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Reading Rockets
eSchoolNews
3 recommendations from research on COVID learning loss
By Laura Ascione
December 8th, 2020
Initial findings on COVID learning loss indicate unfinished learning in math despite slightly encouraging reading gains
While students have made some learning gains in reading and math since
the beginning of COVID, average math gains were lower on average in
fall 2020 than prior years–meaning more students are falling behind
relative to their prior standing and raising concerns about COVID
learning loss, according to new research from NWEA, a nonprofit
assessment provider.
Average scores for math were between 5 and 10 percentile points lower
for students this year as compared to same-grade students last year.
The research, Learning During COVID-19: Initial Findings on Students’
Reading and Math Achievement and Growth, is a follow-up to NWEA’s April
2020 analysis predicting concerning learning loss as a result of the
pandemic.
This new research analyzed data from more than 4 million U.S. students
in grades 3-8 who took MAP Growth assessments in fall 2020 to determine
how students performed this fall relative to a typical school year. It
also analyzed how much students have grown academically since schools
physically closed in March 2020 and how fall 2020 test scores compared
to the projections made by NWEA in April 2020.
“Preliminary fall data suggests that, on average, students are
faring better than we had feared with continued academic progress in
reading and minor setbacks in math due to COVID-19 related school
disruptions,” said Beth Tarasawa, EVP of Research at NWEA. “While
there’s some good news here, we want to stress that not all students
are represented in the data, especially from our most marginalized
communities. This increases the urgency to better connect to students
and families who may be weathering the COVID storm very differently.”
The pandemic has impacted academic progress particularly hard for
certain demographic groups, and while some differences by racial and
ethnic groups are emerging from this latest data, it is too early to
draw definitive conclusions, partly because student groups especially
vulnerable to the pandemic’s impacts were more likely to be missing
from NWEA’s data.
Short- and long-term impacts of COVID, both academic and non-academic,
remain to be seen and fully understood, but NWEA has worked with
collaborators to develop a research program that informs policies and
practices moving forward.
1. Continue federal and state funding to districts impacted by the
pandemic. The safe return to classrooms and the additional educational
and child welfare interventions needed for recovery all require
additional funds. Federal and state government leaders must continue to
provide funding as the pandemic will have lingering impacts on children
and school systems.
2. Transparency in data reporting to effectively target resources to
those most in need. Educational leaders and states are encouraged to
collect and transparently report data on students’ opportunity to
learn, academic achievement, and social and emotional well-being to
inform understanding of students’ unmet needs.
3. Equitable access to high-quality math teaching and learning. NWEA’s
math expert, Ted Coe, suggests a continued focus on meeting students
where they are in their learning, not where they normally would be. He
encourages educators to focus on packing, rather than unpacking,
standards–that is, figure out how students are thinking about the math
rather than how well they do math procedures. Powerful student thinking
will be much longer-lasting and flexibly adapted even though the
results are less immediate and less evident.
“While our research highlights concerns, especially for math, the
results show signs of optimism that is a reflection of a strong
determination to serve our students,” said Chris Minnich, CEO of NWEA.
“Since schools initially closed in March, we’ve seen educators and
families step up and pull together in new collaborations to meet the
challenge of instruction during COVID. but even through these diligent
efforts, our data shows that school isn’t working for all students, so
we must continue to provide support while also monitoring closely the
multiple indicators that inform how students are weathering this
pandemic.
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