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1 1 (December 5, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govejpr0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Informing the legislitive debate since 1914 0 December 5, 2022 Student Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic In response to the COVJD-19 pandemic, elementary and secondary schools across the nation closed their doors and pivoted to alternative methods of providing instruction and other services, such as school meals. According to Education Week, by the end of March 2020, all U.S. public school buildings had closed. By May 2020, 48 states (Montana and Wyoming were the exceptions), the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the outlying areas, and the Department of Defense Education Activity ordered or recommended that school buildings be closed for the remainder of the 20 19-2020 academic year, affecting at least 50.8 million students. For many schools, shifts to alternative forms of instruction, including remote learning, extended into some portion of the 2021-2022 school year. The cumulative and ongoing effects of the pandemic appear to have affected student learning. This In Focus provides a brief examination of declines in student learning that have been observed since the start of the pandemic as measured by standardized test scores. It also examines federal requirements for assessments and accountability and federal resources that have been provided to help address learning loss. Student Le-arnn Dun th Panem While not a holistic measurement of student achievement, much of the research on learning loss during the pandemic has relied on standardized testing data, including annual state assessments administered as a condition of receiving funds under Title I-A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and NWEA's Measures of Academic Progress (MAP). The results of the state assessments administered in accordance with ESEA Title I- A are also used, in part, to identify schools in need of support and improvement. Fedeal Asesen In Accountability Re u e 1 t As a condition of receiving ESEA Title I-A funds, each state (and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) must administer annual academic assessments in reading/language arts (RLA) and mathematics in 3rd- 8t grade and once in high school, and in science once in each of tree grade spans (3rd-5th, 6tl-8th and 10th-12th)~ Each state is also required to have an educational accountability system that is based on several indicators, including student performance on RLA and mathematics assessments for all students and for student subgroups (e.g., students from major ethnic/racial groups and children with disabilities). States must establish a system of meaningfully differentiating among all public schools in the state based on these established indicators to determine which public schools should be identified for additional support and improvement efforts. The COVID- 19 pandemic substantially altered operational implementation of Title I-A assessment and accountability requirements. Given the timing of the onset of the pandemic and widespread school building closures, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) waived the requirement for states to administer the assessments required by Title I-A for the 20 19-2020 school year. During the 2020-202 1 school year, nearly all states administered the assessments but may have done so in a modified way (e.g., using shorter assessments). Regular state assessments did not resume until the 202 1-2022 school year. Thus, annual state assessments were not fully administered by all states for two years, reducing data available on student performance and hindering the use of state accountability systems. The waivers of assessment requirements were accompanied by waivers of accountability requirements. For example, states were not required to identify new schools for support and improvement during the 2020-202 1 or 2021-2022 school years. Similarly, states could not remove schools from support and improvement requirements except under limited circumstances. States were once again required to identify schools for support and improvement for the 2022- 2023 school year. Thus, additional schools that may have benefitted from extra support may not have been identified for support and improvement for two years. NAEP The NAEP consists of two assessment programs-the long- term trends (LTT) NAEP, and a group of assessments referred to as the main NAEP assessments. All states that accept funding under Title I-A of the ESEA are required to participate in the main NAEP biennial assessments of 4th and 8th grade reading and mathematics. Student participation in all NAEP assessments is voluntary. Both the LTT and main NAEP have been administered since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, LTT reading and mathematics assessments for age 9 students were administered. Average scores for students declined by five points in reading and seven points in mathematics compared with results from the 2020 assessments. This was the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first time scores had ever declined in mathematics. While scores decreased across the board for students at all performance levels, the decline in scores compared to 2020 levels was higher for lower-performing students than for higher-performing students. When examined by race/ethnicity, Black, Hispanic, and White students scoring at the 25th percentile had larger score declines than students from those groups scoring at the 75th percentile. In addition, while Black, Hispanic, and White students all had a six point decrease in reading, differences in mathematics score declines between Black and White students widened the score gap.

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