MAJOR REPORT: Extreme Pandemic Policies Have Set U.S. Students’ Math And Reading Levels Back TWO DECADES -- Sadly, Yet Predictably, 'Black students saw a particularly sharp drop'

     

Math and reading scores plummet on national test, erasing 20 years of progress

Kalyn Belsha | CHALKBEAT

In a grim sign of the pandemic’s impact, math and reading scores for 9-year-olds across the U.S. plummeted between 2020 and 2022.

The declines erase decades of academic progress. In two years, reading scores on a key national test dropped more sharply than they have in over 30 years, and math scores fell for the first time since the test began in the early 1970s.

It's 'Alarming': Children Are Severely Behind in Reading

    

Dana Goldstein | THE NEW YORK TIMES

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — The kindergarten crisis of last year, when millions of 5-year-olds spent months outside of classrooms, has become this year’s reading emergency.

As the pandemic enters its third year, a cluster of new studies now show that about one-third of children in the youngest grades are missing reading bench marks, up significantly from before the pandemic.