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Reading achievement among under-resourced K-2 students before, during, and after COVID-19 educational disruptions
Alyssa R Palmer1,2, Patricia Tan1,3, Hilary J Aralis1,4
1Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States.
Abstract:
COVID-19 disrupted early reading development, especially for under-resourced students. Few studies have evaluated early reading skill recovery after the return to in-person instruction. This study tracked reading achievement among 236,701 kindergarten through second-grade students from the academic year 2019-2020 to 2023-2024 (48.7% female; 69.8% Latine). Children had lower reading performance and less growth during remote instruction (2020-2021) compared with the pre-COVID cohort. Reading scores improved once in-person learning resumed. Kindergarten students who experienced remote instruction during COVID-19 demonstrated reading achievement recovery by the second grade. We also assessed if increased school-level (N = 467) support services were related to reading skill growth. Results demonstrated that early reading skill recovery is possible after mass disruptions.
