Younger Students’ Test Scores Bounce Back After the Pandemic
A national test found surprising progress among 9-year-olds, who are fully caught up in reading. But 13-year-olds have shown no improvement.
After years of dire test scores coming out of the pandemic, new national test results released on Wednesday offered a glimmer of hope — at least for younger students.
The nation’s 9-year-olds, who were in preschool when the pandemic hit, have made a significant recovery in reading since 2022, and are now caught up to where 9-year-olds were immediately before the pandemic, according to a key federal exam. They are getting closer to being caught up in math.
But for American 13-year-olds, whose elementary school years were disrupted by the pandemic, there has been no recovery.
And overall, many students are worse off than they were in the early 2010s, when U.S. test scores peaked.
After years of dire test scores coming out of the pandemic, new national test results released on Wednesday offered a glimmer of hope — at least for younger students.
The nation’s 9-year-olds, who were in preschool when the pandemic hit, have made a significant recovery in reading since 2022, and are now caught up to where 9-year-olds were immediately before the pandemic, according to a key federal exam. They are getting closer to being caught up in math.
But for American 13-year-olds, whose elementary school years were disrupted by the pandemic, there has been no recovery.
And overall, many students are worse off than they were in the early 2010s, when U.S. test scores peaked.
“We are seeing some bounce back from a historic low,” said Thomas Kane, an education professor at Harvard and a leading expert on student achievement. “But the long-term picture is troubling.”
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