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Education in America
Test results in American schools plummeted during the pandemic
Districts with the most virtual schooling had the biggest drop in scores
DURING THE PANDEMIC America’s schoolchildren lost out on more than 70 weeks in the classroom. Most pupils received some form of virtual schooling. But the quality and quantity varied greatly. According to a recent study analysing standardised tests taken by children in grades three to eight, there has been a 14 percentage-point drop in the pass rates for maths and a six-point drop for English between 2019 and 2021 across 12 states.
But scores in English and maths were falling even before the pandemic (although researchers cannot agree on why). To isolate the impact of the pandemic, the authors control for different factors, including the time that pupils spent attending school in person. They find that moving from fully virtual to fully in-person lessons counteracted the drop in scores by around ten percentage points for maths, and just over three percentage points for English. In both subjects, the detrimental effect of virtual schooling was largest in poorer areas, where students are more likely to lack the space for undisturbed study or the technology to access online lessons.