National test results released last month show that not a single state scored above pre-pandemic levels in both math and reading, despite nearly $190 billion given to schools in federal pandemic relief funds.Â
At Kramer Middle School in Washington, D.C., eighth grader Aiyden Wiggins told CBS News he struggled with math after coming back to full-time in-person learning.Â
He and his classmates spent about 1.5 years in remote learning through the pandemic.
Mohamed Koroma, an eighth grade English Language Arts teacher, said, “We’re still trying to fill in those gaps that they didn’t get at the lower levels. Because it’s hard to grapple with the eighth grade text if you are on a lower reading level.”
A study released Tuesday from Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth also cites a widespread rise in absenteeism, especially in high-poverty districts.
“The biggest thing is to just get them inside the building,” Koroma said. “Once we get them in the building, learning is gonna happen.”
District of Colombia Public Schools chronic absenteeism was at 37% for the 2023-2024 school year, down from 41% the previous school year.
But the new study found some bright spots: Despite the overall nationwide drop, more than 100 local school districts are performing better than they were before the pandemic in math and reading.Â
Public schools in Washington, D.C., aren’t there yet, but over the last two years, the nation’s capital ranked first in the country in terms of recovery in math and reading — a marked improvement considering it ranks 32nd in math recovery from 2019-2024, and fifth in reading over that same time period.
Kramer Middle School Principal Katreena Shelby said the turnaround at her school came when she “started thinking maybe I need to think about this differently.”
“How can we make classroom sizes smaller, but give kids more opportunities to get remediation during the school day?” she said.
One of the solutions was what’s known as high-impact tutoring, where tutors are brought in to help students in the classroom during school hours. It’s a program that’s been successful in other districts as well.Â
Washington also invested some of its pandemic funds in more teachers, giving $1,000 stipends to some who completed literacy training courses.
Koroma says the training and professional development is “making me a better teacher… Because our instruction improved, I think the quality of the work that the students are providing has improved.”Â
“Giving kids that additional support in literacy and math didn’t just impact how we were able to grow literacy skills, we also were able to reduce truancy by 20% in one year,” Shelby said, adding that seeing their own progress, “was encouraging them.”
“They would come and run to me and say, Hey, look, here’s my new math score. Look what I did in [English Language Arts]. And they were so excited to show me and that excitement translated into them coming to school more frequently,” she said.
Aiyden Wiggins agrees. He says his own attendance has improved. “It’s just the enjoyment and the energy at school,” he said that makes him want to keep coming back.
