High schools across the country are seeing test scores drop with literacy and numeracy skills being lost among students due to factors such as the pandemic and social media use.
At Walnut High School, CAASPP (California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress) scores dropped from 82% of students meeting or exceeding standards for English language arts (ELA) in 2018-19 to 79.01% in 2024-25, and 71% for math to 64% for 2024-25. Teachers have also noticed a change within the student body after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Post-pandemic, my honors-level courses have gotten easier, with less content and fewer readings. The pace had to slow down to meet students where they were and build that back up,” English teacher Kate Borihane said. “A lot has recovered, but I don’t know how much can be attributed to the pandemic [versus] just a social and cultural shift.”
On the other hand, numeracy rates fell significantly after the pandemic. CAASPP scores from Walnut High School between 2020-21 and 2021-22 show a drop in mathematics by 9%. Within this, the concepts and procedures section of the test had 12% of students below standards in 2020-21, to almost double in 2021-22: 18%. Outside of the test scores, many teachers felt this shift in their classrooms as well.
“Students don’t memorize things as much anymore, but I feel like that’s not pandemic-related, I think that’s technology-related, since we can look up anything [nowadays],” math teacher Tiffany Redcher said. “When you don’t memorize] basic formulas, [like] the quadratic formula, it slows you down when [solving]. Even though it was in chapter three, it’s supposed to be a lifetime memory for all of math.”
The 2025 exam results from the nation’s report card reveal that a decade-long drop in high schoolers’ reading and math performances persisted through the pandemic, with 12th graders’ scores dropping to their lowest level in more than 20 years. The pandemic impacted the way schools worked, but it also had a lasting impact on students and the social shift they faced.
“During the pandemic, my teacher emailed my parents that there would be a Zoom call on the Friday of this week and then the Thursday of next week, and so between those two Zoom calls, I would just stay home and do nothing,” sophomore Sarah Ran said. “Because I didn’t study over the pandemic and spent a lot of time on the internet, I still don’t really study.”
Many students claim that the pandemic changed not only their study habits and attention span, but also their usage of technology. In particular, the trend of social media usage has increased since the start of the pandemic.
“When I hear one chime on my phone [while doing homework], I end up [doomscrolling] for an hour on it. Then I remember I have to finish my homework and stress myself out,” freshman Catherine Anonas said.
