Do young students receive enough academic support?

Brief description of the dive:

• Younger primary school students will likely need more support in reading and mathematics because they either lag behind or consistently perform below historical trends, according to research released Monday by Curriculum Associates, a company providing teaching materials and assessments.
• Using longitudinal data from fall 2016 to spring 2019 and post-COVID-19 student data from fall 2021 to spring 2024, researchers found that younger students — those who were 3 and 4 years old at the time of the pandemic — fared the worst.
• The data shows that of the nation’s 3.5 million second-graders, 1.3 million are falling behind in reading and 1.7 million in math. Curriculum Associates researchers said it’s urgent to address these issues because the gaps in learning can widen over time.

Diving Insight:

In addition to younger students, low-income and “minority” students continue to perform below pre-COVID-19 levels, researchers found. In particular, schools with mostly Black and Latino students are showing widening disparities in some cases, with academic achievement lagging far behind overall historical trends.

Students whose families have an average annual household income below $50,000 or between $50,000 and $75,000 are also less likely to test compared to pre-pandemic times.

Mark Sullivan, superintendent of Birmingham City Schools in Alabama, said in a statement that even before the pandemic, many students in the district were testing at lower levels. To improve scores, the district has been training teachers on how to teach reading, setting high expectations for teachers and students, and engaging families in student learning.

“We weren’t satisfied with the number of third-grade students reading at grade level, so we had to be intentional in everything we did,” Sullivan said.

This year, the district saw a 75 percent increase in the number of students reading at or above their proficiency level.

The Curriculum Associates study found that national data also shows some students are improving. In particular, students who were in 4th grade in 2021 are showing gains in reading and math, and those results are similar to pre-pandemic growth trends.

Still, the disappointing results for some groups of students point to the need for teachers to consider whether interventions are actually targeting the groups of students who need help the most, the study found.

Tequilla Brownie, CEO of TNTP, a nonprofit that provides resources to support students, said in a statement that schools can help students catch up by creating a sense of belonging and providing access to grade-level instruction.

“While most young people who fall behind fall behind, there are schools across the country where students who started late are consistently catching up,” Brownie said.