Utah
Inching toward pre-pandemic proficiency rates in ELA & math
Overview
Here at the 2024 State Assessment Data Substack, we’re releasing these posts as states release their data (and we clean it). To keep it brief, every post will have three sets of graphs: 1) math and ELA test scores for grades 3-8 over time, 2) math and ELA scores by race/ethnicity, and 3) outcomes by economic status, when possible. If you’ve received this email from a friend, we invite you to subscribe to continue to receive updates!
Our intention here is to give you the big picture: where are the state scores going, and how does that differ by group. These graphs are made with Zelma.ai, and if you want to explore up through the 2023 data yourself, you can do that here. All state 2024 data available will be published in December. You can read more about Zelma in our post here.
Today: Utah.
State Assessment Background
Utah’s student outcome data come from the Utah Readiness Improvement Success Empowerment (RISE) assessment, which began in 2019. The data represent outcomes for students in grades 3–8 in math and ELA. The results below reflect student outcomes between 2019-2024.
A Note on Data Availability in Utah
One of the key data components that State Education Agencies typically post publicly as part of their results (along with the % of students reaching proficiency) is the number of students that were tested. This is also an important component that we need in order to better understand changes in student proficiency over time. Unfortunately, the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) does not include the number of students tested in their public data files; for this reason, we are not able to share results below that disaggregate state results by grade level and student subgroup (including race/ethnicity and economic status). This is an area we think can and should be improved in the future!
Overall Trends
The overall proficiency rates for students in Utah have not yet reached pre-pandemic rates in ELA and math. There have been minimal gains between 2023 and 2024.
ELA: scores had minimal change between 2023 and 2024 for students in grades 3–8, staying at around 45% proficiency. ELA scores have not quite reached 2019 proficiency rates of 46%.
Math: proficiency rates rose slightly from 43% to 44% between 2023 and 2024, which is below the pre-pandemic (2019) rate of 46%.
Overall ELA & Math Results, Grades 3–8
Trends by Race and Ethnicity
** Not available for Utah
Trends by Economic Status
** Not available for Utah