Re: Many students have still not regained pandemic-era losses in reading, math: Report

On 26 Feb 2022, Bolloy Benders Family <[email protected]> posted some 
news:[email protected]:

> Blame Fauci and his lies.

Elementary and middle school students have only made up some of the losses 
in math and reading they experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new 
report finds.

For the report, published Wednesday, a collaborative team at the Center 
for Education Policy Research at Harvard University and The Educational 
Opportunity Project at Stanford University, looked at the first year of 
regular testing between spring 2022 and spring 2023 for school districts 
in 30 states.

Overall, students managed to recover about one-third of the original loss 
in math and one-quarter of the loss in reading. While these gains are 
historic, students are still not where they should be, the researchers 
found.

"Both of those gains were large by historical standards, but the gains in 
average achievement are masking the dramatic widening in achievement that 
happened between 2019 and 2022, and just the failure of many of the high 
poverty districts to catch up," Dr. Thomas Kane, co-author of the report 
and faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research, told ABC 
News.

When broken down by subject, only students in Alabama returned to pre-
pandemic achievement levels in math, meaning levels seen in 2019, the 
report found. However, students in 17 states are still one-third behind 
2019 levels in math.

Meanwhile, students in three states -- Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi 
-- returned to 2019 reading achievement levels while students in 14 states 
remain more than one-third of a grade level behind in reading.

The report's authors say that districts would need at least another year 
of recovery in math and two more years in reading for students to catch up 
to pre-pandemic level achievements.

However, even if last year's pace could be maintained, students will not 
be caught up by the time federal relief expires in September.

K-12 schools received $190 billion in federal aid from Congress during the 
pandemic, most of which went to high-poverty districts. Currently, $51 
billion of aid remains, which must be returned to the federal government 
if unused by September. The authors say states and districts should use 
the remaining funds to help students catch up academically.

The report also found that in many states, the recovery of math and 
reading losses has been led by wealthier districts, including those in 
Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Kane said in Massachusetts, high-poverty districts didn't just fail to 
catch up but lost further ground between spring 2022 and spring 2023 so 
the improvement came from the higher-income suburbs, which he called 
"disappointing" and "concerning."

Nilesh Patel, a high school principal at Kairos Academies in St. Louis, 
has seen the advantages families in wealthier districts had during the 
pandemic.

"During the pandemic, many high-income families relied on private tutors 
to maintain their students' achievement while lower-income families didn't 
have the resources to do the same," he told ABC News. "A lot of school-
based interventions meant to close the gap were too little, too late. What 
we really need are strong early childhood interventions."

Dr. Jade Cobern, a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, told 
ABC News that disparities between high and low-income areas mostly affect 
racial and ethnic minorities.

"Not only do some disparities still exist, but in some places are getting 
worse for these groups of kids. It's essential for these kids that we 
focus more research and resources to close these gaps," she said.

Dr. John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children's 
Hospital and an ABC News contributor, added that educational disparities 
could lead to broader health inequalities in the future.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/students-regained-pandemic-era-losses-reading-
math-report/story?id=106876863