How COVID Worsened the Racial Gap in Reading Achievement Scores

The Reading Gap for Minorities Post-Covid has Grown Even Larger

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted schooling for millions of U.S. students, resulting in significant learning loss, especially in reading. However, the learning loss is not evenly distributed across students. Students from low-income, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and have experienced greater learning loss than their peers. The pandemic has widened the preexisting achievement gaps in reading by race and income, and has also exacerbated the opportunity gaps in reading by race and income. The pandemic’s impact on reading achievement could have long-term consequences for students’ educational and economic prospects.

According to a federal study based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the average reading score for 9-year-old students fell 5 points between 2020 and 2022. This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990. Students of color saw some of the steepest decreases, widening the racial achievement gap. Reading scores dropped 6 points for white, Black and Hispanic students. For Asian American students, Native American students and students of two or more races, there was little change in reading between 2020 and 2022.

Another study based on the i-Ready assessment found that students, on average, started school in fall 2021 about four months behind in reading compared to pre-pandemic levels. Students from low-income schools started school with seven months of unfinished learning in reading, while students from high-income schools had four months.

The pandemic has not only affected students’ academic performance but also their social and emotional well-being. Many students have experienced stress, anxiety, depression, isolation, trauma, and grief due to the pandemic and its consequences. These factors can affect students’ motivation, engagement, attention, memory, and self-regulation, which are essential for learning.

The learning loss and opportunity gaps caused by the pandemic could have lasting implications for students’ future outcomes. One study estimated that the cumulative learning loss due to the pandemic could reduce students’ lifetime earnings by $49,000 to $61,000 on average. Another study projected that the pandemic could increase the racial achievement gap by 15 to 20 percent and the income achievement gap by 30 percent. These gaps could translate into lower rates of high school graduation, college enrollment and completion, and labor market participation for students from low-income and minority backgrounds.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the deep-rooted inequities in our education system. It has also highlighted the urgency and importance of ensuring that all students have access to high-quality education that prepares them for success in life. Unfortunately not all schools offer science-based reading instruction, and this lack of effective reading instruction is even more likely to occur in under-performing schools that serve low-income, Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities. Sometimes the only option for a parent in such a situation is to be proactive and actively seek-out alternative instruction for their children. The We All Can Read Online Program was created to specifically offer such an option for parents in this situation.