Texas students in third through eighth grades are lagging in learning compared with pre-pandemic years, per new research conducted by Stanford and Harvard universities.
Why it matters: 92% of parents nationally believe their children are at or above grade level now that in-person learning has resumed, but the research shows that's not true everywhere, Thomas Kane, project co-leader from Harvard University, tells Axios.
- Districts can use the data to figure out how to spend the rest of their federal pandemic aid, which must be allocated by September 2024.
The big picture: Texas students have a learning loss of over five months in math and more than a month in reading, according to the research, called the Education Recovery Scorecard.
- Learning losses could affect life outcomes such as high school graduation, college enrollment, arrests and teen motherhood.
Methodology: The scorecard, which compares states over the 2019-2022 period, adds a layer of comparison to data recently released by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which also found Texas students fell behind, particularly in math.
- State assessments for grades 3-8 were used to analyze proficiency relative to in-state districts.
Zoom in: Dallas ISD and Houston ISD, two of the largest districts in Texas, each lost more than four months of learning in math achievement.
- Irving and Forney are among the districts with more than a year of learning losses in math.
Continue reading at axios.com.