Low-SES Prekindergarten Children Have Acquired Less Mathematical Knowledge During the Covid-19 Pandemic

• In Event: The Impact of COVID-19 on Early Learning

Abstract

Studies have found that mathematics and reading achievement of elementary school children fell during the initial years of the Covid-19 pandemic (e.g., NCES, 2022). The NWEA student achievement test indicated that math scores of children in grades 3-8 fell by 5%-10% during this period (Kuhfeld, 2020). Little has been reported, however, about the impact of the pandemic on school readiness in younger children. Most public early childhood programs, including Early Head Start, Head Start, and state-funded pre-kindergarten programs closed during the middle of the 2019-20 school year and remained closed to in-person instruction the following year. Was children’s loss of time in early childhood programs associated with less learning needed to prepare them for elementary school? To answer this, a study will be reported on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on young children’s mathematical learning and development.

The pandemic-related school closures presented the authors with a natural experiment in which to test whether young children acquired less mathematical knowledge during the initial years of the pandemic. At the beginning of the 2019-20 school year, prior to the onset of the pandemic in the United States, a cohort (Cohort 1a) of high-need 4-year-olds was assessed at pretest on the Child Math Assessment (CMA) as part of a national clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of early math enrichment on pre-kindergarten children’s math learning in public preschool programs. In winter/spring of that school year the pandemic began, and early childhood programs suddenly closed. Consequently, this cohort of children could not be assessed at posttest at the end of the school year. In the 2021-22 school year, several of these programs re-opened for in-person instruction. A new cohort (Cohort 1b) of high-need 4-year-olds were assessed at pretest on the CMA. We compared the CMA scores of the two cohorts of children (N=1.064) from the same early childhood programs in the same communities, representing the southern half of the United States. Pretest scores of Cohort 1b children were 7.5% lower than scores of Cohort 1a children, a difference that was statistically significant, t (759) = 2.13, p<.05. Cohort 1b children had acquired less mathematical knowledge by the beginning of pre-k than their Cohort 1b peers had acquired, arguably due to a loss in learning opportunities stemming from closures of Early Head Start, Head Start and other early childhood programs during the pandemic. Consequently, high-need children are entering preschool with less mathematical knowledge than before the pandemic. Having a less extensive base of mathematical knowledge makes it more difficult for schools to implement rigorous K-12 mathematics standards, and it increases the risk for children to experience learning difficulties in mathematics. A conclusion drawn from this finding is that the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the need for early mathematics enrichment to help children catch up.

Authors

• Prentice Starkey, WestEd
  Presenting Author

• Alice S Klein

• Lydia DeFlorio, University of Nevada Reno

• Jaime Thomas