Schools, students battle learning gaps worsened by pandemic – PBS NewsHour

Stephanie Sy:

Amna, this research analyzed data for more than 6.5 million public school students in third through eighth grades, comparing their academic gains from 2022 to 2023 with pre-pandemic years.

The study authors estimate that most students would need, on average, an additional 4.5 months of math instruction and four months of reading instruction to catch up.

I’m joined now by Karyn Lewis, director of the Center for School and Student Progress and a lead researcher at NWEA, the organization that came out with this new study.

Karyn, thank you so much for joining the “NewsHour.”

We know from previous, even recent research that public schools are having a tough time closing that learning gap that occurred during the pandemic. How does your study add to what we already know?

Karyn Lewis, Director and Lead Researcher, NWEA: I think what’s new about what we have learned in this most recent release of data is that, up until this point, we had seen some positive signs that we were starting to have some progress towards recovery, albeit modest progress.

So it’s disheartening and disappointing that, at the end of the ’22-’23 school year, we actually have backslid slightly and the gaps between current achievement levels relative to pre-pandemic trends actually widened. And that’s because students were making gains this year at below-average rates.