A recent study among researchers from Harvard and Stanford universities finds the COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on public school education: the average U.S. student in grades 3–8 lost the equivalent of a half-year of learning in math and a quarter of a year in reading.
“The pandemic was like a band of tornadoes that swept across the country,” said Thomas Kane, the faculty director at Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research. “Some communities were left relatively untouched, while neighboring schools were devastated.”
The findings are in the school’s Education Recovery Scorecard, which also includes a map of the hardest hit school districts. Kane said the report will help local leaders “see the magnitude of the damage and guide local recovery efforts.”
Other findings include 6% of students were in districts that lost more than a year of learning in math, while 3% were in districts in which math achievement actually rose.