Thu Jul 13, 2023 – 5:40 pm EDT
(LifeSiteNews) — The harm of COVID-19 school closings to children’s education has persisted well into 2023 and may even be backsliding, according to a study published this month by educational research institution NWEA and the Center for School & Student Progress (CSSP).
The study reviewed the MAP Growth reading and math assessment scores of approximately 6.7 million grade 3-8 students from 20,000 U.S. public schools, and compared the results from before the 2020 COVID outbreak to the results of the 2022-2023 school year.
“Overall, achievement gains in 2022–23 lagged prepandemic trends in all but the youngest cohort of students, falling short of prepandemic averages by 1–19% in reading and by 6–15% in math,” the study found. “This trend is worse than what was observed in 2021–22 where, in general, achievement gains were consistent with or even surpassed prepandemic trends. The most notable departure from prepandemic trends is evident in the upper grades in reading. Reading gains for these grades were also furthest below average in 2021–22.”
“[W]e interpret these small increases in the achievement gaps between fall 2022 and spring 2023 as indicating that progress toward recovery generally
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