NWEA unveils results from new study on academic recovery

CONCORD, NH — Today, NWEA released a new study tracking the impact of pandemic disruptions on academic gains and achievement levels for students nationwide. 

Collecting data from the 2022-2023 school year, the K-12 assessment and research organization’s study concluded that persistent achievement gaps across the country remain in both reading and math, and that progress toward full recovery has stalled. 

“Data from this study is loud and apparent – across the country academic growth is not gaining pace at the rate we had hoped. Recovery efforts have, for the most part, put students back on a growth path, but they have not succeeded in accelerated growth back to pre-pandemic achievement levels. Deployment of more of the same in terms of instructional supports is not producing an accelerated or improved outcome. This is already a national crisis. We do not want to leave a generation of students behind,” said Frank Edelblut, education commissioner. 

According to a policy brief associated with the study, students are still growing academically, but not at the same pace as before the pandemic. Students have a lot of ground to make up to be back at the same levels before educational disruptions began in March 2020. 

The study indicates that the average student would need support and interventions equivalent to an additional 4.1 months of school to catch up to pre-COVID levels in reading and 4.5 months in math. However, the average eighth-grader who was assessed will need an extra 9.1 months of learning in math and an extra 7.4 months of learning in reading to catch up to pre-pandemic achievement levels, according to the study.

“COVID-19 may no longer be an emergency, but we are very much still dealing with the fallout from the crisis. These data reiterate that recovery will not be linear, easy or quick and we cannot take our foot off the gas pedal,” Dr. Karyn Lewis, co-author of the study and director of the Center for School and Student Progress at NWEA, said in a statement.

The NWEA study may be found at NWEA.org, and the associated policy brief may be found at NWEA as well.