Test scores show American students slipping further behind despite recovery efforts

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press

A new analysis shows students across the U.S. fell further behind academically last school year despite extensive efforts to help them recover from learning setbacks tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. The research released Tuesday comes from NWEA, a nonprofit research group that administers standardized tests. The analysis found that the average student will need the equivalent of 4.1 additional months of schooling to catch up in reading and 4.5 months for math. The study used data from about 6.5 million students who took the MAP Growth assessment in reading and math since the onset of the pandemic.