Research Wednesdays | July 17th, 2024

Dear Friends,

This week’s evidence comes from a large (3 million students) study of primary age students – K-2 based on iReady data from Curriculum Associates.  The results are dismal with this group of students showing lower reading levels and slower growth than before the pandemic.  Entering kindergarten and grade 1, students have lower levels of reading readiness – obviously, not related to missed school during those grades.  There are two likely causes.  First, these students largely missed pre-school.  Second, during the pandemic, family and friend visits were also missed, removing many informal opportunities for social interaction and being read to by grandparents and other relatives.  Third and most importantly, schools have failed to provide meaningful opportunities to catch up, with their time allocation and schedule largely unchanged. The vast majority of schools have the same time allocation as in the pre-pandemic years.  Students who are 1-2 grade levels behind are at greatest risk for continuing the literacy tragedy. 

One solution is to expand transitional kindergarten for struggling readers. This will not only address the immediate needs for students to gain literacy skills before they continue the downward trajectory evident in too many students (the study said that more than twice the number of students below grade level in 2019 are now below grade level), but this solution could also maintain student enrollment at rates that are essential for school funding – rates that are declining around the nation, and especially in California.  The most important solution is to have administrators at every grade level – elementary, middle, and high school, to give students and teachers the time they need to regain literacy skills. It’s not summer school or after school, but interventions during the school day.  

To temper this bad news with a bit of good news, selective colleges that eliminated mandatory SAT and ACT tests saw significant increases in the applications and enrollment of African American and Hispanic students.