Four years after schools moved to online classes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, student test scores continue to decline, according to a study released Tuesday by testing company Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA).
of paper The achievement gap between current and pre-pandemic students has widened despite a record $190 billion in federal aid paid to schools since the pandemic began, the study found.The findings, revealed in an analysis of test results from about 7.7 million students in grades 3-8 for the 2023-24 school year, come two years after experts said an education recovery was underway. (Related: School closures during pandemic have delayed students' math achievement by more than a half-year, analysis finds)
“At the end of the 2021-22 school year, we optimistically concluded that the worst was over and recovery had begun,” study authors Karin Lewis and Megan Kuhfeld wrote. “Unfortunately, data from the past two academic years no longer support this conclusion.”
According to the NWEA analysis, the gaps between sixth-graders' pre-COVID performance in math and English widened by 40% and 31%, respectively, between fall 2023 and spring 2024. The study also found that today's average eighth-grader would need about nine months of additional study to reach pre-COVID levels in the two subjects.
Similar (but less extreme) trends were seen for younger students, with third graders needing an additional 1.3 months of study to catch up in math and 2.2 months to catch up in reading.
Some researchers believe the continued decline in academic achievement is due to chronic absenteeism: The average number of students who miss more than 10 percent of school days has increased from 15% in the 2017-18 school year to 28% in the 2021-22 school year. study From the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
The AEI study also found that “using the most recent data from the 2022-23 school year, the rise in chronic absenteeism has barely abated even after the pandemic has largely subsided.”
The decline in academic performance continues despite $122 billion allocated to U.S. public schools for 2021 alone, which schools have until September to spend the money. according to To Education Week, a K-12 education news media.
“We're nowhere near the academic achievement levels of students before the pandemic,” said Dan Goldhaber, an education researcher at the American Institute for Research and the University of Washington. Said The Washington Post.
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