The Curriculum Associates data includes a nationally representative sampling across fall 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023 of 7.8 million K-2 students for math and 5.9 million K-2 students for reading.
“Though in some subgroups there were only small declines from pre- to post pandemic, the percentage of students beginning the year well below grade level has grown substantially in some grades, with no sign of recovery or return to pre-pandemic levels,” the report said.
For students now in 1st grade, and who were 2-3 years old in spring 2020, the analysis shows 12.5% of students performed two grades below in math in fall 2023 compared to 10.5% in fall 2019.
