Eighth graders remain a full school year behind pre-pandemic levels in math and reading more than four years after COVID hit, according to new test results reported in The 74.
Data from more than 7.7 million students who took the widely used MAP Growth tests from NWEA indicates students finishing 4th grade when the pandemic hit not only lost at least a year of in-person learning, but also transitioned to middle school during a chaotic period of teacher vacancies and rising absenteeism.
The 2023-24 results reflect the last tests administered before federal COVID relief funds run out. Districts must allocate any remaining funds by the end of September — a cutoff expected to cause further disruption as districts eliminate staff and programs aimed at learning recovery.
Older students don’t make up ground as quickly as younger kids and will have to work harder, researchers said. The effects of the pandemic “continue to reverberate” for children in the early elementary grades, many of whom missed out on preschool because of COVID. On average, students need at least four extra months of schooling to catch up.
Thus far, only two states, California and Colorado, have asked officials for extra time to spend the diminishing relief funds that remain, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The question for most leaders is how to keep paying for extra tutoring and staffing levels for students still learning below grade level — especially those belonging to groups that weren’t meeting expectations before the pandemic.
The NWEA results show achievement gaps continuing to widen. Asian students are showing some growth but made fewer gains in math last year than during the pre-COVID years. White, Black and Hispanic students continue to lose ground. In both elementary and middle school, Hispanic students need the most additional instruction to reach pre-COVID levels, the data shows.
In reading, the gap between pre-pandemic growth and current trends widened by an average of 36%, compared with 18% in math. It is possible districts focused extra recovery efforts on math because initial data on learning loss showed those declines to be the most severe.
Several states last year noted at least partial recovery, and a few showed students had even reached or were exceeding 2019 scores. State tests measure the blunt designation between proficient or not, while MAP tests capture the full spectrum of student achievement levels during the school year.
As more time passes since the pandemic, school leaders might be tempted to stop comparing their students’ performance to pre-COVID levels, when states were making progress in closing achievement gaps.
“What keeps me up at night is this idea that these persistent achievement gaps are inevitable, that this is just how it’s going to be,” says one expert. “I don’t think that’s the case, but I do think it takes innovation and creative thinking … to get us out of this mess.”
The 74
