GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — It is no secret that for students and their families, the pandemic years took a toll. Student test scores show how big the impact was.
Tim Sass is a professor at Georgia State University (GSU) who researches COVID's impact on student performance. His latest project examined data from Clayton, DeKalb, and Fulton counties.
"We've seen really significant reductions in student achievement growth on the order of several months of learning," said Sass.
His GSU colleague, Professor Jennifer Darling-Aduana, said the impact was greatest on already-vulnerable students, like those dealing with the loss of a loved one or "experiencing housing or food insecurity."
In Gwinnett County Public Schools, scores dropped as well.
According to data from the Georgia Milestones Assessment, the percentage of Gwinnett County Public Schools students scoring at a proficient or better level in an end-of-grade English language arts test dropped by 8.8 percentage points between 2019 and 2021.
Math scores dropped 14.1 points over the same time period.
11Alive asked Gwinnett County Public Schools Superintendent Calvin Watts about the data.
"It's concerning and given the circumstances under which we were operating, it doesn't surprise me," said Watts.
But for the Gwinnett superintendent, the data also shows signs of hope.
Scores rebounded somewhat in 2022, the most recent year with available data.
From 2021 to 2022, Gwinnett County Public Schools English language arts scores increased by 4.1 percentage points. Math scores rose 6.6 points over the same period.
Watts credits his district's focus on staff recruitment and emphasis on fundamentals for the score boost.
"That means that if I'm supposed to be in third grade and I'm supposed to be able to read on grade level, then ideally we're going to focus our attention to make sure you understand what it means to read," said Watts.
The superintendent is hopeful the scores are a sign of a trend that will continue.
He sees the new school year as an opportunity to work toward that goal-- and as a chance for Georgia's largest school district to begin moving past the pandemic.
"This year really feels like a sense of normalcy," he said.