COVID’s impact on schools–and what’s next for education

Key points:

Five years ago this month, the World Health Organization officially labeled COVID-19 as a pandemic. In response, life as we knew it came to a halt, schools were canceled, and teachers rushed to transition to online learning. Despite monumental efforts to keep students engaged during such a widespread crisis, the effects of those educational disruptions continue to resonate today.

The most recent collection of evidence evaluating recovery trends since 2022 highlights that our students are still far off from recovering academically. Across national assessments, like the Nation’s Report Card, interim assessments, and state summative tests, data shows a continued decline in reading scores between 2022 and 2024. The picture is somewhat rosier for mathematics, with signs of modest recovery, but at the current rate of progress, full recovery is still more than seven years away. This means students currently in middle and high school may never regain the unfinished learning before graduating, potentially impacting their readiness for college and career success.

Diving deeper into the data and going beyond the averages, we see a complex story of recovery underscoring that the pandemic left more devastation in some communities than others. For example, Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students are recovering at a slower rate than their peers. Test scores for girls have dropped more than for boys during COVID and a concerning trend has re-emerged after 20 years of similar performance in mathematics: 8^th-grade boys are now outperforming girls in math again.  

One more trend that both raises concerns and makes recovery that much more challenging is the widening academic gap between low- and high-performing students. This means a teacher must address the instructional needs of students in a classroom that can range multiple grade levels with unique gaps in their learning. While academic differences within a classroom are not new, the scale and extent of those variances are unprecedented.

The immediate health crisis of COVID is in our rear-view mirror, but the long-term effects of the pandemic disruptions are not. This is a precarious moment for academic recovery. The federal recovery funds devoted to schools expired last fall, challenging districts to find sustainable funding if they are to continue the needed recovery efforts. In addition, enrollment in schools has dropped since 2010, further impacting school funding. Together, this means a long journey is still ahead for our education community to address academic recovery while navigating various factors impacting their schools and students. 

A key priority must be getting chronically absent students re-engaged in school. Beyond this, education leaders must continue to advocate for:

• High-quality data that provide a national, state, and local perspective, allowing stakeholders to compare and understand what is working, where gaps remain, and how best to invest limited resources wisely to support the needs of every student in their community.
• Innovation in tools and programs to support recovery. Emerging technologies, including AI, have potential to transform education. There is an expanding universe of solutions generating excitement. While these innovations can be a driver for closing gaps and accelerating academic growth, their impact must be carefully measured for effectiveness to ensure they are driving advancements and not further deepening existing disparities.
• Evidence-supported interventions. In the last five years, education research has focused on identifying the most effective programs and interventions to support recovery. Two programs–high-dosage tutoring and summer learning–have risen as promising solutions, showing strong potential for success when implemented properly and tailored to meet the specific needs of students. These solutions should not be short-term fixes; education leaders should integrate these efforts into the fabric of everyday instruction, using data not to label students but to better understand their unique needs and guide their learning paths.

The last five years have been defined by disruption and stalled recovery, and the next five years will be crucial in determining whether we can prevent these gaps from becoming permanent.

While the pandemic brought few silver linings, it did sharpen the focus on students and factors that drive their academic growth. This renewed attention has underscored two key priorities: the need for innovations that simplify educators’ lives so they can focus on maximizing high-quality instructional time with their students, and the continued necessity of providing data-driven insights to enable better, evidence-based decision-making across the education system. By embedding these priorities into everyday practice, we can move beyond crisis recovery and build a more resilient, student-centered education system for the future.