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 0.20-0.27 standard deviation (SD) lower…

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 0.09 to 0.17 standard deviations lower relative to…

The schooling disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to reverberate across the K-12 educational system more than a year after schools closed for in-person instruction. In this study, we examined the aftermath of these disruptions by modeling student achievement trends prior to and during the pandemic, with particular focus on growth in…