Pandemic Learning Loss and COVID-19: Education Impacts

Updated July 8, 2024 | Posted June 10, 2024
By the Annie E. Casey Foundation
Two white dads site on either side of their daughter. A book open and pencils in hand, they help her study at their home.

The fail­ure of the Unit­ed States to pre­pare our kids to learn is set­ting up mil­lions of young peo­ple to strug­gle through adult­hood. If lead­ers don’t make sure stu­dents learn what they missed out on dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, the neg­a­tive impact of COVID-19 on edu­ca­tion could cost our chil­dren hun­dreds of bil­lions of dol­lars in future earn­ings and the U.S. econ­o­my tril­lions in lost activ­i­ty. The 2024 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, released today by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, uses 50-state data to call atten­tion to the fac­tors that cause these chal­lenges, from pover­ty to phys­i­cal and men­tal health, trau­ma and others.

Down­load the 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book

In its 35th year of pub­li­ca­tion, the KIDS COUNT® Data Book focus­es on stu­dents’ lack of basic read­ing and math skills, a prob­lem decades in the mak­ing but brought to light by the focus on learn­ing loss dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. Unprece­dent­ed drops in learn­ing from 2019 to 2022 amount­ed to decades of lost progress. Chron­ic absence has soared, with chil­dren liv­ing in pover­ty espe­cial­ly unable to resume their school day rou­tines on a reg­u­lar basis.

How Covid-19 Affect­ed Education

The Covid-19 pan­dem­ic has had a wide-rang­ing and long-last­ing impact on edu­ca­tion in the Unit­ed States. Not only are stu­dents still con­tend­ing with years of learn­ing loss, but they also must rebound from the dis­rup­tion to their social and emo­tion­al development. 

  • Remote learn­ing: The sud­den shift to remote learn­ing plat­forms decreased instruc­tion­al time and hin­dered stu­dent learn­ing. Many stu­dents strug­gled to stay focused in class, and they were less like­ly to seek help when needed. 
  • Dig­i­tal Divide: Dis­par­i­ties in inter­net access exac­er­bat­ed exist­ing edu­ca­tion­al inequities for Black and Brown com­mu­ni­ties. As a result, chil­dren spent less time learn­ing, and were more like­ly to drop out of school altogether.
  • Men­tal Health: Many stu­dents expe­ri­enced sig­nif­i­cant men­tal health strug­gles after the shift to remote learn­ing. Stu­dents were increas­ing­ly iso­lat­ed, spend­ing more time on devices and get­ting very lit­tle phys­i­cal activ­i­ty — all of which con­tributed to increased stress, anx­i­ety and depression. 
  • Cur­ricu­lum Adjust­ments: Teach­ers were required to redesign les­son plans and find inno­v­a­tive ways to keep stu­dents engaged. In many cas­es, teach­ers were forced to elim­i­nate sec­tions of their cur­ricu­lum due to their lim­it­ed instruc­tion­al time.
  • Extracur­ric­u­lar Activ­i­ties: While class­room learn­ing shift­ed to a remote mod­el dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties were typ­i­cal­ly sus­pend­ed alto­geth­er. With­out the out­let of extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties, stu­dents had few­er ways to devel­op their tal­ents, man­age stress and con­nect with their peers. 

Key Find­ings on the Learn­ing Loss Due to COVID-19

Key find­ings from the most recent school year avail­able (202122) include:

  • In 2022, only 26% of eighth graders were at or above pro­fi­cient in math, much worse than before the pan­dem­ic (33% in 2019).
  • Less than a third of fourth graders (32%) were at or above pro­fi­cient in read­ing, two per­cent­age points low­er than right before the pan­dem­ic (34% in 2019).
  • Thir­ty per­cent of all stu­dents (14.7 mil­lion stu­dents) were chron­i­cal­ly absent, near­ly dou­ble pre-pan­dem­ic rates (16% in 201819, the final school year ful­ly unaf­fect­ed by COVID). Two out of three stu­dents attend­ed schools plagued by chron­ic absence.
  • Four out of 10 (40%) had under­gone at least one adverse child­hood expe­ri­ence (ACE), such as fam­i­ly eco­nom­ic hard­ship or their par­ents hav­ing divorced, sep­a­rat­ed or served time in jail.

