In a time when educational institutions across the nation grapple with the impact of the pandemic on student achievement, Transformation Waco (TW) is pleased to announce that its students’ progress continues in an upward trend, showcasing a remarkable deviation from the national trend reported by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) in its recent publication “Education’s Long COVID: 2022-23 Achievement Data Reveal Stalled Progress Toward Pandemic Recovery.”
Using data from 6.7 million U.S. public school students in grades third-eighth who took the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP Growth) test, the study examined academic gains in the 2022-23 school year relative to pre-pandemic years. The MAP Growth test measures achievement and growth in K–12 math, reading, language usage and science and is administered at the school year’s beginning, middle and end. Transformation Waco students have taken the MAP test every school year since 2018, and students meeting growth targets on ELA and math assessments are one of the performance measures in TW’s contract with Waco Independent School District.
The NWEA report showed that national achievement gains in 2022-23 were lower overall than in 2021-2022, however Transformation Waco end-of-year MAP results show the opposite with students outperforming their 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 growth targets. The numbers in Figure 1 show TW students in grades K-8 achieved an average observed growth of 11.13% in reading and math, which surpasses the 10.8% average level of growth students needed to meet their growth targets.
Student achievement gains nationally lagged pre-pandemic growth trends in all grades except third, according to the NWEA report, falling below pre-pandemic averages by 1-19% in reading and by 6-15% in math nationally, noting that upper elementary and middle school students lost the most ground. Transformation Waco data tells a different story: student achievement exceeded pre-pandemic growth levels on MAP in 2022-23 compared to performance targets set before 2020. When looking at grades third-eighth [Figure 2], TW students met and exceeded their annual growth targets in every grade except fifth; however, the achieved growth for fifth-graders was higher in 2022-23 (6.63%) than the target set in 2019-2020 (4.3%), meaning students made strong progress this school year.
Researchers also tracked trends across racial and ethnic groups, concluding that marginalized students of color remained furthest from academic recovery. The study reported average achievement gains for Hispanic and Black students in 2022-23 fell below pre-pandemic averages by nearly 20% in reading and math. While national figures declined, TW – with student demographics of 42% Black and 49% Hispanic – showed more positive developments in third-eighth grade math and reading. Hispanic and Black students grew more over pre-pandemic numbers, with 3% and 12%, respectively. While math gains were 1% higher than pre-pandemic numbers for Hispanic and Black students, reflecting the national trend that math will require more recovery, reading grew at 6% for Hispanic and 24% for Black TW students (Figure 3).
“Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic, we have risen above the national trend when measuring student growth, demonstrating that our students continue to recover from unfinished learning caused by COVID-19,” said Dr. Robin McDurham, Transformation Waco Chief Executive Officer. “We attribute our progress to the dedication of our educators, the unwavering support of families, the resilience of our students and consistent financial investment in overturning the inequities existing within our educational system. As our work has shown, more long-term efforts are required to truly mitigate the long-lasting impacts of the pandemic on students.”
Transformation Waco implements a full-service community schools strategy to ensure that campuses are not just places of learning but also neighborhood hubs that bring together academics, youth development, family and community engagement with an infusion of wraparound health and social services. In January 2023, the U.S. Department of Education awarded TW with a $2.5 million Full-Service Community Schools Program grant for its “Transformation Waco Community Alliance: A Waco-Driven Solution to School Improvement” project. The grant will enable TW to expand its existing community schools strategy and establish new programs to increase students’ and families’ access to social, emotional, mental health and academic support over the next five years. The project will see a consortium of six community partners work alongside campus teams. The organizations are Communities In Schools of the Heart of Texas, Inspiración, Prosper Waco, Waco Family Medicine, Waco Housing Authority and the Waco Police Department.