Analyzing Pandemic Impact on Education Outcomes

First thank you to EZ Street for providing a platform to discuss this important topic. Schools across the nation are continuing to grapple with the long term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably an estimated two years of learning loss that disrupted academic progress, social development, and foundational skill acquisition. Prolonged school closures, inconsistent access to technology, uneven instructional quality, and heightened trauma and stress collectively undermined student outcomes, particularly in literacy, numeracy, and executive functioning. These challenges did not dissipate with the return to in-person learning. Instead, they compounded existing inequities and placed sustained pressure on educators to simultaneously remediate unfinished learning while advancing grade-level content. For many students, gaps in foundational skills have created barriers to comprehension, confidence, and engagement, which in turn affect attendance, behavior, and long-term academic trajectories. Rebounding from this learning loss requires a deliberate, multi-year recovery strategy that is both academically rigorous and developmentally responsive. Schools must move beyond short-term interventions and adopt systemic approaches that prioritize core instruction, leverage data, and engage families as true partners in learning. Recovery is not solely an instructional challenge but a community responsibility that calls for alignment among schools, parents, educators, and support systems. By centering evidence-based practices, investing in capacity building, and fostering a culture of shared accountability, schools can accelerate learning, rebuild student confidence, and position learners for sustained success in a post-pandemic educational landscape. Five Priority Solutions for Learning Recovery 1. Intensified Focus on Core Content Instruction 2. Parents as Lifelong Learners and Learning Partners 3. Targeted, Data-Driven Interventions 4. Expanded Learning Time and Enrichment 5. Whole-Child and Educator Support Systems Addressing learning loss also requires attention to social-emotional learning, mental health, and educator capacity. Investments in counseling, trauma-informed practices, and sustained professional development help stabilize learning environments and enable educators to deliver high-impact instruction consistently.

Last time I wrote about results, it was to celebrate the progress of NYC Reads. This time, NAEP results are sounding the alarm: national trends show concerning declines. But as Dan Heath reminds us, there’s power in looking for the bright spots. And a few districts are bucking the trend, showing what’s possible. The big question: What are they doing differently, and how can we replicate those lessons across the country? Because if some students are succeeding, all students can. What This Administration of NAEP Revealed: 1️⃣Across the board, scores were record lows. 2️⃣Few seniors displayed strong skills. Only 22% of seniors scored Proficient in math and 35% in reading; 45% were Below Basic in math and 32% Below Basic in reading. 3️⃣No post-pandemic recovery. Five years after the pandemic, this lack of recovery is a sobering reality check. Potential Drivers of the Outcomes: 1️⃣ Chronic absenteeism is eroding learning. In 2024, nearly one in three 12th graders reported missing three or more days of school in the prior month, up from one in four in 2019. Younger grades show similar trends, meaning millions of students are losing out on learning time. 2️⃣ Recovery has been fragmented and short-lived. Academic outcomes were slipping before COVID, and the pandemic accelerated the decline. Yet recovery efforts have been piecemeal, short-term, underfunded, and uncoordinated. 3️⃣Too few students receive consistent, high-quality instruction. Even when students are in school, many are not exposed to grade-level work or effective teaching. 4️⃣Accountability has weakened just as urgency is needed. Since ESSA, momentum for clear, data-driven accountability has stalled. Bright Spots: 1️⃣ Richmond, VA: Richmond Public Schools has seen notable recovery in reading. In the 2023–24 school year, 50% of RPS students were proficient in reading, up from about 47% two years prior. Reading proficiency for economically disadvantaged students jumped from the mid-30s (percent proficient) in 2021–22 to the mid-40s by 2023–24 – roughly a 10 percentage point gain over two years. 2️⃣Mississippi: Sustained gains in reading and math over the past decade. 2024 results showed Mississippi achieving its highest-ever NAEP proficiency rates, improving across all four main NAEP tests (4th & 8th grade reading and math). 3️⃣Louisiana: Major improvement in 4th-grade reading (above pre-pandemic level). Louisiana was the only state in 2024 to statistically surpass its 2019 fourth-grade reading score. 4️⃣Tennessee: Tennessee’s 2024 NAEP results showed gains in 4th and 8th grade, in both ELA and math, propelling the state’s national rankings upward by 10 or more spots in each category. What’s Working? 1️⃣ Guarantee coherent, evidence-based instruction 2️⃣ Invest in targeted, high-dosage interventions 3️⃣ Build systemwide coherence 4️⃣ Double down on accountability and leadership 5️⃣ Engage families and communities

