After COVID-19 forced many young children to miss early learning opportunities, researchers are beginning to measure how those disruptions have carried into the early grades. In a report released Tuesday, the education assessment group NWEA said first and second graders continue to lag behind their pre-pandemic counterparts on both math and reading.
NWEA’s analysis also found that the pattern diverges by subject. The group said math scores have inched up each year, while reading scores have remained flat, suggesting the slump in academic performance is not explained only by lost instructional time during the pandemic.
Megan Kuhfeld, a researcher at NWEA, said the results indicate that multiple factors may be at work. “there’s something kind of systemic here happening … within schools and outside of schools,” Kuhfeld said. She added that, based on emerging data, “We can’t pinpoint one specific cause.”
The report arrives after education disruptions that began in early 2020 left students with less in-person instruction and more isolation. It also builds on well-documented effects for older children, including lost face time with instructors, deteriorating mental health for some students, and disruptions for families experiencing hardship.
For younger students, NWEA said kindergarten testing for math and science remained roughly the same throughout the pandemic, even as reading difficulties persisted later. The group said testing for first and second graders shows scores still falling short of pre-pandemic levels, with math slowly rising and reading remaining roughly unchanged.
NWEA’s report said the results raise questions about what is depressing performance, and it pointed to possible changes beyond classroom disruption. Kuhfeld noted emerging data suggesting fewer parents are reading to their children, an activity that has been shown to boost literacy, and the report cited a 2024 survey of parents in the United Kingdom that found fewer than half of children under 5 were regularly read to and fewer than half of parents said they enjoyed reading to their kids.
The report also described classroom adjustments aimed at addressing weaker literacy skills and short attention spans. It said some teachers have scaled back how much reading instruction uses books, while schools begin making concessions for students who need more support.
In Minnetonka Public Schools outside Minneapolis, district leaders said they saw reading declines during the pandemic but that scores later recovered. The district said teachers shifted focus toward phonics and regularly assessed students on literacy, and it described additional help for students who fall behind, including opportunities for peer-supported practice such as having a student who has difficulty reading aloud read to classmates.
The district acknowledged that some influences sit outside its control. Associate Superintendent Amy LaDue said that during the pandemic, many young children were homebound and missed experiences such as trips to museums and time playing with other children, which she said can support language and literacy development. “These kids weren’t in school when the pandemic happened, but (some) were … in early childhood and preschool,” LaDue said. She added, “Their opportunities … to have those experiences outside of their home that build literacy skills and to apply them with peers probably were impacted because they were home.”
Alongside interventions in schools, NWEA said states and cities have been investing in pre-kindergarten and early childhood programs in an effort to narrow gaps before children enter kindergarten. The report said California has introduced universal pre-kindergarten, New York City is expanding pre-kindergarten access to 2-year-olds, and New Mexico has made child care free for nearly all families.
These policies, and the literacy-focused changes inside classrooms, are now being tested against an emerging reality in early grades: reading appears to be the slowest to recover. NWEA said its report is based on assessments given during the 2024-25 school year, and it reported that reading scores remained roughly the same since the spring of 2021, when the first full school year in the pandemic was ending.