Analysis of Teachers’ Instructional Practices for Recovery of Pandemic Learning Loss

• In Event: Using NAEP Data to Understand Student Experiences and Achievement During the Pandemic

Abstract

Recent NAEP results show a learning loss for fourth-grade students in reading. For example, the 2022 average reading score for public school students was lower by 3 points compared to 2019, the last NAEP administration before the COVID-pandemic, and was lower than all previous assessment years dating back to 2007. A study of 5.4 million U.S. students in grades 3 to 8 also reported that students’ 2021 fall reading scores were approximately 0.09 to 0.18 standard deviations lower than same-grade peers in the fall of 2019 (Kuhfeld et al., 2022).

Some level of learning loss is well expected, given the severity of the pandemic effect on school operations. However, what concerns educators more is that low-performing students struggled more during the pandemic than their high-performing peers. For example, Fahle and colleagues (2023) analyzed achievement data from approximately 7,800 school districts. They reported larger learning losses for students in high-poverty and high-racial-minority districts that typically show lower academic performance. The recent NAEP data also shows that the average reading score drops for fourth-grade students were larger for students at the 10th percentile compared to those at the 90th percentile (NCES, 2022).

In addition to measuring students’ academic performance, the 2022 NAEP surveyed teachers of sampled students about their instructional practices to address the COVID learning loss. As an attempt to better understand teachers’ COVID learning loss recovery efforts, this study analyzes NAEP teacher questionnaire items to determine how teachers provide instructional support to students and whether such practices vary depending on students’ achievement levels.

Preliminary analysis of 2022 fourth-grade public school reading data using the NAEP Data Explorer (NDE), a free online data analysis tool, shows that about 24 percent of students had teachers who administered diagnostic assessments to evaluate gaps between knowledge/skills and achievement standards once or twice a week or more. For the same frequency, 73 percent of students had teachers that reported providing remedial measures to reduce the gaps; 71 percent reviewed content that students should have learned the previous school year; 86 percent provided individualized support based on specific learning gaps; 30 percent provided parents or guardians with at-home learning materials or activities to review contents that students should have learned the previous school year. These results show that teachers are putting much effort into analyzing learning gaps and providing necessary instructional support to reduce such gaps (see Table 1 for additional results). When comparing the percentage distribution by NAEP achievement level, a higher percentage of students performing below NAEP Basic had teachers reporting providing remedial measures and individualized support to reduce the learning gaps every day or almost every day compared to the students at the NAEP Advanced level. The final presentation will include the multilevel regression analysis of these items accounting for overall school performance and other contextual factors such as student SES and English learner status.

Author

• B. Jasmine Park, American Institutes for Research