Students showed lower math growth in fall 2020 across grades 3-8 relative to peers in the previous, more typical year¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2020 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2025: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Math growth since schools physically closed in March 2020 was lower across grades 3 to 8 relative to peers in the previous, more typical year, resulting in more students falling behind relative to their prior standing. → Megan Kuhfeld 2020

Evidence¶

Megan Kuhfeld 2020¶

Megan Kuhfeld, Beth Tarasawa, Angela Johnson, Erik Ruzek, Karyn Lewis. (2020). Learning during COVID-19: Initial findings on students' reading and math achievement and growth. NWEA Research brief. https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/learning-during-covid-19-initial-findings-on-students-reading-and-math-achievement-and-growth/

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Growth analysis of fall 2020 MAP Growth data from nearly 4.4 million students in grades 3-8, benchmarked against the prior typical year. The brief reports "lower growth in math across grades 3 to 8" and more students falling behind relative to prior standing; no effect size is printed.

"students showed lower growth in math across grades 3 to 8 relative to peers in the previous, more typical year, resulting in more students falling behind relative to their prior standing"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• In almost all grades, most students made some learning gains in both reading and math since the COVID-19 pandemic started — related
• Fall 2020 math achievement was 5 to 10 percentile points lower than pre-COVID-19 performance by same-grade students — 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
• Projected fall 2020 mathematics gains for returning students are approximately 37 to 50% of a typical school year's learning gains — related
• The visualizations address how students performed in fall 2020 compared to a typical school year — related
• The visualizations address how student growth changed since school buildings closed in March 2020 — a broader claim this one bears on
• The 2020 COVID-19 school closures caused a decrease in Flemish grade 6 school-average mathematics scores of roughly 0.19 standard deviations relative to previous cohorts — related
• Math growth in 2020-2021 was more variable than in prior years, with much of the gains among initially high-performing students — related
• Students in grades 3-8 made reading and math gains in 2020-21 but ended the year with lower achievement than in a typical year, with larger declines in math than in reading — related
• Covid-19 school closures depressed student achievement on average by about 0.19 standard deviations — related