VOA教育报道2024--US Students Slowly Recover from Pandemic Setbacks

It is a usual school day for third graders at Mount Vernon Community School in Alexandria, Virginia. On one side of the classroom, students surround teacher Maria Fletcher and work on making vowel¹ sounds. On the other side, children read together from a book. In another part of the room, students sit at computers and get reading help from online tutors.

Such activities have become normal for the students. Teachers at Mount Vernon and around the country are racing² to get students to learn more, faster. The hope is to get past learning problems that have continued to affect students since schools closed for the COVID-19 pandemic four years ago.

Slow, uneven³ improvement

America's schools have started getting back on track. But improvement has been slow and uneven. Millions of students - often poor or from minority groups- are making up little or no progress.

Nationally, students made up one-third of their pandemic losses in math during the past school year and one-quarter of the losses in reading. Those findings come from the Education Recovery Scorecard. That is an examination of state and national test scores by researchers at Harvard University and Stanford University.

But in nine states, including Virginia, reading scores continued to fall during the 2022-2023 school year. And the $190 billion in federal pandemic relief money for schools runs out later this year.

Thomas Kane is a Harvard economist⁴ who helped create the scorecard. "The recovery is not finished, and it won't be finished without state action," he said. "States need to start planning for what they're going to do when the federal money runs out in September."

Virginia lawmakers approved an extra $418 million last year to quicken the recovery. Officials in the state of Massachusetts set aside $3.2 million to provide math tutoring for fourth and eighth grade students who are behind grade level, along with $8 million for reading help. But among other states with slow progress, few said they were spending more to speed up improvement.

In Virginia, the Alexandria school district received $2.3 million in additional state money to expand tutoring.

Ana Marisela Ventura Moreno said her 9-year-old daughter, Sabrina, greatly benefited from extra reading help last year during second grade. But she is still catching⁵ up, her mother said.

"She needs to get better. She's not at the level she should be," the mother said in Spanish. She noted⁶ the school did not offer the tutoring help this year, but she did not know why.

Alexandria education officials say students scoring below proficient⁷ receive high-intensity tutoring help. They also said they help students with the greatest needs. Among poorer students at Mount Vernon, just 24 percent scored proficient in math. Just 28 percent of them scored proficient in reading. That is far lower than the rates among wealthier students. And the divide is growing wider.

Failing to get students back on track could have serious effects. The researchers at Harvard and Stanford found communities with higher test scores have higher wages and lower rates of arrest and imprisonment⁸. If pandemic learning losses become permanent, it could follow students for life.

Few recovered to pre-pandemic levels

The Education Recovery Scorecard tracks about 30 states. All of the states saw at least some improvement in math from 2022 to 2023. Nine states saw reading scores drop during that time.

Only a few states have recovered to pre-pandemic testing levels.

In Chicago Public Schools, the average reading score went up by the equivalent of 70 percent of a grade level from 2022 to 2023. Math gains increased less, with students still behind almost half a grade level compared with 2019.

Chicago officials say the improvements were made possible because of the nearly $3 billion in federal relief money. With the funds, the district trained hundreds of people in Chicago to work as tutors. Every school building got an interventionist, an educator who centers on helping⁹ struggling students.

The district also used federal money for home visits and expanded arts education.

At Wells Preparatory Elementary on the city's South Side, just 3 percent of students met state reading standards in 2021. Last year, 30 percent met state standards. Federal relief funds permitted the school to hire an interventionist for the first time. Teachers get paid to work on student academic recovery outside working hours.

Vincent Izuegbu is the principal at Wells. He said, "We do not let 10 minutes go by without a teacher giving students the opportunity to engage with the subject.

"That's very, very important in terms of the growth that we've seen," Izuegbu added.

Words in This Story

tutor - n. a teacher who works with one student

on track - v. happening the way that you expect or want things to happen

relief - n. things that are given to help people who are victims of a war, earthquake, flood, etc.

district - n. an area or section of a country, city, or town

benefit - v. to be useful or helpful to

proficient - adj. good at doing something

wage - n. an amount of money that a worker is paid based on the number of hours, days, etc., that are worked

equivalent - n. having the same value, use, meaning, etc.

standard - n. a level of quality, achievement, etc., that is considered acceptable or desirable

opportunity - n. an amount of time or a situation in which something can be done

1 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

2 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

3 uneven   

adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的

参考例句：

• The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
• The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。

4 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

5 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 proficient   

adj.熟练的，精通的；n.能手，专家

参考例句：

• She is proficient at swimming.她精通游泳。
• I think I'm quite proficient in both written and spoken English.我认为我在英语读写方面相当熟练。

8 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。