COVID-19 induced school closures did not result in learning losses everywhere! My new paper with Syedah Aroob Iqbal shows one country where pandemic school closures did not harm student learning. Despite widespread school disruptions in Uzbekistan, grade-5 math scores actually IMPROVED by 0.29 standard deviations during the pandemic period. Even more striking: students tested in 2019 and retested in 2021 showed remarkable gains of 0.72 standard deviations over those 2 years. This suggests that learning continuity was maintained despite COVID-induced disruptions to traditional schooling. Uzbekistan's experience demonstrates that effective responses – perhaps national TV broadcasts of daily lessons by best teachers in the country – can actually support continued academic progress during crisis periods. The findings raise important questions about what policies and practices enabled this success, and how other education systems might learn from Uzbekistan's approach to maintaining learning continuity during unprecedented disruptions. https://shorturl.at/Fxl2c It was with some trepidation that I looked towards distance education done right to alleviate the situation. I am glad I was proven right, but of course, this is all due to the students, families, teachers, administrators, and Ministry of Education of Uzbekistan. (Me on Uzbek TV in 2020 https://lnkd.in/eJQfa3E4. [For background, my blog with Nodira Meliboeva and Janssen Teixeira in 2020 on what Uzbekistan did: https://lnkd.in/eJDy3d7Y.

Despite high enrollment numbers, many states in India are silently battling a learning crisis. In Rajasthan, nearly 88% of Grade 5 students once struggled with basic division. Post-pandemic, foundational literacy and numeracy levels dropped sharply, with many children falling two grade levels behind. The real issue wasn’t access. It was foundational learning. And this is where AI helped the Rajasthan government tackle the challenge. Rajasthan implemented one of the largest AI deployments in its public education system, supported by Boston Consulting Group in collaboration with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India. They developed an app called Shikshak App that significantly improved the efficiency and proficiency of teachers. The app does the following: ➜ Teaching was broken into manageable micro-steps. ➜ Short instructional videos guided competency-based delivery. ➜ Assessments were digitized within seconds. ➜ Real-time student data generated personalized teaching recommendations. This AI-powered app empowered teachers in such a way that fewer teachers were able to effectively teach larger groups, without compromising quality. In regions where teacher shortages are acute and classrooms are crowded, this model becomes far more effective. The impact of this initiative has been extraordinary: ✔ 400,000 students moved out of learning poverty. ✔ 18% reduction in students lagging two or more grade levels. ✔ Assessment time reduced from 5–6 minutes to just 30–40 seconds per child. ✔ Real-time classroom data enabled faster, targeted interventions. AI has huge potential to transform every industry, including education, and create meaningful impact. When implemented thoughtfully, especially at the grassroots level, it can bridge gaps in teacher availability, standardize foundational learning, and elevate learning outcomes across socioeconomic backgrounds. If more states adopt such models for rural and regional ecosystems, we can move from high enrollment to high learning outcomes. And that is the real transformation India needs. How are you leveraging AI to improve learning outcomes in your institutions? - Charu Jain #AIinEducation #EducationReform #EdTech #LearningOutcomes #IndiaEducation #PublicPolicy #FutureOfEducation

