New research on national test scores suggests that students’ learning greatly

slowed down last year because of the pandemic. Minority and poorer students
suffered the most.

Research published last week by the Center for Reinventing Public Education,
or CRPE, argues there is major evidence that student progress in math and
reading slowed by several months. The paper collected information from 12
different reports on student test scores during the pandemic. The CRPE study
says that the average student is behind academically compared to students from
previous years. The study points to school closures and remote learning as the
main reasons behind the decline.

Robin Lake is one of the authors of the study. She wrote in a tweet last week
that a large number of American students “have learned very little
in core subjects this year, failed classes at high rates, and been absent or
missing from their schools.” There is “little doubt that, on average, more in-
person instruction produced more learning,” she wrote.

Another study, released last month by the education research group NWEA,
looked at end-of-year success relative to a normal school year. Looking at
national test scores, NWEA found that students made progress in math and
reading in the 2020-2021 school year, but that progress was much slower than
in past years. Students especially struggled in math. NWEA found that students
finished the 2020-2021 school year 8 to 12 percentile points lower than students
in past years.

The findings come as the delta variant of the coronavirus threatens school
reopening plans. Educators and experts agree that in-person schooling should
be a top concern. But more children, who are not able to get vaccinated, are
getting sick with the highly contagious, and more dangerous, form of the
virus. One-third of school districts in the country are not requiring masks this
school year and another third have not made any decision on masks, says the
publication Education Week.

Miguel Cardona is the head of the U.S. Department of Education. Speaking to

reporters last week, he said he was worried about “adult actions getting in the
way of schools safely reopening. Let our educators educate. Let our school
leaders lead…Let's not go back to the school system of March 2020.”
Exactly who was learning in-person at the beginning of 2021 varied greatly
based on race. Federal data found that in January, 27 percent of white fourth
graders were learning online. But 58 percent of Black students and 56 percent
of Hispanic students were taking online classes.

That difference in in-person learning may have added to the widening of the
achievement gap between mostly white and higher-income students, and
mostly minority and lower-income students during the last school year.

“In math, students in majority Black schools ended the year with six months of
unfinished learning, students in low-income schools with seven,” said a study of
student test scores by McKinsey released in July.

NWEA’s research also showed that low-income and minority schools suffered
the biggest drops in reading and math test scores. The pandemic
“exacerbated pre-existing inequities in educational opportunities and
outcomes,” the study said.

“Many of the students who were lower already showed the biggest drops,” said
Megan Kuhfeld in an interview with Education Week. Kuhfeld is one of the
authors of the NWEA study. “That’s very alarming to me.”

Education experts argue that more assistance is needed for low-income schools
that were hurting long before the pandemic.

President Joe Biden’s administration had proposed a $100 billion increase to

improve school facilities as a part of his infrastructure plan. Little funding for
schools, however, remains in the $1 trillion bipartisan bill currently being
debated in the U.S. Senate.

The CRPE study argues that the recent research shows the impact of the
pandemic is short-term and that student learning can be improved upon. But
Lake said a return to what was normal for many low-income schools may not
be enough to prevent long-term declines in learning.

“The answer to the question, “How much will they suffer long term?” depends
on adult action,” Lake said in a tweet. “What we do from here matters.”

I’m Dan Novak.