Children Haven’t Regained Learning Losses from the Pandemic

A meta-analysis published in the Nature Human Behavior journal looked at 42 different studies from 15 countries to try to measure the amount of learning deficits in school-aged children during the pandemic. The researchers found that, on average, children lost 35% of a year early in the pandemic and have never caught up. Children from low socio-economic families suffered the worst, and math scores were lower than reading.

Our next task is to figure out scalable ways to help children catch up on the lost learning, to whatever extent is possible. The article lists a couple of evidence-based interventions such as sending SMS messages accompanied by short phone calls and sending motivational text messages. These particular techniques may not work in other areas, and don’t seem to be scalable to meet the serious difficulties that our kids are facing.  Finding solutions, though, needs to be an urgent priority so that our kids can recover, at least educationally.