# Federal COVID relief dollars improved student test scores, two new studies find June 27, 2024 *Did federal pandemic relief dollars improve student achievement?* It’s the $190 billion question hanging over American schools as the deadline looms for them to spend the last of the money intended to help them weather pandemic disruptions. Two new research papers released Wednesday attempt to isolate the effects of federal relief spending on student test scores. Both analyses, which were conducted independently, find that spending under the relief programs known as ESSER improved test scores in reading and math, and that the improvements were in line with [other research showing that more spending boosts student achievement.](https://www.chalkbeat.org/2023/5/16/23724474/school-funding-research-studies-hanushek-does-money-matter/) But the studies could not answer which specific spending decisions — which approach to tutoring or summer school, how many social workers and counselors, what investments in better attendance and student engagement — actually made a difference. That’s because the federal government gave districts significant flexibility and did not require detailed reporting on how the money was spent. The studies come as education activists and politicians [debate the impact of federal spending](https://thehill.com/opinion/education/4562128-public-schools-wasted-covid-funds-bidens-education-budget-tacitly-admits/), and as states and school districts [consider which programs to continue](https://www.chalkbeat.org/2024/02/01/how-schools-will-keep-tutoring-programs-after-esser-covid-funding-is-gone/). Many students’ test scores remain below pre-pandemic levels, and [educational inequality has grown](https://www.chalkbeat.org/2024/02/05/learning-loss-study-finds-surprising-academic-recovery-growing-inequality/). “We learned that no-strings-attached dollars do have some positive effect on student achievement,” said Thomas Kane, an economics professor at Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research and co-author of [one of the studies](https://educationrecoveryscorecard.org/). “But to have bigger impacts on student achievement, we need to know more about which interventions are working. And we blew an opportunity to learn more.” ## Independent studies found COVID relief improved achievement Kane wrote his paper with Sean Reardon, a professor of poverty and inequality in education at Stanford University. The [other paper](https://caldercenter.org/publications/impacts-academic-recovery-interventions-student-achievement-esser-year-3) came from Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, or Calder, and University of Washington researcher Grace Falken. Both teams of researchers hope to inform short-term debates about continuing pandemic-era programs as well as the larger debate over whether money matters in education. Congress sent schools $190 billion through three separate aid packages. Money from the largest and final package — the $120 billion American Rescue Plan package — must be spent or committed by September. Schools were required to spend at least 20% of that package on academic recovery, but local leaders had broad discretion about how to define academic recovery and how to spend the rest of the money. District officials [generally know how they spent their allotments](https://www.chalkbeat.org/2022/2/3/22916635/covid-relief-stimulus-spending-schools-tracking-resources/), but that information hasn’t been collected centrally or in a consistent fashion. The money was distributed through the same formula as the federal Title I program, which gives extra money to schools serving more students living in poverty, but the total aid package was about 10 times as large as the annual Title I allocation. That magnified quirks of the Title I formula, meaning that districts serving similar populations with similar academic profiles received very different amounts of money, with some receiving thousands of dollars more per student than others. Continue reading at [chalkbeat.org.](https://www.chalkbeat.org/2024/06/26/federal-covid-relief-money-improved-student-achievement-studies-find/) See also:- [ COVID-19 Impact ](/focus-areas/covid-19-impact) - [ In the News ](/cepr-in-the-news) - [ Education Recovery Scorecard ](/projects/education-recovery-scorecard) - [ 2024 ](/year/2024) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)