Mass. students aren't recovering equally from COVID learning loss

Axios

13-03-2025

Students in Massachusetts K–12 schools are on average nearly half a grade behind pre-pandemic achievement levels in math and reading.
Why it matters: Massachusetts ranking No. 1 on the Nation's Report Card last year — a distinction often touted by Gov. Maura Healey — doesn't mean students have escaped the effects of COVID learning loss.
State of play: The Education Recovery scorecard shows Massachusetts students are improving in math and reading, but haven't fully recovered since the pandemic, especially in districts serving middle- to low-income students.
Despite some gains in math, the report estimates the loss in math achievement is almost 40% of the progress students typically make annually in grades four through eight in Massachusetts.
Zoom in: The average student in Revere, Fall River, Everett and Framingham remains at least a grade behind 2019 achievement levels in math.
In Lynn, the average student is two grades behind math achievement levels.
In reading, the average student in Framingham, Revere and Lynn is 1.5 grades behind 2019 achievement levels.
Meanwhile, students in wealthier districts — Lexington, Brookline and Newton — are approaching 2019 levels in math, as are students in Plymouth and Brockton.
The average Lexington student has surpassed 2019 achievement levels in reading, while Newton and Plymouth are approaching 2019 levels.
The big picture: No state showed improvements in both math and reading from 2019 to 2024, according to the Nation's Report Card — a national assessment of math and reading achievement.
High-income districts are four times more likely to have recovered, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard, which combines results from the Nation's Report Card assessment and state test scores.
What they're saying: The slide in test scores "masks a pernicious inequality: scores have declined far more in America's middle- and low-income communities than its wealthy ones," Sean Reardon, director of Stanford University's Educational Opportunity Project, said in a statement.
Caveat: Massachusetts students have made improvements, even though the state had less pandemic funding per student.
Massachusetts received close to $2.9 billion in federal pandemic aid for K–12 schools, or $3,000 per student.
The national average relief amount was $3,700 per student.
The funds did contribute to academic recovery nationally, especially when schools used the money on summer learning, tutoring and other targeted efforts to help students catch up.
What's next: Researchers urged states and districts to redirect funding toward interventions, now that federal pandemic relief has dried up.
They also said mayors, employers and other leaders should address chronic absenteeism so the burden doesn't fall entirely on schools.
The bottom line:"The rescue phase is over," Tom Kane, director of Harvard's Center for Education Policy Research, said in a statement.
"The federal relief dollars are gone. It is time to pivot from short-term recovery to longer term challenges such as reducing absenteeism and addressing the slide in literacy."