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Dive Brief:

• Reading and math learning recovery has stalled for students in grades 1-8, and students in grades 1-2 are not even performing at pre-pandemic levels, according to testing results analyzed by Curriculum Associates, which administers the i-Ready assessment.
• Last spring, for example, 61% of 1st graders and 60% of 2nd graders scored at grade level in reading, according to results on the i-Ready Diagnostic. Those results are slightly higher than spring 2022 performances but 7 percentage points below spring 2019 achievement levels for each grade.
• The analysis also showed that schools serving mostly Black 3rd graders had the biggest gains from spring 2022 to spring 2023, but achievement levels remained far below those of schools serving mostly White students. 

Dive Insight:

This data, cultivated from i-Ready assessment results from more than 11 million K-8 students in the U.S., aligns with post-pandemic trends that show learning recovery has been a slow process and remains disproportionate among different racial groups. 

There are some bright spots, however. For instance, early elementary students are showing positive progress on phonics achievement, scoring within 1 to 5 percentage points of pre-pandemic levels. 

Additionally, fall-to-spring growth rose in reading for 1st and 2nd grades and in math for 1st grade during the 2022-23 school year compared to the year before. However, for grades 3-8, fall-to-spring growth remained flat in both reading and math. 

In schools where more than 50% of students are Black, 49% of 3rd graders scored at grade level in reading and 33% at grade level in math. That's compared to 74% of 3rd graders reaching grade level in reading and 61% in math in schools where a majority of students are White. 

“It’s essential that we stay focused and support educators to accelerate student learning to get back to pre-pandemic levels and beyond. We need to continue to push forward on data-driven and evidence-based strategies that can drive student growth and set students on a pathway to proficiency," said Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates, in a statement.