TAMPA, Fla. — Seeing those light bulb moments while kids are learning is everything to math tutor Jamie Hendrickx.
“That is that love of learning that we don't see very often, but that ‘aha’ and that amazing ‘I got it’ feeling,” she said.
Watch full report from Mary O'Connell
Hendrickx has been tutoring kids in the Tampa Bay Area for over 20 years.
Tampa Bay 28 caught up with her in Plant City, where she described seeing a decline in the level of foundational skills.
"I had three seniors in high school that we were doing some test prep for a standardized test, and they did not know the difference between odd and even numbers,” said Hendrickx.
That eye-opening experience comes as a new report finds some students are losing ground in key subjects.
The latest results from what's known as the "Nation's Report Card" found that average scores declined from 2019 to 2024 for the country's 8th grade students in science and 12th grade students in math and reading.
Officials said the grade 12 math score in 2024 was lower than in 2005, while the grade 12 reading score in 2024 was lower than in 1992.
“If you talk to other tutors too, we're seeing record numbers of kids coming to us for help,” said Hendrickx.
Looking at other data from the Nation’s Report Card, specifically for the Sunshine State, for grade 8 math, it says the percentage of students in Florida who performed at or above the basic level was 55 percent in 2024 and 63 percent for grade 8 reading.
"These are not surprising to any educator that is on the ground working with kids every day,” said Stephanie Yocum, the President of the Polk Education Association. “Not only are we still dealing with the impacts of COVID without the federal funding that we had to deal with COVID during that time, we are dealing in Florida with massive shortages in our classrooms, not just from teachers, but in all areas."
We also turned to Monica Young for perspective. She's a 6th-grade social studies teacher in Hillsborough County.
“What are some of the challenges that you see in the classroom that might feed into the results that we saw on this report card?" asked reporter Mary O’Connell.
"When students are sitting in a standardized classroom to take their test, they're not engaged, especially on the lower level,” said Young.
While there may not be one solution, Hendrickx said leave the standards where they are and get students the extra resources they need.
"The more that we can boost that and give that extra help to those kids who are falling through the cracks, the better off we're going to be,” said Hendrickx. “We also need the kids to step up and say I need help."
Tampa Bay 28 also reached out to the state Department of Education about these results and the drilled-down numbers for Florida. We are waiting for a response.
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