Five years ago this month, the world changed—and while every sector of the economy and corner of society was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the field of education was particularly hard hit.

The reverberations of the pandemic still echo through school hallways as teachers, administrators, and policy-makers struggle to help our students close the academic gaps that resulted from interrupted learning. Sadly, our students have not caught up to pre-pandemic levels, leaving this generation of students at risk of slipping through the cracks. Let’s look at the state of Covid-19 learning loss today and the steps parents can take to help their children catch up.

The Kids Are Not Alright

At the end of the 2020-21 school year, during which students navigated remote learning, interrupted learning, and hybrid learning, experts estimated that students were about 5 months behind where they otherwise should have been had the pandemic not occurred.

Where are we 5 years later?

According to research from the Fordham Institute, “94 percent of elementary and middle schoolers live in districts that still have not returned to pre-pandemic levels in math and reading.” No matter which metric researchers use – NAEP assessments, state assessments, i-Ready assessments – the conclusion remains the same: students are nowhere near catching up.

Researchers with Arizona State University’s Center on Reinventing Public Education estimate that as of fall 2024, the average student had recovered only about a third of their pandemic-era learning losses in math and a quarter in reading. Thomas Kane, faculty director at Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research says, “Children have resumed learning, but largely at the same pace as before the pandemic. There’s no hurrying up teaching fractions or the Pythagorean theorem.”

The Hardest Hit Age Group

Although all students experienced Covid-19 learning loss, some were harder hit than others. Students who are in 7th to 10th grade right now face some of the biggest struggles. The most recent NAEP results (also known as the Nation’s Report Card) showed that 8th grade students lost significant ground in math and reading, wiping out decades of progress.

These students were at a pivotal point in their learning when the pandemic hit: they were in 2nd to 5th grade, the years in which students learn the foundational reading and math skills that will carry them through middle and high school and beyond. Older students were better equipped to handle the demands of self-paced remote learning, but elementary students lacked the maturity necessary for remote instruction.

Now, five years later, these same students are trying to build their math and reading skills on a faulty foundation. Their struggles are particularly concerning because they have only a few short years before they finish high school, and unless these learning gaps are addressed, they will be unprepared for college.

Steps Parents Can Take

There are many systemic issues exacerbating the continued Covid-19 learning gap, from low teacher morale to declining enrollment to grade inflation. As parents, there is little we can do to address such large-scale issues, but there are steps that we can take to ensure that our children don’t become a part of the lost generation.

Don’t rely on grades to identify problems.

Amidst growing grade inflation and rising pressure to ensure high pass rates, grades simply aren’t as reflective of learning as they once were. Many parents are not aware that their children are behind because their children’s report cards don’t raise red flags. Carefully consider teacher feedback and standardized assessment results to confirm your child’s progress, especially in the key areas of math and reading.

Tutoring is the best proven solution for learning loss.

One piece of good news about Covid learning loss is that research has identified effective interventions. An analysis by researchers from Brown and the University of Virginia confirmed other findings that intensive tutoring is an effective intervention for combatting learning loss, yielding months of additional student learning per year. If you’re concerned about your child’s academic wellbeing, tutoring is a straightforward solution.

Children need to read for pleasure.

Even before the pandemic, reading scores were declining across various student groups. Unsurprisingly, this correlates with declines in the percentage of students who report reading for pleasure. During last year’s NAEP assessments, about one-third of 13-year-olds reported that they “never or hardly ever” read for fun. This is a significant increase from just a decade ago, when just 22% reported never reading pleasure.

Communication is key.

Keep the lines of communication between parents, children, and teachers open. This helps identify problems before they become bigger issues, allowing you to step in to better support your child before an academic struggle gets out of hand.

We may not be able to solve systemic issues, but we can take steps to protect the academic wellbeing of our children. By staying involved in our children’s education, seeking help when needed, and encouraging our children to learn outside the classroom, we can ensure that this next generation is ready to succeed in spite of – or maybe even because of – their pandemic experiences.