Can I just say something... I do not accept the premise that these results are shocking. Sobering. Yes. Shocking. Hardly. If you have been in classrooms, listened to educators, or watched K-12 students struggle in schools that refuse to adapt to them, None of this is shocking. We have spent the past few years treating "learning loss" as a temporary setback, believing that with enough tutoring, summer school, AI Chatbots, and remediation, students would simply "catch up" and "bounce back." But bounce back to what? I want to be clear that the mechanics of teaching are not broken. But the conditions of learning have changed—and we, as a nation, have failed to adapt to them. There are three hard truths that this data continues to reinforce for me. 1. Our students still sit in classrooms that are not built for them. And yet, their experiences, their challenges, their needs—everything has shifted even further. But instead of reimagining how we support them, we still cling to outdated structures that no longer fit this moment. 2. Teachers are doing their part. But we’ve handed them an impossible task—juggling outdated practices, ever-growing expectations, and in many communities, diminishing support due to the funding cliff—all while trying to meet the increasingly complex needs of students. 3. We keep layering interventions on top of a fractured foundation. NAEP scores don’t reflect a pandemic problem. These declines started before 2020. They reflect a long-standing failure to create a system that actually meets the needs of the students we claim to serve. A wise friend once told me, "Stop rearranging the furniture in a house with a cracked foundation." We continue tweaking policies, adjusting standards, and layering new programs onto a system that, in many cases, was never structurally sound to begin with. But real change demands more than adjustments—it requires thoughtful, systemic improvements that honor what works while addressing what no longer serves our students. There are states and districts daring to disrupt the status quo and do things differently. States like Louisiana and districts like Houston ISD are proving that bold, systemic shifts can drive meaningful change—they are blueprints we can all learn from. We have some of the most brilliant minds in the world working to solve some of our country’s most pressing challenges—climate change, healthcare, AI, the economy. At what point will we realize that education is one of them? That the future we are trying to build depends on what we choose to do for students right now? The educators doing this work every day deserve more than another set of dire headlines. They deserve more than to have their profession politicized. They deserve clear-eyed leadership, bold decisions, and a system designed for today’s realities. #Education #NAEP #Leadership https://lnkd.in/gYrunt9X

Why Did COVID-19 Have a Disproportionate Impact on Girls' Education? Many studies have highlighted the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on girls mainly affecting mental health. Now, the 2022 PISA results corroborates the concerning trend of COVID's impact on girls' education when compared to boys. Between 2018 and 2022, there was an average decline in PISA scores across the three core subjects: math, reading, and science. Specifically, math scores dropped by a record 15 points, reading scores decreased by 10 points, while science scores decreased 2 points. This decline in academic performance can be attributed to the global pandemic and its widespread disruptions to education systems. However, what makes these findings even more alarming is the disproportionate effect on girls when compared to boys. Traditionally, boys tend to score higher in math, while girls outperform boys in reading. Despite these existing gender differences, the gender gap in education, which measures the difference between boys' and girls' scores, widened during this period. In the field of math, the gender gap increased by an average of 2.5 points across all countries that participated in the PISA exams in both 2018 and 2022. Within the OECD countries, this gap widened by a more significant 4 points. Similarly, in reading, the gender gap expanded by approximately 4 points on average across all participating countries, and 5.5 within the OECD countries. COVID could have had a higher impact on girls than on boys given the propensity in some societies to have gendered roles in household chores increasing the workload on girls vs boys during lockdown. Access to digital technologies could be lower for girls in some societies. During lockdown there could have been increased gender violence and safety concerns for girls as well as psychological stress making it harder to learn. The loss of school-based support systems could also have increased the burden on girls when compared to boys.  The increased disparity in educational achievements of girls after the pandemic diminishes education’s role in creating a level playing field across gender. Therefore, we need to underscore the urgent need for comprehensive measures to improve girls' education. It's vital to recognize that the pandemic has magnified pre-existing disparities and inequalities, and addressing these issues is crucial for ensuring that all students, regardless of their gender, have equal access to quality education and support for their well-being. This requires a concerted effort from educators, policymakers, and society at large to bridge the gender gap and provide equitable opportunities for all students to thrive academically and mentally in a post-pandemic world.

