The widening achievement gap is a rising concern in schools that requires prompt attention. It is a result of differing opportunities and resources available to families and students. Present day factors, such as COVID-19 and varying instructional strategies, contribute to learning gaps. Socio-economic diversity, a global pandemic, and…

COVID learning loss has sparked fierce debate among stakeholders in education. There are debates among concerned educators about ways to understand learning loss reports, methods to measure learning loss, and strategies to recover from learning loss. In this article, we unpack opposing perspectives on these three controversies with the goal of…

Due to low levels of student engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic, elementary school students suffered significant learning losses, which served as the driving force behind this research. Teachers should be the key to solving problems. This research aims to measure how much influence the competence of professional elementary school teachers has…

This study aims to examine the impact of reduced in-person learning during COVID-19 on students' academic achievement gaps focusing on rural--urban and in-school disparities. To this end, first, we investigated the regional disparity of student performance between Seoul and Gangwon, representative areas of urban and rural regions in South Korea,…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous challenges specific to educational context resulted in disrupted teaching and learning for students across the U.S. Consequently, accelerating recovery of disrupted learning has become the primary concern of every school district in the nation. Prior to the pandemic, the use of data to guide instruction was…

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a period for reexamination of how the world schools its children. Policy makers are considering how to address myriad challenges during this tenuous post-COVID era in primary and secondary education. This paper discusses potential school calendar change in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Modifying the…

In 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic led to nationwide school closures, followed by a mandate for schools to reopen in 2020, posing challenges for ensuring both educational continuity and student safety. This paper presents findings from a mixed-method study involving ten campus principals in District A, South Texas, post-pandemic. Qualitatively, the…

Is the achievement gap real? Using a mixed-methods approach, this study reframed standardized testing through a Quantitative Critical and Black Critical lens. It interrogated the deficit framing of Black student achievement by asking the following questions: (1) To what extent do the aggregated standardized test scores for Black students in…

The authors sought to identify the prevalence of food insecurity in a community college district during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team also investigated the association food insecurity had with academic performance. A sample of 238 individuals completed the survey, including a demographic questionnaire and the Adult Food Security Survey Module, a…

The COVID-19 pandemic led to notable disruptions in student learning, particularly in mathematics, impacting students from marginalized backgrounds. This quasi-experimental quantitative study examines whether the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Mathematics results from 2019 to 2024 indicate that students have recovered…

This chapter provides new evidence on educational inequality and reviews the literature on the causes and consequences of unequal education. We document large achievement gaps between children from different socio-economic backgrounds, show how patterns of educational inequality vary across countries, time, and generations, and establish a link…

This quantitative study was designed to investigate whether a relationship existed between reading achievement and instructional modality during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the fall of 2020, school districts developed return-to-school plans that outlined if they would provide in-person, hybrid, or remote instruction to students following the state…

COVID-19 led to school closures and emergency remote learning. This paper analyzes school closures during the pandemic using a unique data base. The determinants of the duration of school closures estimates were used to instrument school closures -- stringency of lockdown and vaccination -- and causally estimate the impact of duration on learning.…

This report looks at the progress made during secondary school of young people from different backgrounds who were in the top third of attainers at the end of primary school. High attaining pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds have the best chance of becoming socially mobile, and "Social Mobility: The Next Generation" will explore,…

To explore potential effects of disadvantage on engagement and attainment under different teaching and assessment regimes, the influence of pedagogic changes implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on attainment and engagement of students from different backgrounds were compared using a cohort-study design. Learner analytics and attainment data…