Fall 2021 achievement was lower for all student groups, with disproportionately high impacts for historically marginalized students and students in high-poverty schools¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2026: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Achievement declines affected all student groups but were disproportionately high for historically marginalized students and students in high-poverty schools. → Karyn Lewis 2021

Evidence¶

Karyn Lewis 2021¶

Karyn Lewis, Megan Kuhfeld. (2021). Learning during COVID-19: An update on student achievement and growth at the start of the 2021-22 school year. NWEA Research brief. https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/learning-during-covid-19-an-update-on-student-achievement-and-growth-at-the-start-of-the-2021-22-school-year/

q3 · i? · associational · r2

The brief reports subgroup patterns in fall 2021 MAP Growth achievement: declines were universal across student groups, with "disproportionately high impacts for historically marginalized students and students in high-poverty schools." No subgroup effect sizes are printed in the available text.

"Achievement was lower for all student groups in fall 2021, but with disproportionately high impacts for historically marginalized students and students in high-poverty schools."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Children from low-SES families were more negatively affected by COVID-19 school closures than children from high-SES families — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• American Indian and Alaska Native, Black, and Latinx students and students in high-poverty schools were disproportionately impacted by pandemic-era achievement declines, particularly in elementary grades — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Approximately one in four students who tested the prior year were missing from fall 2020 data, disproportionately Black or Latinx students in higher-poverty schools, so prior estimates likely understated pandemic impacts — related
• BIPOC students' math achievement in fall 2020 dropped substantially relative to pre-pandemic national norms, with the largest declines in grades 4-6 — related
• Male BIPOC students and BIPOC students in high-poverty schools made the lowest percentage of typical learning gains during the pandemic — related
• Evidence of academic rebounding in 2021-22 appeared across all school-poverty levels — related
• Students with disabilities may have experienced disproportionate academic impacts from COVID-19, according to NWEA research — related
• Heavy weighting of achievement data in U.S. school evaluation clouds how much learning is actually occurring, particularly in high-poverty communities — related
• The webinar frames pandemic learning impact as a concern particularly for students of color and students living in poverty — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• A 2021 review series aims to provide a definitive account of the best available evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected America's students academically — a broader claim this one bears on
• The COVID-19 pandemic impacted historically underserved students more severely than their peers — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• Black, AIAN, and Latinx students made 55-68% of typical math gains and 73-86% of typical reading gains during the pandemic, while Asian American students made 88-100% — a narrower finding that bears on this claim