Pandemic Learning Loss by Student Baseline Achievement: Extent and Sources of Heterogeneity. Working Paper No. 292-0224

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  • Additional Information
    • Availability:
      National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. American Institutes for Research, 1000 Thomas Jefferson Street NW, Washington, DC 20007. Tel: 202-403-5796; Fax: 202-403-6783; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: https://caldercenter.org
    • Peer Reviewed:
      N
    • Source:
      44
    • Sponsoring Agency:
      Carnegie Corporation of New York
      Walton Family Foundation
    • Education Level:
      Early Childhood Education
      Elementary Education
      Grade 3
      Primary Education
      Grade 4
      Intermediate Grades
      Grade 5
      Middle Schools
      Grade 6
      Grade 7
      Junior High Schools
      Secondary Education
      Grade 8
    • Subject Terms:
      COVID-19; Pandemics; Achievement Gains; At Risk Students; Disproportionate Representation; Mathematics Achievement; Reading Achievement; Institutional Characteristics; Achievement Tests; Grade 3; Grade 4; Grade 5; Grade 6; Grade 7; Grade 8; School Closing
    • Subject Terms:
      Measures of Academic Progress
    • Abstract:
      It is now well established that the COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating and unequal impact on student achievement. Test score declines were disproportionately large for historically marginalized students, exacerbating preexisting achievement gaps and threatening educational and economic inequality. In this paper, we use longitudinal student-level NWEA MAP Growth test data to estimate differences in test score declines for students at different points on the prepandemic test distribution. We also test the extent to which students' schools and districts accounted for these differences in declines. We find significant differences in learning loss by baseline achievement, with lower-achieving student's scores dropping 0.100 SD more in math and 0.113 SD more in reading than higher-achieving students' scores. We additionally show that the school a student attended accounts for about three-quarters of this widening gap in math achievement and about one-third in reading. The findings suggest school and district-level policies may have mattered more for learning loss than individual students' experiences within schools and districts. Such nuanced information regarding the variation in the pandemic's impacts on students is critical for policymakers and practitioners designing targeted academic interventions and for tracking disparities in academic recovery. [Additional funding for this report was provided by Kenneth C. Griffin.]
    • Abstract:
      As Provided
    • Publication Date:
      2024
    • Accession Number:
      ED643380