Did Florida’s Third Graders Really Show In-Person Instruction Led to Better Learning Outcomes?

On June 22, 2021, the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) released this year’s Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) English Language Arts (ELA) Grade 3 results, accompanied by a press release entitled “Florida’s Third Graders Show In-Person Instruction Led to Better Learning Outcomes” and this tweet: 

 

 

 

 

The FLDOE press release claimed:

• “While the statewide percentage of Grade 3 students scoring Level 3 or above on the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) English Language Arts (ELA) assessment saw a slight decrease, the data clearly shows that, on average, districts with higher rates of in-person instruction weathered the “COVID slide” better and saw lesser declines between 2019 and 2021 than districts with higher rates of virtual instruction.
• Overall, in 2021 performance at Level 3 and above (on grade level and above) decreased by 4 percentage points compared to 2019 (58% to 54%).
• All student subgroups continue to have a higher percentage of students performing at Level 3 and above than in 2015 when the FSA was first administered.
• Charter school performance was higher than non-charter school performance by 8 percentage points on the 2021 Grade 3 FSA ELA (61% vs. 53% at Level 3 or above, respectively). Additionally, charter school performance has been consistently higher than non-charter school performance since 2015 when the test was first administered.”

The results, they said, “illustrate that Governor DeSantis and Commissioner Corcoran exhibited remarkable leadership while continuing to make the right decisions when fighting to provide parents with the choice to send their children to in-person learning.”

Seriously… does everything need a political spin? (That question was rhetorical, of course, because, you know, this is Florida…)

Let’s take a closer look at a couple of the FLDOE’s claims. (I will leave it to you to make your own decisions regarding anyone’s “remarkable leadership” skills.)

First. The FLDOE writes: “While the statewide percentage of Grade 3 students scoring Level 3 or above on the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) English Language Arts (ELA) assessment saw a slight decrease, the data clearly shows that, on average, districts with higher rates of in-person instruction weathered the “COVID slide” better and saw lesser declines between 2019 and 2021 than districts with higher rates of virtual instruction.”

When I created a scatter plot, comparing the declines seen between 2019 and 2021 to rates of in-person instruction in each district, the FLDOE’s conclusions don’t appear to be that clear.

For the record, I believe in-person instruction with a qualified teacher is far and above the best way to educate children. Given the choice, my family will always choose a classroom with a teacher. In fact, I have been writing about this for years. (See “Why I want an actual person teaching my child — not a computer,” which I wrote in 2016 and argued “Technology is a nice tool, but my children, all our children, they need teachers.”) Also, as the mother of two public high school students, one who graduated with the Class of 2021 a few weeks ago, I am grateful that they were able to have face-to-face time with teachers during this pandemic and, even, participate in extracurricular activities. I would love for Florida education policy to recognize the importance of classroom teachers and move away from the tech-heavy education mandates it has been pursuing over the past decade or so. Unfortunately, as much as I want it to be true, this year’s third grade data, in its current format, does not “clearly show” that in-person instruction outperformed virtual.

Realistically, how could we expect it to? The Covid pandemic affected families and communities in unequal and unprecedented ways. For example, Glades County, shortly before the Survey 3 count used as the data point for in-person instruction in the released dataset, had to close their entire district for several weeks due to rising numbers of Covid cases on their 3 campuses. Additionally, Covid did not affect student populations equally and an Orlando Sentinel report demonstrated that “public schools with the biggest percentages of low-income children — as well as those with large numbers of Black or Hispanic youngsters — often had the largest share of children opting for online learning.” They noted that such findings were not specific to Florida, reporting “a national survey released in August by researchers at the University of Southern California found that parental interest in having kids study from home during the pandemic varied by income, with those earning less more interested in remote education.” We already know that test scores are influenced by socioeconomic factors. When those same socioeconomic factors are also influencing decisions regarding in-person vs distance learning, can any real conclusions be made?

Also, the results from Florida Virtual School stand in stark contrast to the FLDOE’s suggestion that in-person third graders outperformed virtual students. Some of the best 3rd Grade ELA results came from Florida Virtual School, which outperformed almost every district (except St. Johns) with 72% of students achieving a level 3 or higher, despite having no in-person instruction. 

As for the FLDOE’s claims that Florida’s charter schools outperformed non-charter schools, not only this year but consistently since 2015… This is not the first time that Commissioner Corcoran’s administration has used state test scores to suggest that Florida’s charter schools outperform district managed public schools.  Such claims, in the past, have been challenged, suggesting that the differences in student populations (Florida’s charter school students are less likely to be classified as eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch, as English language learners, or as having disabilities) may account for any noticeable differences in test scores. Similar concerns clearly still apply and may be even more influential on test scores during this pandemic.

So, in answer to this blog’s title question, Did Florida’s Third Graders Really Show In-Person Instruction Led to Better Learning Outcomes?, it appears the answer is NO.

IMHO Florida needs less spin and more substance driving its education policy, but with 2022 and 2024 elections looming, I won’t hold my breath.

You can see the 2021 Grade 3 FSA ELA Results Packet here and the results by district and school here. Complete state testing results, including state mandated End of Course exams, grade level Math and Reading/ELA scores and Advanced Placement test scores are expected to be released in mid to late July.