The Education Recovery Scorecard is a powerful database that compares standardized test scores in school districts in 43 states.  Developed by researchers at Stanford, Harvard and Dartmouth, the third iteration of this work was released on February 11. 

There were some bright spots in the scorecard, which highlights over 100 districts that have been performing at above pre-pandemic levels in both math and reading. Case studies are provided for districts that fall in that group, including:

• The Compton Unified School District in California, which not long ago was on the verge of entering receivership with the state.

• The District of Columbia schools, which were in awful shape a couple of decades ago, but has “increased student achievement for students in literacy through key investments such as evidence-based training for teachers and high-impact tutoring for students.”

• Natchitoches County Public Schools in Louisiana, a historically poor area in which the school superintendent Grant Eloi said, “We believe strongly in growing our collective efficacy, therefore teacher collaboration and coaching have become hallmarks of our district”

  
  

But although disaggregating individual districts reveals gems like the above, in the aggregate, the findings were often somewhat bleak. For example: 

• As of Spring 2024, students are now further behind in reading than they were in 2022, and the average US student remained nearly half a grade behind pre-pandemic achievement in both math and reading.

• Only one state, Alabama, had average achievements above 2019 levels in fourth grade math. But even there, “about a third of students go to school in districts where math achievement remains below 2019 levels.”

• “The highest income decile districts are nearly 4 times more likely to have recovered in both math and reading than the lowest income decile districts: 14.1 percent vs. 3.9 percent. Still, we see examples of higher poverty districts recovering in reading and math—such as Compton, California; Ector County, Texas (Odessa); Maury County, Tennessee; Union City, New Jersey; Rapides Parish, Louisiana; Bartow County, Georgia; and Johnston County, North Carolina.”

• “Socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in math achievement have grown since the start of the pandemic both within districts and across districts. The disparity in math scores between students in affluent and low-income districts has grown by 11 percent since the start of the pandemic, and the disparity in scores between students in predominantly non-minority and predominantly minority districts has grown by 15 percent.”

• “The federal relief dollars aided the recovery in higher poverty districts (where achievement in both math and reading was boosted by 10 percent or a grade equivalent.) Each dollar of federal relief improved student achievement by about as much as a general revenue increase. But it mattered how districts spent the money. In California, which maintained more detailed spending data, we find that student achievement grew more in districts that spent more on academic interventions, such as tutoring or summer school.”

• “A widespread rise in absenteeism is slowing the recovery, especially in high poverty districts. Most districts—high- and low-income—have seen a rise in student absenteeism, with larger increases in low-income districts. Our data show that districts with high post-pandemic absenteeism did experience slower recovery, but the full impact of the rise in absenteeism is not yet clear.”

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