South Carolina has its share of challenges. Poverty is pervasive, and the statetends to rank lowin educational achievement relative to other states. On the positive side, elected officials and education leaders in the Palmetto State recognize the value of assessment—even during a tough period when it might be easier to waive or postpone it.

我们看到了2020年6月南卡罗来纳州通过142号法案时对评估的承诺，该法案呼吁学校在2020-21学年的前两周以及2020年底之前测试所有K – 8学生。publication of NWEA’s research brief,“The COVID-19 slide: What summer learning loss can tell us about the potential impact of school closures on student academic achievement.”In December, the NWEA research team followed up on these projections with有关学生表现的数据drawn from 4.4 million students from more than 8,000 schools who tookraybet二维码assessments.

Using this national research as a starting point, NWEA built on its strong partnership with education leaders in South Carolina to produce acustomized report for the state. I sat down via Zoom with a few of the key players behind this report to talk about how the study came about, lessons learned, and how the study is informing next steps in the state.

Matthew Ferguson is the executive director of theEducation Oversight Committee（EOC），南卡罗来纳州的教育监管机构。在加入EOC之前，Matthew在南卡罗来纳州的一个学区工作，包括学区和学校级管理，课程教学和人事管理。Dana Yow是EOC的副主任，在过去15年中的大部分时间里一直在该机构任职。达娜（Dana）处理EOC以及该机构的整体运营的通信。格雷格·金（Greg King）是NWEA的研究科学家。通过直接与各州和地区合作，Greg能够利用特定的人口统计数据来弄清学生在与COVID相关的学校关闭等重大事件之后的表现以及远程学习的枢纽。我与他们的对话已被编辑，以进行长度和清晰度。

这份南卡罗来纳州报告中与NWEA的合作关系是如何产生的？

马修：NWEA has been well-known in South Carolina for years and is currently in 62 of our 82 districts. In fact, I worked directly with NWEA when I worked at the district level, using NWEA data to coach teachers to make better-informed decisions. People in our state know NWEA and trust their test results. When NWEA released its projections of the COVID slide last spring, it spurred many education leaders to consider increased and innovative efforts to reach students. South Carolina policymakers were intent on measuring and reporting the actual impacts of school closures on student learning. We knew that once our kids were back in school, we would need NWEA’s help in digging into our state data.

进入这个项目，您对南卡罗来纳州学生有何具体担忧？

马修：国家预测为我们提供了宝贵的信息，但是我们需要我们自己的数据，因此我们可以尝试预测学生在年终评估中的表现。raybet 好用吗此外，我们特别关注我们州的小型农村地区，这些地区与高速互联网与我们的城市地区没有相同的访问权限。我们想知道：那些学生的学习损失比城市同行差吗？由于对计算机的依赖，我们的贫困学生的学生是否受到远程学习的影响？

What was the main finding of your report?

马修：我们了解到我们有很多工作要做。我们发现，我们的小学生受到学习损失影响最大的，并且数学比阅读较高。总体而言，该研究预测，根据今年秋天阅读和数学的初步测试，预计10名学生中有7名未能符合州标准。当我们将其与前几年进行比较时，我们会看到典型的一年中学生的位置下降。

Dana:It makes sense that our state-level data on learning loss in math would mirror what NWEA found in its national report. When you think about the foundational practices that are used in a math classroom, so much of it depends on direct instruction. So if students are losing that, then it makes sense that the declines would be more pronounced.

What did you learn about how those underrepresented students from rural districts are doing?

格雷格：我们学到的重要一件事是，在仍在参加测试的学生中，我们没有看到该州服务不足的孩子和其他学生团体之间的差距扩大。当然，我们需要注意的最大警告是，我们的整体测试数量已经下降。从数据中，我们知道的学生很少，我们知道，这些失踪学生中的数量不成比例来自少数族裔学生和贫困学生比例较高的学校。由于这些学生中有许多已经滞后于同龄人，因此对该小组的学习损失尤其是坏消息。也就是说，我们没有关于该差距的当前状态的完整图片。这就是为什么测试如此重要的原因。

您可以包含什么样的数据，这些数据超出了国家报告的范围？

格雷格：我们得到了各种人口统计数据，帮助我们为南卡罗来纳州提供了更有针对性和相关的报告。该数据包括贫困学生的数字，这是对社会经济状况的更准确的估计量，而不是自由午餐和减少午餐。该州还为我们提供了ESL学生，种族和族裔亚组以及接受个性化教育计划的学生的数字。

Dana:Our study also included interviews with leaders and educators in 15 districts, so that we could include the perspectives and lessons learned of those who have faced so many challenges this year. We’ve also surveyed parents.

马修：Districts had an incentive to take part in these interviews because we let them know that in addition to the statewide data the report would offer, NWEA would break down the data for those specific districts. So we were able to provide these districts with their own reports.

Has this report led to any specific actions in South Carolina?

马修：One of the outcomes so far is that the report has prompted our state’s Department of Education to require a mitigation plan for our students. The districts are going to be asked to look at their student data to identify strengths and weaknesses, and then to plan for instructional interventions to help make up for COVID-related learning loss.

无论如何，这可能是发生的，但是该报告使我们能够指出特定的，重大的学习损失，并且有些学生仍然缺少我们的样本。没有这些数据，我不确定国家和地区是否能够如此故意并专注于该计划过程。

I understand that other states have commissioned similar reports. Given that NWEA’s national report was so comprehensive and that all states are facing similar challenges, what motivates states to produce their own studies?

格雷格：国家报告开始对话，并为该国发生的事情提供了很好的了解，但是国家报告是真正有助于推动政策并在当地制定行动的原因。这就是为什么说明渴望有关他们发生的事情的信息的原因。从研究的角度来看，能够在州一级检查学生学习进度并与州领导人谈论这一大流行如何影响他们的学生的能力提供了很多其他背景，您在国家报告中找不到这些背景。

What can other states learn from your experience in South Carolina?

马修：每个州都是不同的，但是我们确实发现我们的州发现基本上与NWEA的国家样本保持一致，这表明在Covid关闭后，数学对数学的影响更大，尤其是小学成绩是最难的打击。这对我们来说是有价值的数据，我想其他州也会发现它也有用。这些数据使决策者能够做出明智的决策，并有目的地朝着改进方向发展，而不仅仅是希望获得最好的决定，也不想知道数据所说的内容。