On Friday, the Arizona Department of Education revealed the devastating statewide assessment results from school year 2020/2021. The scores clearly reflect the challenges students faced while being denied access to full educational experiences.
Arizona saw an overall 4 percentage point drop in ELA test scores and an 11 percentage point decrease in mathematics scores for all students tested, compared to 2018/2019 data. Statewide, 38% of students passed the ELA section, and 31% passed the mathematics section. In 2021, 84% of students took the ELA assessment and 86% took the mathematics section.
Historical participation rates have been at or above 95% to meet federal requirements which were paused last school year. As a result of the refusal of schools heed the advice of health professionals to explore and provide safe classrooms experiences, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) says “comparing results of SY20/21 to previous years should be done with extreme caution, otherwise inferences may be invalid.”
In November 2020, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield reminded the public that his agency never recommended schools close and urged educators to reopen them.
Public school enrollment was down by approximately 38,000 students for the 2020-2021 school year compared to the previous year.
Over $1 billion in CARES ACT ESSER and ESSER II funding was provided to Arizona schools, and the American Rescue Plan provided nearly $2.6 billion dollars to Arizona for K-12 education.
“The amazing thing is not that enrollment is down by 38,000 while the overall population has been increasing by leaps and bounds,” one Arizona taxpayer told the Arizona Daily Independent. “The amazing thing is that the exodus from public schools is not double or triple that number. Even the most casual of observers is likely to notice that school districts appear to be encouraging students to leave because of three factors. First, they keep on insisting on imposing masking and vaccination mandates that are totally unjustified. Second, the love affair of some school districts with the teaching of critical race theory and other related radical Marxist materials. Third, the exodus does not seem to have much effect on the overall level of funding.”