High school course grades improved in spring 2020 and remained higher than pre-pandemic levels through spring 2021, with a slight rise in Fs¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2022 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2027: baselines and conditions change
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? The proportion of high school grades that were As rose from 33 percent pre-pandemic to 43 percent in spring 2020 and 41 percent in spring 2021, while Fs rose from 6 to 8 percent in spring 2021. → Gwynne 2022
Evidence¶
Gwynne 2022¶
Gwynne, J.A., Allensworth, E.M., & Liang, Y. (2022). Student engagement in learning during COVID-19: Students' course grades in Chicago Public Schools. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. https://www.cps.edu/about/departments/office-of-equity/
q2 · i? · associational · r2
Descriptive analysis of high school fourth-quarter grades in district-run and Options CPS schools across pre-pandemic and pandemic terms. The report finds As "much higher than in pre-pandemic years (33 percent)" and a rise in Fs from 6 to 8 percent, with the F increase appearing only in the spring term.
"In spring 2021, 41 percent of high school grades recorded as As in spring 2021, which was much higher than in pre-pandemic years (33 percent) and similar to spring 2020 (43 percent). But there was also a slight rise in the percentage of grades that were Fs, relative to pre-pandemic years, from 6 to 8 percent of grades being Fs."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Course grades of students in grades 4-8 declined during remote and hybrid learning relative to pre-pandemic years — related
- Remote learning exacerbated pre-pandemic disparities in no-credit grades for low-income students and students of color in grades 4-8, but within-school differences were small — related
- Post-pandemic course grades rose while test scores and attendance fell, raising questions about what grades signal — a broader claim this one bears on
- Students in grades 4-8 were much more likely to receive no-credit grades during remote learning, with 41 percent receiving at least one Incomplete in spring 2020 — related
- On-track improvements were accompanied by across-the-board grade gains, not grade inflation from turning Fs into Ds — related
- Attendance and online platform participation remained predictive of students' course grades during remote learning, with relationships as large or larger than pre-pandemic — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
cps-high-school-grades-improved-remote-learning |
title |
High school course grades improved in spring 2020 and remained higher than pre-pandemic levels through spring 2021, with a slight rise in Fs |
description |
High school course grades improved in spring 2020 and remained higher than pre-pandemic levels through spring 2021, with a slight rise in Fs |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2022 |
recheck_by |
2027 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-08 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — gwynne-2022 |
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