COVID-19 and the Educational Equity Crisis

Posted by PACE on February 2, 2021

New evidence on COVID-19 learning loss – From the CORE Data Collaborative

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced an unprecedented disruption to U.S. education. In order to recover from this crisis, we first need to understand its impact. California has a notoriously weak data infrastructure and the cancellation of state tests in Spring 2020 left us with very limited information about student performance. In this analysis, we used data from 18 districts in the CORE Data Collaborative to try to shed light on the inequities in learning that have been introduced as a result of the pandemic. We found that there has been substantial learning loss, especially in the earlier grades, in both ELA and Math. But most importantly, we show that the pandemic and its related disruptions to schooling in California have disproportionately affected low-income students and ELLs. Average learning loss estimates mask the reality that some students in California are suffering much more during this time than are others. Without aggressive and bold actions, these students may never catch up; any funding or support designed to mitigate learning loss must be targeted specifically to the students who need it most. Our analysis to date shows that low-income students and those learning English have fallen behind, and future analyses will further illuminate the impact on students in other demographic groups.

Read more.