Wisconsin Reading Achievement Scores Returning Back to 2019 Levels, Students Still Struggling with Math

Tuesday, February 13th, 2024 -- 10:00 AM

(Corrinne Hess, Wisconsin Public Radio) Wisconsin reading achievement scores are returning back to 2019 levels, but students are still struggling to make up for pandemic learning losses in math, according to a new report. 

According to Corrinne Hess with Wisconsin Public Radio, researchers at Stanford and Harvard found U.S. students achieved historic gains in math and reading during the 2022-23 school year, the first full year of recovery from the pandemic.

But despite those improvements, students still made up only one-third of the pandemic loss in math and one-quarter of the loss in reading. “Students overall haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels of achievement,” said study co-author Sean Reardon, faculty director of the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University. “But clear progress is being made.”

School districts are worried the learning achievements made could be lost when federal pandemic funds run out this fall. Even if they maintain last year’s pace, students will not be caught up by the time federal relief expires in September, the report found.

Between 2019 and 2022, achievement in Wisconsin fell by 37 percent of a grade equivalent in math and 28 percent in reading, according to the report. Between 2022 and 2023, math achievement across the state increased by 22 percent, but most districts remain far below 2019 levels.

The achievement gaps between high- and low-poverty districts in Wisconsin have widened, but that’s the result of larger initial losses in poor districts and the slower recovery of poor students within the average district, Reardon said.

“The recovery has been pretty even, but it’s not undoing the inequality,” Reardon said. “So in other words, kids in most districts are recovering, on average about the same amount. But because the poor districts fell behind so much further, they’re still much further behind.”

Educators in the school districts have used similar outreach and programing to try to reach students with the help of federal pandemic funds.

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