Post-Pandemic Academic Struggles for U.S. Elementary School Students
According to a study published by Curriculum Associates in the United States, younger elementary school students need more reading and math support. When analyzing data from the pre-pandemic period from 2016 to 2019 and post-pandemic student data from 2021 to 2024, it was found that students who were 3 and 4 years old during the pandemic were the most behind. Curriculum Associates researchers stated that 1.3 million of the 3.5 million second graders in the U.S. are behind in reading, and 1.7 million are behind in math, warning that these gaps may widen over time.
The study also revealed that students from low-income or minority communities in the U.S. continue to perform lower than pre-COVID levels. Students whose families have an annual average income below $50,000 or between $50,000 and $75,000 show lower success compared to pre-pandemic trends, while schools with predominantly Black or Hispanic students have seen a significant drop in academic performance compared to previous years.
Mark Sullivan, superintendent of Birmingham City Schools in Alabama, stated that special training was provided to teachers and that families were involved in student learning to improve the performance of younger elementary school students. Curriculum Associates’ study also found that students who were in the fourth grade in 2021 showed an increase in reading and math performance compared to pre-pandemic levels.
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