Pandemic achievement gaps in math and reading continued to narrow from spring 2021 through fall 2022¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr?·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 distance between students' math and reading achievement relative to pre-pandemic levels continued to narrow from spring 2021, when pandemic-induced gaps were widest. → Karyn Lewis 2022
Evidence¶
Karyn Lewis 2022¶
Karyn Lewis, Megan Kuhfeld. (2022). Progress towards pandemic recovery: Continued signs of rebounding achievement at the start of the 2022-23 school year. NWEA Research brief. https://www.nwea.org/research-publications/
q2 · i? · associational · r?
Analysis of MAP Growth reading and mathematics assessment data from 7 million students in grades 3-8 in 25,000 schools between 2020-21 and fall 2022 shows that "the distance between students’ math and reading achievement relative to pre-pandemic levels continued to narrow" since spring 2021. No effect size is printed in the available text.
"the distance between students’ math and reading achievement relative to pre-pandemic levels continued to narrow from spring 2021 when pandemic-induced achievement gaps were at their widest"
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Student achievement remained below typical-year levels in fall 2022, with full recovery projected several years away — related
- Middle school achievement declines in spring 2022 appear to be mostly unchanged from earlier pandemic levels — related
- Pennsylvania 2022 proficiency rates remained below pre-pandemic levels despite evidence that student learning had begun to recover — related
- End-of-2021-22 student achievement remained lower than a typical year, with larger declines in math (5 to 10 percentile points) than reading (2 to 4 percentile points) — related
- By spring 2022, Pennsylvania grades 5–8 English language arts proficiency had regained 6 points of a 10-point pandemic-era drop relative to rates predicted for 2021 — related
- By spring 2022, Pennsylvania grades 5–8 math proficiency had regained nearly 5 points of a 13-point drop relative to rates predicted for 2021 — related
- Pandemic-period gains from fall 2019 to fall 2021 fell short of pre-pandemic growth norms — related
- Reading and math achievement gains in 2021-22 paralleled pre-pandemic trends in many grades, with stronger rebounding in math and among younger students — related
- Progress toward pandemic academic recovery stalled in the 2022-23 school year despite continued learning — related
- Significant achievement gaps between COVID-year students and pre-pandemic peers persisted at the end of 2022-23 — reports the opposite
- Academic rebounding in reading and math was uneven across school years and summers, especially in reading — related
- Current third-graders showed the largest reading achievement gap and the least rebounding — related
- The 2021-22 study investigated whether achievement gains across the 2021-22 school year compared to pre-pandemic trends and whether there were initial signs of rebounding or recovery. — related
- Statewide assessment participation was uneven after pandemic pauses, ranging from 97% to 30% in 2021 with five states below 90% in 2022 — related
- Evidence of academic rebounding in 2021-22 appeared across all school-poverty levels — related
- NWEA analysis of 2,000 US school districts examined whether persistently high absenteeism was associated with slower math and reading recovery — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
pandemic-achievement-gaps-narrowed-spring-2021-fall-2022 |
title |
Pandemic achievement gaps in math and reading continued to narrow from spring 2021 through fall 2022 |
description |
Pandemic achievement gaps in math and reading continued to narrow from spring 2021 through fall 2022 |
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 — karyn-lewis-2022 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.