In almost all grades, most students made some learning gains in both reading and math since the COVID-19 pandemic started¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr2·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¶
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.
q3 i? Despite pandemic disruptions, in almost all grades most students in grades 3-8 made some learning gains in both reading and math between the pandemic's start and fall 2020. → 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
Descriptive finding from the fall 2020 MAP Growth analysis of nearly 4.4 million students in grades 3-8: "most students made some learning gains in both reading and math" since the pandemic started, though gains lagged typical-year patterns in math.
"The results show in almost all grades, most students made some learning gains in both reading and math since the COVID-19 pandemic started."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Students showed lower math growth in fall 2020 across grades 3-8 relative to peers in the previous, more typical year — related
- On average, students across most grades made reading and math gains during the 2020-21 pandemic-affected school year — related
- 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
- The average student demonstrated positive math and reading gains during the 2020-2021 school year — 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
- Post-COVID school recovery varies across schools in both the size of initial achievement declines and the size of subsequent gains — related
- Projected fall 2020 reading gains for returning students are approximately 63 to 68% of a typical school year's learning gains — related
- The report examines how school shutdowns impacted student achievement at the start of the 2020-21 school year — related
- COVID-19 closures left schools and districts serving 55.1 million students in an unprecedented time — related
- Projected fall 2020 mathematics gains for returning students are approximately 37 to 50% of a typical school year's learning gains — related
- Covid-19 school closures depressed student achievement on average by about 0.19 standard deviations — related
- Effect sizes for within-grade reading and math growth declined as students progressed from Grade 1 to Grade 5 — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
most-students-still-made-gains-reading-math-covid |
title |
In almost all grades, most students made some learning gains in both reading and math since the COVID-19 pandemic started |
description |
In almost all grades, most students made some learning gains in both reading and math since the COVID-19 pandemic started |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2020 |
recheck_by |
2025 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-08 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — megan-kuhfeld-2020 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.