Students struggle to recover from COVID learning loss
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American students are half a grade level behind pre-pandemic achievement levels in math and reading, according to an Education Recovery Scorecard report released on Tuesday.
Why it matters: No state showed improvements in both math and reading from 2019 to 2024, according to the Nation's Report Card — a national assessment of math and reading achievement.
- High-income districts are four times more likely to have recovered, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard, which combines results from the Nation's Report Card assessment and state test scores.
- The slide in test scores "masks a pernicious inequality: scores have declined far more in America's middle- and low-income communities than its wealthy ones," Sean Reardon, director of Stanford's Educational Opportunity Project, said in a statement.
By the numbers: 17% of students between third and eighth grade are in districts with average math achievement above 2019.
- 11% are in districts that have recovered in reading, and 6% are in districts that have recovered in both reading and math.
- More than 100 districts performed above pre-pandemic levels in both math and reading.
Between the lines: Louisiana is the only state that showed slight improvements in both math and reading, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard report.
Zoom out: Chronic absenteeism, which worsened during the pandemic, has started to show improvements, per the report. But it slowed academic recovery, especially in high-poverty districts.
- In 2019, the national rate was 15%. That nearly doubled to 29% in 2022 and dropped slightly to 26% in 2023.
- In the 20 states with data through Spring 2024, chronic absenteeism fell by an additional two points.
- "The full impact of the rise in absenteeism is not yet clear," the report said.
What's next: Researchers urged states and districts to redirect funding toward interventions, now that federal pandemic relief has dried up.
- They also said mayors, employers and other leaders should help in addressing chronic absenteeism so that all of the burden doesn't fall on schools.
The bottom line: "The rescue phase is over," Tom Kane, director of Harvard's Center for Education Policy Research said in a statement.
- "The federal relief dollars are gone. It is time to pivot from short-term recovery to longer term challenges such as reducing absenteeism and addressing the slide in literacy."
Editor's note: This story was updated to clarify that while the Nation's Report Card found no states improved in both math and reading, the Education Recovery Scorecard found one exception, Louisiana.
Go deeper: American students' reading skills drop to record lows
