RESUMEN
As the COVID-19 pandemic upended the 2019–2020 school year, education systems scrambled to meet the needs of students and families with little available data on how school closures may impact learning. In this study, we produced a series of projections of COVID-19-related learning loss based on (a) estimates from absenteeism literature and (b) analyses of summer learning patterns of 5 million students. Under our projections, returning students are expected to start fall 2020 with approximately 63 to 68% of the learning gains in reading and 37 to 50% of the learning gains in mathematics relative to a typical school year. However, we project that losing ground during the school closures was not universal, with the top third of students potentially making gains in reading.
RESUMEN
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented disruption in students' academic development. Using reading test scores from 5 million U.S. students in grades 3-8, we tracked changes in achievement across the first two years of the pandemic. Average fall 2021 reading test scores in grades 3-8 were .09 to .17 standard deviations lower relative to same-grade peers in fall 2019, with the largest impacts in grades 3-5. Students of color attending high-poverty elementary schools saw the largest test score declines in reading. Our results suggest that many upper elementary students are at-risk for reading difficulties and will need targeted supports to build and strengthen foundational reading skills. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11145-022-10345-8.
RESUMEN
In this report, RAND researchers investigate one specific issue that may contaminate utilization of COVID-19--era school-aggregate scores and result in faulty comparisons with historical and other proximal aggregate scores: changes in school composition over time. To investigate this issue, they examine data from NWEA's Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Growth assessments, interim assessments used by states and districts during the 2020-2021 school year. This report has four main sections. First, it provides background information on the assessment context. A detail is provided on the problems caused by changes in test-taking populations, particularly for school-level analyses, and provides examples of state policies for score reporting. Second, it details the research questions and describes the sample and methods. Third, it presents the results of the investigations. The report concludes with a discussion of the implications of findings for decision-making during the COVID-19 crisis. This report is the second of three that examine the impacts of COVID-19-related assessment disruptions on school and district processes. The first report, "Adapting Course Placement Processes in Response to COVID-19 Disruptions: Guidance for Schools and Districts. Research Report. RR-A1037-1" (ED612136), compares three strategies to estimate missing test scores and help with course placement decisions.
RESUMEN
As students return to in-person instruction in the 2021–2022 school year, local education agencies (LEAs) must develop resource allocation strategies to support schools in need. Federal programs have provided resources to support restart and recovery. However, there is little consensus on how LEAs can target resources to support those schools most in need. This study investigates the relationship between three school need indicators (i.e., pre-COVID student performance and progress, school and community poverty, and pandemic vulnerability) and measures of student performance and progress throughout the pandemic to determine which indicators support valid school need inferences. We find that school poverty more strongly predicts performance and progress during the pandemic than pre-COVID academic measures. In elementary schools, we find that pandemic vulnerability independently predicts achievement even when conditioning on poverty and pre-pandemic achievement. Of the indicators of poverty we investigated, the percentage of free and reduced-price lunch-eligible students is the strongest predictor.
RESUMEN
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a seismic and ongoing disruption to K?12 schooling. Using test scores from 5.4 million U.S. students in Grades 3?8, we tracked changes in math and reading achievement across the first 2 years of the pandemic. Average math test scores in the fall of 2021 in Grades 3?8 were .20?.27 standard deviation (SD) lower relative to same-grade peers in the fall of 2019, while reading test scores decreased by .09?.18 SD. Achievement gaps between students in low-poverty and high-poverty elementary schools grew by .10?.20 SD, primarily during the 2020?2021 school year. Achievement disparities by student race/ethnicity also widened substantively. Observed declines are more substantial than during other recent school disruptions, such as those due to natural disasters.
RESUMEN
As the COVID-19 pandemic upended the 2019?2020 school year, education systems scrambled to meet the needs of students and families with little available data on how school closures may impact learning. In this study, we produced a series of projections of COVID-19-related learning loss based on (a) estimates from absenteeism literature and (b) analyses of summer learning patterns of 5 million students. Under our projections, returning students are expected to start fall 2020 with approximately 63 to 68% of the learning gains in reading and 37 to 50% of the learning gains in mathematics relative to a typical school year. However, we project that losing ground during the school closures was not universal, with the top third of students potentially making gains in reading.