Male BIPOC students and BIPOC students in high-poverty schools made the lowest percentage of typical learning gains during the pandemic¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2026: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Male BIPOC students made a lower percentage of pre-pandemic gains than female BIPOC students in both subjects, and BIPOC students in high-poverty schools made only 65-81% of historical reading gains versus over 90% for students in low-poverty schools. → Megan Kuhfeld 2021

Evidence¶

Megan Kuhfeld 2021¶

Megan Kuhfeld, Erik Ruzek, Karyn Lewis, Jim Soland, Angela Johnson, Beth Tarasawa, & Lindsay Dworkin. (2021). Understanding the initial educational impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color. NWEA Research Report. https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/understanding-the-initial-educational-impacts-of-covid-19-on-communities-of-color/

q2 · i? · associational · r3

Disaggregation of pandemic learning gains by gender (Figure 4) and school poverty level (Figure 5), where low poverty meant <25% FRPL-eligible and high poverty >75% FRPL-eligible in 2018-19. The report observes "Large differences by school poverty, particularly in reading," with high-poverty-school BIPOC students making only 65-81% of historical reading gains.

"In both subjects, male BIPOC students made a lower percentage of pre-pandemic gains compared with female BIPOC students. Large differences by school poverty, particularly in reading, were also observed. BIPOC students in low poverty schools made over 90% of pre-pandemic reading gains"

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
• 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% — related
• Fall 2021 achievement was lower for all student groups, with disproportionately high impacts for historically marginalized students and students in high-poverty schools — related
• Achievement declines from 2019 to 2022 were larger for students in high-poverty schools than in low-poverty schools in grades 1–2 — 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
• 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 — related
• Sixty percent of the highest-poverty schools also have above-average student growth — reports the opposite
• 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 — a broader claim this one bears on
• The COVID-19 pandemic impacted historically underserved students more severely than their peers — a broader claim this one bears on
• During the first pandemic wave, negative achievement emotions were more frequent than positive ones, moderated by gender and area of study — related