American schools are failing to make up for older students’ learning loss from COVID-19, according to a new report Tuesday from the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE).
The report combined a multitude of different sources that showed students across the U.S. are increasingly absent from school and receiving lower ACT test grades. The report also showed that K-12 students increasingly required mental health services following the pandemic. (RELATED: Schools Struggle To Get Students To Class Amid Learning Loss)
“Three years after the start of the pandemic, COVID-19 is continuing to derail learning, but in more insidious and hidden ways,” the report reads.
US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona speaks during a back-to-school K-12 Cybersecurity Summit in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 8, 2023. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)
The report showed that 5% of students in the U.S. missed five or more school days in a month in 2020, and by 2023, that number shot up to 10% of students. The report also showed that 60% of classrooms experienced an increase in classroom misconduct in 2022.
Students are receiving historically low grades on the ACT, the lowest in 31 years as of 2022, averaging a 19.8, according to the report. The report also showed 70% of public schools report an increase in the number of students seeking mental health services since the pandemic began.
The report said only 2% of U.S. students are receiving high-quality tutoring services, and one estimate said there is nearly $27 billion set aside for such efforts.
“The challenge is that high-impact tutoring is difficult to deliver at the scale and the pace that we need. … And it is especially difficult to reach high school students, who arguably should be our top priority given how little time they have to recover pandemic learning losses before graduation,” said Kevin Huffman, CEO of tutoring nonprofit Accelerate, according to the report.
Department of Education Secretary (ED) Miguel Cardona spoke with reporters Tuesday touting a $50 million in new federal grant funds to help students improve reading and math outcomes following learning loss from the pandemic, according to USA Today.
“As a country, we’ve normalized those gaps,” Cardona told reporters on a call, according to USA Today.
The ED did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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