Principals, teachers, parents and students in South Jersey Catholic Schools exhausted themselves during the last two school years to maintain in-person learning, despite the costs.
Their outstanding efforts are not a surprise to anyone familiar with the commitment and collaboration that characterize Catholic education. Catholic school principals, teachers and staff take seriously the call to minister to others. Keeping the doors open for in-person learning every day brought some sense of normalcy to students’ lives and allowed their parents the freedom to do the same. Our faith thrives when we are present to each other, in person.
Recent statistics about student learning during the pandemic confirm our belief that learning thrives in an in-person setting. In the last months of 2022, national and statewide standardized test scores became available that allowed a comparison of students before and after the major impacts of COVID-19.
In public schools across the state, the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments measure the proficiency of students relative to the standards for their grade level. According to recently published reports, fourth-grade proficiency scores in New Jersey’s public schools, for example, dropped 9 percentage points in English Language Arts and 12 points in math last year compared to pre-pandemic scores. Fifth-grade scores decreased by 8 percentage points and 11 points in English Language Arts and math, respectively.
In South Jersey Catholic Schools, students take the Star Assessments, which help teachers to identify students’ needs on specific standards in reading and math so they can tailor instruction to meet them. The Star Assessments also allow us to measure whether students are performing as expected for their grade level and the time of year. By that yardstick for proficiency, reading scores for fourth-grade students decreased by only 2 percentage points from January 2020 – just before the pandemic began – through January 2022. In-person learning appears to have been especially important for math: Scores increased from 2020 to 2022 by 6 percentage points for fourth-grade students. Fifth-grade results were similarly encouraging, with an increase in reading of 2 points and 4 points in math.
The slight decrease in reading scores in fourth grade – and some other grades – is not surprising, given the realities of school from March 2020 through around March 2022. All students experienced remote learning from March 2020 to June 2020. Approximately 20% of students continued to learn remotely during the 2020-2021 school year, while their classmates wore masks and maintained social distance in school. Those measures, combined with simultaneously teaching students in the classroom and on the computer, made the learning environment that year significantly different from anything teachers or students had ever experienced.
Yet through it all, the evidence indicates that South Jersey Catholic Schools students continued their learning with significantly less disruption and minimal learning loss relative to their peers in other New Jersey public schools. This analysis is representative, and it is not perfect because the two groups use different tests. However, the overall trend for each group relative to its own performance prior to the pandemic validates herculean efforts by the teachers who have answered the call to a vocation in Catholic education and the perseverance of the students they serve.
Our work in Catholic schools is never done. Teachers are doubling down on efforts to help students regain any losses they experienced academically during the last two years. We also continue to strive every day to achieve the high standard of charity to which we are called by our Catholic faith through in-person interactions in the school community. The efforts – and successes – of all members of South Jersey Catholic School communities in maintaining student learning speaks volumes about their ongoing commitment to learning in an environment characterized by Catholic service, community and charity.
Dr. Bill Watson is superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Camden.
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