A new national analysis from the  Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University and the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard. finds that although American students have made up some ground since COVID-19 school closures, many remain far behind. The analysis tracks student proficiency based on standardized tests from 2019-2023 and shows that in math, which saw the most learning loss, students have made up about a third of their loss. In reading they’ve made up about a quarter. When the federal emergency funds run out next year—$122 billion, the biggest package in history— students will still need much support that states will have to provide. And those students who need the most support are primarily low-income students. 

That’s not true across the board: some wealthy school districts saw little recovery while some poor ones saw impressive growth.  Analysts note large differences in how much of the aid —the lowest-income students were allotted about $6,200 each—was earmarked for interventions like high-dosage tutoring and how much districts spent on non-academic needs like facility renovations. According to the New York Times, Weakley County, Tennessee, a lower-income district, allocated more than three-fourths of their grant to academic recovery. As a result, student reading scores are back where they were pre-pandemic. (Note: Tennessee’s state education department gave districts big incentives to spend at least half of their COVID money on academics although federal guidance required  only 20%.  Another variable was how long schools were closed; most of Tennessee’s school districts were open in August 2020.)

How are New Jersey students faring?

According to the Executive Summary of the analysis, New Jersey is one of  eight states with the largest losses in math achievement; students here lost more than 70% of a grade-level during the pandemic. (The other seven states are Virginia, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Connecticut, Mississippi, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.) Some states had more vigorous recoveries than others; for example, Mississippi students improved by more than a third of a grade level in one year, which analysts call “a remarkable achievement, since it implies that the average student learned 133% or more of the typical learning.”

For states that are struggling—this includes New Jersey—analysts urge the following steps:

1. This spring, schools should inform parents if their child is below grade level in math or English so that parents have time to enroll in summer learning. Parents cannot advocate if they are misinformed. Research shows that parents take specific actions when they know their child is behind grade level.
2. Schools should expand summer learning seats this summer. States should require districts to set aside sufficient funds to accept all students who sign up. Research has shown that six weeks of summer learning produces a fourth of a year of learning, especially in math.
3. Districts can extend the recovery efforts into the next school year by contracting for high-quality tutoring and after-school programs before September. Although the federal relief dollars cannot be used to pay school employee salaries after September, they can be used to make payments on contracts that are signed before the deadline. (
4. Local government, employers and community leaders should get involved in helping schools

How is your district doing? You can look up your children’s school district by clicking here but let’s look at a few examples:

In Newark Public Schools, our largest district, test scores are still substantially below what they were pre-pandemic:

Paterson Public Schools showed little recovery from last year:

At Trenton Public Schools, test scores are flat:

In Camden they’re very slightly up:

Asbury Park’s were flat from last year to this year:

Lakewood is up almost a full point from last year and well above scores pre-pandemic (the district opened earlier than many other NJ districts):

For a sense of inequities embodied in a system that links ZIP code to district assignment, check out Millburn:

Yet money isn’t everything: Here’s South Orange-Maplewood:

Important note: Many parents rely on report cards for indications of their children’s academic progress yet report card grades are wildly inflated. According to Learning Heroes, over 90% of parents still think their child is at or above grade level.  That’s one reason we need standardized testing and also why the analysts note, “parents cannot advocate if they are misinformed.”

EXPLAINER: Forget Report Cards; Here’s How to Measure Your Child’s Academic Progress