Although the public health emergency ended several months ago, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on how, where, and how students learn continues for nearly four years. There was a significant setback in education that students continue to recover from today.
According to data collected by the Institute of Education Sciences’ annual School Pulse Panel Survey, nearly half of the U.S. K-12 public school districts surveyed will have completed at least one grade level in the 2022-2023 school year. Of those, nearly all school districts reported student achievement. The school district had students who were struggling with English and math.
Unfortunately, the road to recovery may be long. Before the pandemic, only 36% of public schools reported that a student was at least one grade level behind in one or more subjects. However, by the beginning of the 2021-2022 academic year, that number rose to 50%, and the following year it decreased by only 1%.
The data suggest that the pandemic appears to have affected some subjects more than others.
During the 2022-2023 school year, 99% of public school districts surveyed reported students failing in English language arts and math, compared to 17% in computer science and 19% in foreign language.
An Ohio State University study found that pandemic-related declines in student achievement were equivalent to students missing up to a year of math study, with older students experiencing greater declines. .
In English language arts, the impact is equivalent to up to six months of study, and is even more severe for students already struggling in the field, the study found.
How to fix
Some experts suggest that the most effective way to close the gap is to help students develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
The concept is a nationwide initiative to eliminate report card grading and instead use so-called standards-based grading, which assesses students’ mastery of a subject and identifies areas for improvement. It is also shared as a growing trend.
Across the country, school districts are using intensive tutoring programs and online learning platforms to supplement classroom content or extend the school year to mitigate learning loss due to the pandemic.
More than 80% of school districts surveyed in the IES survey reported using assessments to identify individual student needs and provide remedial instruction to meet those needs. More than half of districts provided professional development opportunities for teachers to learn about education recovery strategies.
At least one-quarter of responding districts identified family involvement, outreach efforts, hiring additional instructors, and devoting more class time to targeted subjects as effective strategies.
Only 1% of districts participated in the survey They had not implemented any strategies to support learning recovery.