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Dive Brief:

• Four years after the pandemic shut down school buildings in 2020, educators remain particularly concerned about the academic, socioemotional and behavioral performance of "pandemic babies," or the cohort of children that should have received early childhood schooling during shutdowns — but likely missed out on the opportunity. 

• Principals surveyed by the U.S. Department of Education said these children, who are now in early elementary grades, are showing more developmental challenges than older students, according to National Center for Education Statistics Commissioner Peggy Carr.

• The first group of pandemic babies, those who just completed 4th grade, were tested on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress this past year. Those results are expected to be released in winter 2025, according to the NCES website. 

Dive Insight:

"I don't know what the results look like, but we shall see if they align" with other indicators for this group, such as their reported decline in socioemotional and behavioral development, said Carr during the National Assessment Governing Board's quarterly meeting on Thursday. NAGB sets policy for the Nation's Report Card, while NCES administers the assessment and analyzes the results.

In 2021, only 40% of 3- to 4-year-olds and 79% of 5-year-olds were enrolled in school, compared to 49% and 86%, respectively, in 2019. For 2022, data shows those percentages at 47% and 84% respectively, according to NCES.

"So there was a significant drop around that time," said Carr. "Now it's coming up a little, but it's still not to where it was prior to the pandemic." 

This concern from educators and NCES comes against a backdrop of what Lesley Muldoon, executive director of NAGB, called "mixed signals" overall from early state and interim assessments on academic recovery over the past two years. 

"And so I think that only ups the ante for this NAEP release," Muldoon said about the forthcoming 2024 results. "The question on so many people's minds at this point in time is: Are we doing what we need to to prepare our next generation of students?"

The board is set to review the results privately in November.