These aver­ages mask even worse edu­ca­tion­al out­comes for stu­dents of col­or, kids in immi­grant fam­i­lies and chil­dren from low-income fam­i­lies or attend­ing low-income schools. The gaps they face can affect their abil­i­ty to suc­ceed and thrive as adults.

Vis­it the 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book Interactive

Kids of all ages and grades must have what they need to learn each day, such as enough food and sleep and a safe way to get to school, as well as the addi­tion­al resources they might need to per­form at their high­est poten­tial and thrive, like tutor­ing and men­tal health ser­vices,” said Lisa Hamil­ton, pres­i­dent and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion. Our poli­cies and pri­or­i­ties have not focused on these fac­tors in prepar­ing young peo­ple for the econ­o­my, short-chang­ing a whole generation.”

COVID-19 Edu­ca­tion Gaps by State

While there has been progress nation­al­ly, recov­ery from pan­dem­ic learn­ing loss­es has var­ied sig­nif­i­cant­ly across the coun­try. Notably, achieve­ment gaps — par­tic­u­lar­ly between low-pover­ty and high-pover­ty areas — have per­sist­ed, and in many cas­es, wors­ened. In Mass­a­chu­setts, for exam­ple, the gap between high-pover­ty and low-pover­ty dis­tricts has con­tin­ued to grow — as recent­ly as the 202223 school year. Oth­er states are show­ing encour­ag­ing signs, how­ev­er. Illi­nois, Mis­sis­sip­pi and Louisiana are cur­rent­ly out­pac­ing their pre-pan­dem­ic achieve­ment in read­ing. Sim­i­lar­ly, Alaba­ma has returned to its pre-pan­dem­ic achieve­ment in math.

Beyond the Pan­dem­ic Learn­ing Loss

The Casey Foun­da­tion report con­tends that the pan­dem­ic is not sole­ly to blame for the country’s wors­en­ing edu­ca­tion­al out­comes. Edu­ca­tors, researchers, pol­i­cy­mak­ers and employ­ers who track stu­dents’ aca­d­e­m­ic readi­ness have been ring­ing alarm bells for a long time. U.S. scores in read­ing and math have bare­ly budged in decades. Com­pared to peer nations, the Unit­ed States is not equip­ping its chil­dren with the high-lev­el read­ing, math and dig­i­tal prob­lem-solv­ing skills need­ed for many of today’s fastest-grow­ing occu­pa­tions in a high­ly com­pet­i­tive glob­al economy.

This lack of readi­ness will result in major harm to our econ­o­my and to our youth as they join the work­force. Up to $31 tril­lion in U.S. eco­nom­ic activ­i­ty hinges on help­ing young peo­ple com­plete learn­ing delayed by the pan­dem­ic. Research indi­cates that stu­dents who don’t advance beyond low­er lev­els of math may be 50% more like­ly to be unem­ployed after high school. One analy­sis cal­cu­lates that the drop in math scores between 2019 and 2022 will reduce life­time earn­ings by 1.6% for our 48 mil­lion pan­dem­ic-era stu­dents, for a total of $900 bil­lion in lost income.

How­ev­er, some states have delayed spend­ing their share of the $190 bil­lion in crit­i­cal fed­er­al pan­dem­ic fund­ing (Ele­men­tary and Sec­ondary School Emer­gency Relief, or ESS­ER) that could help boost achieve­ment. The dead­line to allo­cate – not spend – this fund­ing is Sep­tem­ber 30, 2024. Tens of bil­lions of dol­lars set aside for schools will van­ish for­ev­er if states do not act immediately.

