Assessing Pandemic Learning Losses and Recoveries

News and Research 344

Assessing Pandemic Learning Losses and Recoveries

Analysis of test scores in 21 states shows less than half of the losses have been regained overall, with wide variations across states.

. Recovery rates in English language arts varied much more than those in math. Student performance in two states, Mississippi and South Carolina, fully recovered from pandemic losses in English language arts while that in Kansas and Massachusetts, among other states, continued to decline. In math, student performance in all states experienced recovery, but none recovered completely. Mississippi and Rhode Island math scores recovered by over 70 percent, while in Arkansas and Minnesota the recovery was under 20 percent. The only two states that fully recovered pandemic learning losses by 2022 were also the earliest adopters of the science of reading (SOR) program: Mississippi (2013) and South Carolina (2014). Both states also took other steps to improve reading, including enhanced teacher preparation, professional development, and instruction.

PIRLS

Students’ reading ability after COVID-19: Takeaways from PIRLS for Europe and Central Asia

A Few Takeaways from Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) on the Reading Ability of Students Across Europe and Central Asia after COVID-19

Global Learning Loss in Student Achievement: First Estimates Using Comparable Reading Scores

School Closure Policies and Student Reading Achievement: Evidence Across Countries

PIRLS 2021 data is now available at http://iea.nl/data-tools/repository/pirls

Why are Vietnam’s schools so good?  It understands the value of education and manages its teachers well. Ho Chi Minh, the founding father of Vietnam, was clear about the route to development. “For the sake of ten years’ benefit, we must plant trees. For the sake of a hundred years’ benefit, we must cultivate the people,” was a bromide he liked to trot out. Yet despite years of rapid economic growth, the country’s GDP per person is still only $3,760, lower than in its regional peers, Malaysia and Thailand, and barely enough to make the average Vietnamese feel well-nurtured. Still, Ho Chi Minh was alluding to a Chinese proverb extolling the benefits of education, and on that front Vietnam’s people can have few complaints.

The educational effects of emergency remote teaching practices—The case of covid-19 school closure in Italy | Bertoletti, Soncin, Cannistrà, Agasisti | One third of teachers showed resistance to the use of digital technologies and focused mainly on asynchronous teaching. Teachers that used a broader set of digital instruments, instead, were more satisfied with their teaching practices. A more articulated use of technology for teaching activities was also positively associated with higher students’ performance in 2021.

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ECA Talk Returns to Education Turns 50 on March 29, 2023, Event Replay. Watch the discussion from earlier this week reassessing progress made on measuring the benefits of education 50 years after the publication of George Psacharopoulos’ pivotal study Returns to Education. Timestamps for remarks and panel discussions during the event replay are marked under the Agenda tab.

Submit a Manuscript to the Journal Education Economics for a Special Issue on the 50th Anniversary of the Returns to Education: An International Comparison | Manuscript deadline: 31 October 2023 | Special Issue Editor: Harry Patrinos, World Bank | Submit An Article | This year is the 50th anniversary of the publication of the book, Returns to Education: An International Comparison, by George Psacharopoulos (assisted by Keith Hinchliffe). Education Economics is publishing a special issue to mark this occasion and the contributions of Professor Psacharopoulos. The focus of this special issue is research on the returns to education. Research on international comparisons and /or  returns to education in less developed economies are especially welcome.