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Reading Scores Stall for Young Students While Math Shows Gains in 2024-25
NWEA reports 1st and 2nd graders show stagnant reading and partial math recovery post-pandemic, with math gains about one month behind pre-pandemic levels, per spring 2025 data.
- On March 10, 2026, NWEA released an analysis showing 1st- and 2nd-graders scored below pre-pandemic peers on 2024–25 assessments, with math edging up while reading stayed flat.
- Pandemic-Era closures and early-learning losses left preschool attendance falling from 48% to 40%, with thousands of child-care centers closing and societal shifts hindering reading development.
- The NWEA report shows 1st- and 2nd-graders scored below pre-pandemic levels on 2024–25 assessments, with math shortfalls of about a third of a month for 1st graders and one month for 2nd graders.
- NWEA recommends that state and district leaders identify system-level issues like staffing and curriculum challenges, while many districts expand pre-kindergarten programs and increase phonics support.
- Amid tight budgets, NWEA warns that shortfalls reflect 'broader, longer-lasting system-level challenges,' and Megan Kuhfeld said, 'We can't pinpoint one specific cause'.
18 Articles
18 Articles
First and second graders born during their pandemic are worse at math and reading
When COVID-19 wrought havoc on society in early 2020, today’s youngest schoolchildren were infants or yet to be born. Now in their early school years, researchers are beginning to see how the pandemic years have shaped their education, even though many had yet to set foot in a classroom when it began. First and second graders continue to perform worse than their pre-pandemic counterparts on math and reading tests, according to a report published…
Reading scores for young kids lag years after pandemic: Research
New research shows students who were not school age during the COVID-19 pandemic are struggling to catch up in reading despite avoiding the classroom disruptions older students experienced. NWEA, a nonprofit education research group, released a report this week looking at current students in grades kindergarten through second, who were babies or in daycare during the pandemic. Comparing spring 2017 to…
Young kids missed the pandemic’s school disruptions. Their reading scores are still behind.
When COVID-19 wrought havoc on society in early 2020, today’s youngest schoolchildren were infants or yet to be born. Now in their early school years, researchers are beginning to see how the pandemic years have shaped their education, even though many had yet to set foot in a classroom when it began.
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Young kids missed the pandemic’s school disruptions. Their reading scores are still behind. - The Boston Globe
First and second graders continue to perform worse than their pre-pandemic counterparts on math and reading tests, according to a report published Tuesday by the education assessment and research group NWEA.
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