Rec­om­men­da­tions to Coun­ter­act the COVID-19 Impact on Education

The Casey Foun­da­tion rec­om­mends the fol­low­ing next steps to recov­er from the pan­dem­ic learn­ing loss:

  • To get kids back on track, we must ensure access to low- or no-cost meals, a reli­able inter­net con­nec­tion, a place to study and time with friends, teach­ers and counselors.
  • Expand access to inten­sive tutor­ing for stu­dents who are behind in their class­es and miss­ing aca­d­e­m­ic mile­stones. Research has shown the most effec­tive tutor­ing is in per­son, high dosage and tied direct­ly to the school.
  • States should take advan­tage of all their allo­cat­ed pan­dem­ic relief fund­ing to pri­or­i­tize the social, emo­tion­al, aca­d­e­m­ic and phys­i­cal well-being of stu­dents. As long as funds are oblig­at­ed by the Sept. 30 dead­line, states should have two more full years to spend them.
  • States and school sys­tems should address chron­ic absence, so more stu­dents return to learn. While few states gath­er and report chron­ic absence data by grade, all of them should. Improv­ing atten­dance track­ing and data will inform future deci­sion-mak­ing. Law­mak­ers should embrace pos­i­tive approach­es rather than crim­i­nal­iz­ing stu­dents or par­ents due to atten­dance chal­lenges, because they may not under­stand the con­se­quences of even a few days missed.
  • Pol­i­cy­mak­ers should invest in com­mu­ni­ty schools, pub­lic schools that pro­vide wrap­around sup­port to kids and fam­i­lies. Nat­ur­al homes for tutor­ing, men­tal health sup­port, nutri­tion­al aid and oth­er ser­vices, com­mu­ni­ty schools use inno­v­a­tive and cre­ative pro­grams to sup­port young learn­ers and encour­age par­ent engage­ment, which leads to bet­ter out­comes for kids.

Pan­dem­ic Learn­ing Loss Fre­quent­ly Asked Questions

  • Q: How did COVID-19 affect learn­ing?
    A:
    COVID-19 had a pro­found impact on the deliv­ery of edu­ca­tion to stu­dents of all ages. The abrupt shift to remote learn­ing chal­lenged stu­dent and teacher engage­ment, dra­mat­i­cal­ly decreased instruc­tion­al time, and hin­dered stu­dent understanding.
  • Q: How did COVID-19 impact edu­ca­tion in Amer­i­ca?
    A:
    The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic dis­rupt­ed stu­dent learn­ing and devel­op­ment, result­ing in sig­nif­i­cant learn­ing loss and an increase in men­tal health chal­lenges. Fur­ther, the pan­dem­ic exac­er­bat­ed exist­ing racial inequities and wors­ened achieve­ment gaps. 
  • Q: How did COVID affect stu­dents with learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties?
    A:
    After the shift to remote learn­ing, school dis­tricts strug­gled to deliv­er accom­mo­da­tions and ther­a­pies remote­ly. With­out these need­ed sup­ports, many chil­dren fell behind. In addi­tion, many stu­dents suf­fered due to lengthy delays in school dis­tricts review­ing and updat­ing their Indi­vid­u­al­ized Edu­ca­tion Plans (IEP).
  • Q: How did COVID affect stu­dents social­ly?
    A:
    The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic dis­rupt­ed stu­dents’ social and emo­tion­al devel­op­ment. Increased iso­la­tion led to more screen time and high­er lev­els of anx­i­ety and depres­sion. Addi­tion­al­ly, stu­dents strug­gled with emo­tion­al, social, and behav­ioral issues. Schools and com­mu­ni­ties had to find inno­v­a­tive ways to com­bat learn­ing loss among high school stu­dents, and ensure they were pre­pared to pur­sue careers.
  • Q: What is the effect of COVID-19 on col­lege stu­dent per­for­mance?
    A:
    While col­lege stu­dents were more equipped to man­age the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic than younger stu­dents, they are still demon­strat­ing notice­ably dif­fer­ent behav­iors post-pan­dem­ic. For exam­ple, pro­fes­sors report high­er rates of missed assign­ments. Addi­tion­al­ly, many pro­fes­sors have not­ed that stu­dents are more hes­i­tant to engage in class­room dis­cus­sions, and are more like­ly to be on their phones dur­ing class.

Down­load the Data Book

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