Important research from Susan Bryne and colleagues at The RCSI Department of Paediatrics about the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns. What have the effects been on the development of young children in Ireland, now aged 24 months? Parents reported on the development of their children (n=312) using measures including the Ages and Stages Developmental Questionnaire (ASQ24). Outcomes were compared to a baseline group of pre-pandemic children (n=605). The results are mostly positive - '24-month-old pandemic-born infants had largely similar developmental and behavioural scores compared with their prepandemic counterparts' But there are 2 important things to note about communication. The data suggest that children's communication is still adversely affected by lockdowns. 'Twice as many children in the pandemic cohort fell below the cut-off for communication-related developmental referral compared with BASELINE' It is also important to note that parental concern about the development their 24-month-olds does not correlate with the scores. '13.5% (40/305) of parents from the CORAL cohort expressed developmental concerns, mostly related to language (31/305)' 'However, most of these children did not fall below the developmental assessment referral cut-off (2 SD) for the communication domain' So, most children where parents had worries were scored to be developing well with their communication. Of course, parents may have other valid concerns - the scores aren't everything. On the other hand 'Sixty-eight children from the CORAL cohort had at least one ASQ score under the 2 SD cut-off (in any domain), of whom 20 families had expressed developmental concerns.' The researchers conclude: 'This finding supports the role of universal national developmental screening instead of only carrying out assessments on children where there are parental concerns.' https://lnkd.in/e925Wxp2

As we have seen these last few weeks, the latest NAEP scores confirm what many of us feared. Many students are still struggling to recover from pandemic-related learning loss: 
 📊 24% of 4th graders and 39% of 8th graders fall below basic math levels 📊 Reading scores dropped 5 points since 2019 📊 Achievement gaps are widening, particularly affecting our most vulnerable students It’s time for a bold approach, which means integrating youth development into academic recovery. Out-of-school programs and community partnerships provide the additional support students need beyond traditional classrooms. 4-H research shows students who participate in structured youth development programs see improvements in both academic performance and engagement. Our Beyond Ready youth development approach is more crucial than ever. When we focus on academic, social, and emotional growth, we create learners who can overcome any challenge. 4-H's network of Cooperative Extension leaders is making an impact through the reach of land grant universities in every county in the country. This reach is a powerful example of the scalability of the 4-H model.

📊 Is India’s education system turning a corner? ✨ The ASER Centre Report 2024 reveals a story of progress and promise. It’s a journey of collective effort, and here's what inspires me from the rural education landscape: 🚀 Crucial Early Start & Right-age entry into schooling: : It's exciting to see preschool enrollment soaring, with over 77% (68% in 2018) of 3-year-olds and 83% (76% in 2018) of 4-year-olds now engaged in early education. There's a conscious shift towards age-appropriate learning, with only 16.7% of children under 6 in Std I. This is a powerful move towards a more structured educational journey. 📈 High enrollment: Enrollment rates are high for the 6-14 age group, hovering around 98%. That's a testament to the work being done to ensure that children are in school. However, enrollment is just one part of the story. 📚 Renewed Focus on Learning: Learning outcomes are where the real narrative lies. After a dip during the pandemic, there’s a significant recovery in basic reading and arithmetic levels. In fact, "Nationally, basic reading levels for Std III children enrolled in government schools are the highest that they have been since the inception of the ASER survey". That’s huge! 💫 What’s more, the report reveals that “Learning gains higher for children enrolled in government schools as compared to private schools". This challenges many inherent assumptions. The data reveals that in 2024, 44.8% of children in Std V in government schools could read a Std II level text, up from 38.5% in 2022. These figures are a powerful reminder that the efforts to improve foundational literacy and numeracy are indeed working. 📱 Digital inclusion: The digital world is opening up with nearly 90% of adolescents (14-16) having access to smartphones. And the fact that 75% can confidently use them for basic digital tasks is a leap towards a digitally empowered future. However, only 31.4% of those who can use a smartphone own their own phone, and a significant gender gap exists. These findings prompt me to think about the digital divide and how it affects learning. 🌈 The ASER 2024 data shows an upward trend, a "recovery" in learning after a drop during the COVID period. These findings are not just data points, but stories of real children and real schools. They underscore that investing in education is investing in our future. The ASER Report is a wonderful example of Evidence to Action. And there are miles to go, before we sleep! A huge gratitude to the ASER, Pratham Education Foundation and 25000 volunteers who worked tirelessly behind the scene to bring this report to us. What do these findings make you think about? What Works Hub for Global Education British Council Alison Barrett MBE Rachel Hinton Rukmini Banerji Shweta Bhutada Ruchi Anand Banishwar Singh Akanksha Bisht Maria Brindlmayer Gauri Puranik Michael Houlgate Noam Angrist Postcards