Research on tutoring indicates that it often works best in younger grades, and when provided by a teacher rather than, say, a parent.
The average effect size for math tutoring matches or exceeds the average COVID-19 score drop in math. We report effect sizes for each intervention specific to a grade span and subject wherever possible (e.g., tutoring has been found to have larger effects in elementary math than in reading).įigure 1 shows the standardized drops in math test scores between students testing in fall 2019 and fall 2021 (separately by elementary and middle school grades) relative to the average effect size of various educational interventions. If we assume that such interventions will continue to be as successful in a COVID-19 school environment, can we expect that these strategies will be effective enough to help students catch up? To answer this question, we draw from recent reviews of research on high-dosage tutoring, summer learning programs, reductions in class size, and extending the school day (specifically for literacy instruction). To help contextualize the magnitude of the impacts of COVID-19, we situate test-score drops during the pandemic relative to the test-score gains associated with common interventions being employed by districts as part of pandemic recovery efforts. Comparing the negative impacts from learning disruptions to the positive impacts from interventions Of that sum, $22 billion is dedicated specifically to addressing learning loss using “evidence-based interventions” focused on the “ disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underrepresented student subgroups.” Reviews of district and state spending plans (see Future Ed, EduRecoveryHub, and RAND’s American School District Panel for more details) indicate that districts are spending their ESSER dollars designated for academic recovery on a wide variety of strategies, with summer learning, tutoring, after-school programs, and extended school-day and school-year initiatives rising to the top. Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) investments from the American Rescue Plan provided nearly $200 billion to public schools to spend on COVID-19-related needs. School districts and states are currently making important decisions about which interventions and strategies to implement to mitigate the learning declines during the last two years. Nor are we suggesting that teachers are somehow at fault given the achievement drops that occurred between 20 rather, educators had difficult jobs before the pandemic, and now are contending with huge new challenges, many outside their control.Ĭlearly, however, there’s work to do. Most of us have never lived through a pandemic, and there is so much we don’t know about students’ capacity for resiliency in these circumstances and what a timeline for recovery will look like. From our perspective, these test-score drops in no way indicate that these students represent a “ lost generation” or that we should give up hope. These numbers are alarming and potentially demoralizing, especially given the heroic efforts of students to learn and educators to teach in incredibly trying times. Further, achievement tended to drop more between fall 20 than between fall 20 (both overall and differentially by school poverty), indicating that disruptions to learning have continued to negatively impact students well past the initial hits following the spring 2020 school closures.
For context, the math drops are significantly larger than estimated impacts from other large-scale school disruptions, such as after Hurricane Katrina-math scores dropped 0.17 SDs in one year for New Orleans evacuees.Įven more concerning, test-score gaps between students in low-poverty and high-poverty elementary schools grew by approximately 20% in math (corresponding to 0.20 SDs) and 15% in reading (0.13 SDs), primarily during the 2020-21 school year. We focused on test scores from immediately before the pandemic (fall 2019), following the initial onset (fall 2020), and more than one year into pandemic disruptions (fall 2021).Īverage fall 2021 math test scores in grades 3-8 were 0.20-0.27 standard deviations (SDs) lower relative to same-grade peers in fall 2019, while reading test scores were 0.09-0.18 SDs lower. We tracked changes in math and reading test scores across the first two years of the pandemic using data from 5.4 million U.S. As we outline in our new research study released in January, the cumulative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ academic achievement has been large.
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