COVID’s sweeping toll
New study reveals how virus impacted learning math and reading
There will always be students who fall behind in math or reading. But nothing compares to the learning setbacks created by the COVID-19 pandemic, which erased decades of academic progress, according to national research that provides the first, detailed look at the scale of the crisis by school district.
Through the Education Recovery Scorecard collaborative, Stanford and Harvard researchers have produced a map of trends in learning loss, combining local and national test score data to reveal patterns that vary from one school district to the next.
In Michigan, 2021-2022 M-STEP math test scores, in grades 3-8, saw their largest decrease in 30 years with Black and lowincome students falling further behind. Nationwide, reading test scores dropped to 1992 levels as nearly four in 10 eighthgraders failed to grasp basic math concepts.
According to Michigan Department of
Education data, the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress or M-STEP, taken by students in grades 3-8, showed that math and reading test scores across Macomb County declined from the 2018-19 to 202122 school year, which reflect declines statewide and nationally during the pandemic.
In math, the number of Macomb County students in grades 3-8 that scored advanced or proficient dropped from 21,848 to 16,643, a 31% decrease. In reading, the number of Macomb County students in grades 3-8 that scored advanced or proficient dropped from 26,393 to 22,155, a 19% decrease.
In reading scores, the level of decline varied from district-to-district, with some of the Macomb Intermediate School Districts even managing to show progress in reading.
Overall, however, the research shows not a single state saw a notable improvement in their average math or reading test scores, with some simply treading water at best. As a result, state and local education officials are focusing attention on academic recovery strategies, needed legislative action, and continued effort to address the teacher shortage.
The research
It was the team, led by Sean Reardon, Professor, Stanford University Graduate School of Education, and Thomas Kane, Professor, Harvard University Graduate School of Education, that recently released the detailed analysis that brings learning loss findings closer to home. Their analysis is the first clear picture of pandemic
learning loss at the school district level, revealing differences in the pandemic’s impact across U.S. communities.
The Education Recovery Scorecard, published Oct. 28 by researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) and the Center for Education Policy and Research (CEPR) at Harvard, uses national and local test scores to map changes in student performance over the past three years within individual school districts.
The researchers identified patterns in the relationship between student performance and the extent of remote learning in each district, as well as trends among racial and economic groups.
Some of the main findings included:
• The district-level analysis indicates that the pandemic exacerbated educational inequalities based on income, showing the most pronounced learning losses among students in low-income communities and school districts.
• The analysis also showed that test scores declined more, on average, in school districts where students were learning remotely than where learning took place in person. But the extent to which a school district was in person or remote was a minor factor in the change in student performance, the researchers found.
Kane said that commonalities among Macomb County school districts, and those nationwide, that experienced greater math and reading learning loss included those with higher poverty rates and those with more Black and Hispanic students.
“We are not yet sure why,” he said. “From other research, we know that remote instruction had a larger negative impact in high-poverty schools. Although
we don’t have direct evidence on the mechanism, it’s likely some combination of broadband access, the parental occupations and availability of adults to supervise online lessons at home, COVID infection rates.”
He added that the number of weeks schools remained remote also played a role in the amount of learning loss district-to-district.
Successful comebacks
L’Anse Creuse Public Schools was shut down in March 2020. But unlike other schools that remained closed, it reopened in June, offering parents the choice of in-person or online instruction. A look at the breakdown of test scores shows that while some kids had learning loss in math (-0.4%), the district managed to make small gains in reading (+0.3%).
“We had a large amount of in-person learning, which helped us minimize learning loss in students,” Erik Edoff, Superintendent of L’Anse Creuse said, in a statement. “In addition we focused on interventions with students with learning needs and support classes.”
Edoff said they have since refocused their work using student data to determine what interventions each student needs moving forward.
Many of Michigan school districts, and those nationwide, that experienced greater math and reading learning loss included those with higher poverty rates identified by the number of students accessing the free lunch program.
But not New Haven Community Schools.
While more than 52% of its students fall in the lower income bracket their district experienced only a slight decline in math scores (-.08%) and a small increase in reading scores (+0.17%).
“We were the only district in the county that had zero third-graders that had to be recommended for retention based on test scores,” said New Haven Community Schools Superintendent Cheryl Puzdrakiewicz.
She attributes their success to a few things that were done in the last two years.
“We are one to one with technology. Being one to one, we were able to purchase some programs such as IXL for math and reading K-12 and Reading Eggs for younger students,” said Puzdrakiewicz. “These programs combined with NWEA scores pinpoint areas students need to strengthen so each child has a specific path to mastery of content. We also purchased a new math program K-12, as we had not updated our math curriculum for over 10 years.”
What helped to minimize the loss in reading for school districts in Macomb County that showed small gains since 2018, was the hiring of additional literacy coaches. This was achievable for many districts due to the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) dollars that were allocated by Congress through The CARES ACT (March 2020), American Rescue Plan (March 2021) and the $900 billion relief bill (December 2020), sent to states for distribution to local school districts.
Nationwide, the total federal school allocation from the three ESSER funding rounds was about $200 billion. This included over $5 billion for Michigan school districts.
Anchor Bay School District experienced a drop in math scores -0.45% but saw a gain of 0.92% in reading.
“We made it a focus area and hired literacy coaches and tutors with our ESSER funds — and have been working with the MISD to train our teachers in literacy essentials,” said Phillip Jankowski, ABS superintendent. “These strategies place a greater focus on reading and provide the additional time and support for students to improve their reading skills. We are looking to do the same with math going forward.”
During the pandemic and before the return of in-person classes, it was the Amy Brender show that students at Higgins Elementary School tuned in to see.
“Every Friday I would pick one of my favorite titles to read,” said the elementary literacy specialist.
This was especially beneficial to kindergartners who were just being introduced to reading — learning their letters and sounds — when the pandemic hit.
“We have an abundance of third-graders who missed all of that, but surprisingly only some of them need help in reading while others need help in math or other areas such as social skills,” said Brender.
Of the 90 kids who were in kindergarten at the height of the pandemic only 20 needed additional support in reaching and many of those might have needed the help, pandemic or not.
Sadly, not all districts managed to overcome the setbacks.
The Educational Recovery Scorecard mapping scores across the state shows at least eight MISD reported a decline in reading scores.
“The average U.S. student is half a grade level behind in math and a quarter of a year behind in reading,” he said. In Michigan, students in districts such as Detroit, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Lansing lost three quarters of a year or more,” said Reardon.
He added that districts with more than a half year of learning loss are very unlikely to be caught up by spring 2023 or even spring 2024, but that students in districts with lesser learning losses could be back to 2019 math and reading levels by spring 2023.
Reardon said all of Macomb County school districts, as well as those across the state, need to focus on identifying students most in need of resources to make up lost ground.
“Districts need to rely on evidence-based strategies like intensive tutoring,” he said, which many school districts are already doing. “Given all the ways that the pandemic disrupted the lives of children, their families, and their teachers, it would have been surprising if there were not substantial declines in test scores compared to 2019.”