Study shows pandemic slowed reading progress considerably

Fluency in early grades is about 30% lower

A new study adds to the mounting evidence of lost learning because of school closures during the coronavirus pandemic, with the ability of students in early grades to read aloud quickly and accurately about 30% lower than normal over the past year.

The research released Tuesday by Policy Analysis for California Education, an independent research center based at Stanford University, examined 250,000 oral reading fluency scores for students in first through third grade last spring and fall in over 100 school districts across 22 states.

“This new research provides clear and concerning evidence of learning loss in terms of the development of essential reading skills among young students,” said Heather Hough, executive director of PACE and one of the principal authors of the research brief. “The losses may be greater than we estimate, particularly for students in lower-achieving schools, raising gravely concerning issues of educational equity.”

Because of the agreements made in structuring the study, the authors could not identify the districts and states. But Hough said the study includes multiple districts in California, more so than in other states.

The new research comes amid growing pressure from many parents and public officials to reopen public schools that largely or entirely have taught classes online over the past year, citing evidence that shows students can return to class safely with simple measures such as face masks and student spacing.

Despite improvements in online distance learning, they point to studies by PACE and others showing students are falling behind and suffering emotionally from prolonged isolation.

Public school teachers unions — as well as many school administrators and parents in districts with high infection rates — have resisted the push to reopen, insisting staffers must be vaccinated first and citing fears of more aggressive new strains of the coronavirus.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers approved legislation last week to encourage more schools to reopen this spring. The legislation includes $6.6 billion for pandemic safety measures and learning loss recovery efforts that could include extended school days or weeks of instruction. But California trails other states in reopening its schools.

In the latest PACE study, researchers found that growth in oral reading fluency among students flattened and remained stalled last spring, with students in second and third grades affected most. Last fall, as schools generally began returning to par

tial or full in-person instruction, those same students tested demonstrated gains in oral reading fluency, the study found. But the gains were not sufficient to make up losses from the spring.

The study found yearly gains in oral reading fluency were 26% lower than expected based on prior years for the secondgraders and 33% lower for the third graders.

The authors noted the findings may underestimate the impact, as many students were not assessed in spring 2020 and may not have been provided or engaged in learning opportunities.

The study also found the effects more pronounced in lower-achieving school districts, indicating that students in those schools may be falling further behind during the pandemic.

“They may result in a widening of preexisting achievement gaps,” said Benjamin W. Domingue, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University and lead author of the report.

Hough said that compared with all school districts in the U.S., the sample includes districts that had relatively higher levels of closures in September 2020. But she said they have not been able to analyze the effect of various instructional modes — in person, hybrid or remote — on learning last fall.

But she added that the fall gains demonstrate that learning loss can be recovered.

“These findings are worrisome, but they do not need to be catastrophic,” Hough said. “As the gains in learning made in the fall demonstrate, educators are finding ways to successfully teach and assess oral reading fluency even during the continued disruption of the pandemic.”

“They may result in a widening of preexisting achievement gaps.” — Benjamin W. Domingue , assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University