Study: Students Returning to Levels Before the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Study: Students Returning to Levels Before the COVID-19 Pandemic

New research shows American students made academic progress this past school year compared to a year earlier.

During the 2020 to 2021 school year, COVID-19 restrictions¹ were still in effect in many places in the United States.

Student gains in reading and math were larger than the previous school year and similar to student development before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research comes from NWEA, or the Northwest Evaluation² Association, a nonprofit educational research group that issues standardized³ tests.

The NWEA said the gains were observed across income levels. The progress partly made up for lost learning and lack of teaching that resulted from the pandemic, researchers found. However, students in poor schools fell further behind. It is likely they will need more time than higher-income students to make a full recovery.

The study suggested that a full academic recovery will likely continue longer than federal COVID-19 aid money remains⁴ available. If recovery happens at the same speed it did in the 2021 to 2022 school year, a full recovery would go beyond the 2024 limit for schools to spend their federal aid, the study said.

The test results are a sign of hope for academic recovery from COVID-19. But continued effort and spending on education remains very important. It could be difficult to see continued improvements with such a long recovery, said Karyn Lewis. She is the director of the Center for School and Student Progress at NWEA. She helped write the study.

The study used data from more than 8 million students. The students had taken the MAP Growth test in reading and math during the three school years of COVID-19 restrictions. Their results were then compared with data from three years before the pandemic.

Lewis said in a statement that the improvements "are especially heartening during another challenging school year of more variants⁶, staff shortages," and other problems.

For the average elementary school student, researchers predicted that it would take three years to return to pre-pandemic performance levels. For older students, recovery could take much longer. The amount of time could be different depending on the grade level and social details of students. But researchers found most students will need more than the two years where increased federal aid money is available.

Lewis told the publication Education Week: "Once the federal recovery funds are gone [in 2024], I'm seeing just continuing gaps widening..."

She said differences, or gaps, would be especially large for what she called "historically marginalized student groups" who struggled during the pandemic.

Lindsay Dworkin is the vice⁷ president of policy and communications at NWEA. She said the most successful way to improve student success was increased instructional time. That included more class time, more one-on-one instruction, or high-quality summer classes. But those measures can be costly⁸ and complex. School systems may be unwilling⁹ to spend the money on them when aid money must be used very soon.

"The funding expires in such a short amount of time that districts are really struggling with, ‘What can I do that will be big and impactful and I only need to do for two years?'" Dworkin told The Associated Press. "I think if they knew that there would be more federal money coming and that it would be sustained, that would make all the difference..."

The NWEA studied national data for its report. But Dworkin said understanding each local school system was necessary to understanding how to best support schoolchildren. In addition to differences across student groups, districts that share similar qualities, like race and poverty levels, still showed large differences in student results.

"If you are a district leader, there's just no national story that is going to tell you enough about your district context, without the hard work of digging into the data and understanding what it says," Dworkin said.

Words in This Story

academic — adj. relating to schools and education

standardized test –n. a test given equally to all students aimed at measuring their learning

gap –n. a difference between people or groups

heartening — adj. to cause someone to feel better

challenging –adj. difficult

variant⁵ — n. a version of something that is a little different from similar versions

marginalized –adj. kept in a powerless or unimportant position within a society or group

expire — v. to end, to no longer be in effect

sustain –v. to provide what is needed for something to continue

context –n.

1 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

2 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

3 standardized   

adj.标准化的

参考例句：

• We use standardized tests to measure scholastic achievement. 我们用标准化考试来衡量学生的学业成绩。
• The parts of an automobile are standardized. 汽车零件是标准化了的。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 variant   

adj.不同的，变异的；n.变体，异体

参考例句：

• We give professional suggestions according to variant tanning stages for each customer.我们针对每位顾客不同的日晒阶段，提供强度适合的晒黑建议。
• In a variant of this approach,the tests are data- driven.这个方法的一个变种，是数据驱动的测试。

6 variants   

n.变体( variant的名词复数 )；变种；变型；（词等的）变体

参考例句：

• Those variants will be preserved in the'struggle for existence". 这些变异将在“生存竞争”中被保留下来。 来自辞典例句
• Like organisms, viruses have variants, generally called strains. 与其他生物一样，病毒也有变种，一般称之为株系。 来自辞典例句

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

9 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。