Study: Kids Continue To Fall Behind In Reading and Math Post-Pandemic

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Good morning!

The James Webb Telescope celebrated its 1st birthday yesterday by releasing some of the most spectacular images from space.

Here’s a photo of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, which is the nearest star-forming region in space to Earth (just a casual 400 light-years away). For context—it would take a human approximately 37,200 years to travel the distance of just 1 light year with current technology. 🤯

So, we will have to settle for the pictures.

Mosheh, Jill, & Courtney

🗞 THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT

The pandemic is officially over. Schools are back open. Classes are in person again. And, billions of dollars have been spent to try to make up for pandemic-related learning losses.

Still, a new national study finds that students are not making much progress, and that for some kids, things could actually be getting worse.

TROUBLING NEW REPORT
Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) released a new report analyzing the results of student assessment tests taken in the spring by about 3.5 million public school students in third through eighth grade.

Students in most grades showed slower than average growth in math and reading, compared to kids before the pandemic. Most troubling, one of the study’s researchers tells the New York Times it means that learning gaps created during the pandemic may not be closing, and if anything, they’re actually seeing evidence of backsliding.

KEY FINDINGS

• In nearly all grades, achievement gains during 2022–23 fell short of pre-pandemic levels.

• The average student will need the equivalent of 4.1 additional months of schooling to catch up in reading and 4.5 months in math.

• Students across all race and ethnicity groups lagged pre-pandemic levels, but students of color remain the furthest from recovery.

  • Researchers say Black and Hispanic students would require around a month more to return to pre-pandemic levels, though those levels were influenced by educational inequities that have only expanded over the last three years.

MATH & READING AT LOWEST LEVEL IN DECADES
This report comes just weeks after different testing in math and reading for 13 year olds hit their lowest level in decades. And that was across demographics and many states.

A former US Education Secretary summarized the report in this tweet:

WHAT’S BEHIND IT?
Researchers say there are many possible reasons behind the backslide including staff and teacher shortages, “behavioral” challenges, and also a high rate of kids missing school.

WHAT NOW? NO GOOD ANSWERS
As we mentioned, this new report suggests that it will take more than four months for students to catch up. So the question remains: Where is that four months going to come from?

• The last round of federal Covid relief funding included $122 billion to help schools. It needs to be spent by September of next year.

  • The Biden Administration has said 20% needs to go towards academic recovery. As for the other 80%, it can be used for anything, even things like repairing buildings.

• The report also suggests that the four months of additional instruction can’t be "compressed" into one school year, but spread across several years.

• POSSIBLE OPTIONS:

  • There’s some research that shows “high dosage tutoring— putting a trained tutor with one to four students, at least there times a week for a full year— can make up for about four months of learning.

  • Some experts have suggested summer school, but that typically only makes up about one month of learning.

  • Some other ideas: Extend the school calendar or even add a fifth year of high school.

• BUT: Many of these ideas have already gotten pushback from parents and teachers in districts that have tried them.

⏳ SPEED READ

🚨 NATION

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🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

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💵 BUSINESS & TECH

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📌 The Mac is starting to look like the iPhone (THE VERGE)

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🗓 ON THIS DAY: JULY 13

• 1923: A Sign Is Born: California’s ‘Hollywoodland’ Sign was formally dedicated to promote a housing development. It would fall into disrepair in the 1940s and was called an eye sore. Money was raised to revive it, but they dropped the “land” and shortened the sign to “Hollywood,” to reflect the entire area.

• 1977: A 24-hour blackout in New York City plunges nearly nine million residents into darkness.
  

• 1985: The benefit concert Live Aid was held simultaneously in London and Philadelphia. The event drew an estimated 1.5 billion television viewers and raised millions of dollars for famine relief in Ethiopia.

• 2013: The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter first appears, sparking a movement.
  

• 2001: 'Legally Blonde' starring Reese Witherspoon opened in theaters. Here are 40 of the most iconic movie quotes.

  “You’re breaking up with me because I’m too…blonde?”