading and math skills, according to new data released Wednesday.

The state, once considered dead last in the nation in math and near-last in reading, has managed to inch up in progress on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. In contrast, much of the country’s schools have yet to regain ground lost during the pandemic.

Researchers this week painted a dire picture of nationwide decline, but pointed to Alabama and Louisiana as bright spots. They are the only states in the country this year to exceed pre-pandemic scores in both fourth grade reading and fourth grade math.

“They did what most states were unable to do,” Peggy Carr, Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, told reporters Tuesday.

“The news is good, at some level, for states and jurisdictions, because they have demonstrated that we can do better,” she added.

Alabama saw the biggest gains in fourth grade math this year, earning an average score of 236 out of 500 – a jump of 6 points. Fourth grade reading held steady with an average score of 213, and eighth grade reading and math scores dipped by one and three points, respectively.

Since 2019, Alabama students have improved:

• From 52nd to 33rd in fourth grade reading, and
• From 49th to 31st in fourth grade math, (excluding the Department of Defense).

Dilhani Uswatte, who has worked as a teacher and administrator in Alabama and has served on the NAEP’s governing board for three years, credited recent state reforms in reading and math.

Over the past few years, elementary students have received more and updated instruction in literacy and math skills, and the state has recently been adding support for older students, too.

“I believe that the thing that moves the needle is having the right number and the right types of people who have the expertise,” she said.

The NAEP, often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card, is the only unified national measure for reading and math across the country’s public and select private schools. The assessment is taken by a representative sample of fourth and eighth graders typically every two years.

See how Alabama stacked up to the nation’s scores in the chart below. (Can’t see the chart? View it here.)

Gains and gaps

Average scores for nearly all subjects declined nationwide this year, despite modest improvements in 2022. Fourth grade math was the only subject to improve across the board, but not by enough to reach pre-pandemic achievement levels.

About 37% of Alabama’s fourth graders who were tested scored at or above proficiency in math – a jump of 10 percentage points from 2022, the highest gain in the nation.

While researchers caution against linking growth to any particular cause, Carr noted that some of the highest scorers in math were also receiving more in-school instruction.

“When students are taught, and taught well, and in school, there seems to be data to support that they learn,” she said.

The Alabama Numeracy Act, passed in 2022, “raised the rigor” of math programs, Uswatte said, and helped to place more coaches and interventionists in schools, whom she said have been particularly helpful when finding ways to assist struggling students.

Some schools have used effective coaching models to great success in recent years.

But success isn’t spread evenly among students. Nationwide, gaps between higher- and lower- performing students were some of the widest they’ve been in the test’s history, Carr said.

In Alabama, gaps between white, Black and Hispanic students have continued to widen since 2019, data shows (If you can’t see the chart above, view it here). And across most subjects, students in suburbs and rural towns also saw bigger gains than those in cities.

Experts worry that those gaps could only widen with the loss of COVID money, which has led many Alabama school districts to cut interventionists and other key staff.

Uswatte said she believes agencies must fund staff who can help students who need intensive instruction.

“If we continue to invest in that human capital, growing that number, and growing their specialization to do the work, that’s where I think we’re going to see the biggest bang for the buck,” she said. “It’s not about having a fancy program.”