Since 2019 these are the test scores. Average test scores, 2019 for MAP math is 32.2 percent and English is 48.0 percent. Average test scores, 2024 for MAP math is 21.1 percent and English is 42.1 percent. Why are test scores so low? At Hazelwood West High School, The test scores have been dramatically dropping over the years and to take a deep dive into the school’s history and what the reason could be for the decrease of test scores. There can be 3 potential reasons for the sudden drop in scores such as…Technology, Covid-19 and Teachers. These are the 3 most clear-cut reasons why the school now has low test scores. (www.schooldigger.com)
Covid-19
Covid-19 is most certainly the biggest reason for the lowering of test scores. The reasoning is for almost 2 years people were stuck inside without really any supervision to do their work. Parents wouldn’t make their kids do their work or get on a Zoom call because they still had to work but the kids didn’t feel like getting on the Zoom or doing their work. All schools were closed and it made kids completely lose their will to work and killed their attention span and also killed their will to do work at school. Sources finds that kids perform worse due to a decline in memory, “younger students who are now eight to thirteen years old showed the greatest decline in memory and low-income students demonstrated the greatest decline in verbal reasoning and verbal memory.” (www.stlpr.org)
Technology
As the years have gone by, the amount of cell phones per student has drastically increased and a lot more people have cell phones nowadays. It has most definitely caused many kids to get distracted by social media, games, videos, and all of the above. The amount of time kids spend on their phones during instructional time is a lot and they tend to ignore the people/teachers that are talking in order to just focus on what they have going on on their phones. Technology has proven to be a really good source of information and help with online teachings but it has also proven to be worse than better in a school environment. A source claims technology is a distraction because “Students using cell phones during class can be easily distracted, diverting their attention away from the lesson, teacher or educational materials.” (www.eths.k12.il.us)
Teachers
Some teachers aren’t the best in their teachings and give little to no advice on how to do work. Some teachers just simply fail to do their job in teaching students. Ever since covid the teaching has almost certainly faltered. “The teaching profession is currently experiencing its lowest levels of employment in 50 years.” Which is another reason why teaching has declined because schools are getting desperate for teachers and a lot of new teachers with less and less experience have started teaching. It makes it hard for kids to learn when teachers aren’t clearly explaining things or assigning work that doesn’t make much sense.(www.bls.gov)
