Nearly five years after COVID-19 forced schools to shutter, a recent analysis of standardized test scores shows that students nationwide and in Nevada remain half a year behind in reading and math — and the causes stretch well beyond the pandemic itself. 

The Education Recovery Scorecard — a collaboration between education policy researchers at Harvard University, Stanford University and Dartmouth College — looked at the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores of 15 Nevada school districts. 

The latest scores released last month show that students nationwide have made some gains in math, but are not yet back to their pre-pandemic levels in both subjects. Nevada fourth graders saw no significant improvement in reading. Meanwhile, eighth graders saw drops in their math and reading results. 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jhone Ebert noted Nevada was one of 13 states to post higher average student scores in grade 4 math in 2024 compared to 2022.

“While that is encouraging, at the same time, these results are sobering,” Ebert said in a Jan. 29 statement. 

The researchers behind the scorecard estimate that Nevada students remain half a grade level behind the progress they typically make annually between grades 4 through grade 8 and ranks it 25th among states in math recovery and 23rd in reading recovery. 

The report points to the rise of student chronic absenteeism in the wake of the pandemic that many states and districts are still reeling from long after schools reopened as one reason behind their slow academic recovery. 

“The pandemic may have been the earthquake, but chronic absenteeism is the tsunami that is still running through schools,” said Tom Kane, the faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research. 

Unpacking the scores

Kane said in order to catch up, students would have to learn 125 percent of what they typically learn in one year for two years in a row, which he said would require additional instruction time such as summer school or high dosage tutoring.

“Students are not going to learn 125 percent of what they typically learn just by having teachers talk faster,” he said. 

Another big hurdle for schools are high levels of chronic absenteeism that persist years after schools fully reopened. Students are considered chronically absent when they miss 10 percent or more of school days for any reason. Experts say some of the root causes of absenteeism include barriers to attendance, aversion to school, disengagement and misconceptions about the impact of absences.

Although Nevada is making progress in its chronic absenteeism rate — 26 percent during the 2023-24 school year — it’s still higher than its pre-pandemic rate of 19 percent. 

Nationwide, chronic absenteeism decreased from its high of 30 percent of students in the 2021-22 school year to 28 percent in 2022-23, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education. 

“So it's not like here we are discussing things that happened back in 2021 and they're having lingering effects on kids,” Kane said. “No, we're saying that there are ongoing things that are slowing students’ learning down and we don't know what all of them are, but at least one of them is absenteeism.” 

Megan Griffard, an associate professor of educational policy at UNLV, is encouraged by fourth graders’ results but notes that eighth graders' academic progress was likely hurt because of the pandemic interrupting their early years of schooling when they typically learn their foundational reading skills. 

“I think what that says is that some of the services and things that we’re providing in the state in terms of target funding and support for students who are English language learners and students who are receiving targeted at-risk funding … some of that is working,” Griffard said “Obviously, we still have a lot more work to do, but I think that we're doing some things that are heading in the right direction.”

She worries about how long pandemic learning loss will continue to affect students — particularly those experiencing poverty, students from marginalized backgrounds and English language learners — through their K-12 education and beyond. 

Taking action

While the nearly $200 billion that K-12 schools receive across three rounds of federal COVID relief funding has expired, Kane said researchers recommend states leverage other existing funds such as federal dollars for Title I schools that serve a high percentage of students from low-income households to offer tutoring and summer learning opportunities. 

Lawmakers in 2023 attempted but ultimately failed to pass SB340, which would have required Nevada school districts and charter schools to provide summer school in 2023 and 2024 as well as transportation and school meals without allocating dedicated funding.

This session, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo is proposing legislation that would facilitate students leaving underperforming schools and has reiterated his desire for more educational accountability.

The report also recommends mayors, community leaders and employers join schools in tackling student absenteeism, rather than putting all of the responsibility on school leaders’ shoulders. It suggests initiatives such as public information campaigns, extracurricular activities to draw students to school and solutions to transportation barriers. 

Kane said the center will also keep an eye on reforms states are adopting such as laws on reading instruction and cellphone bans in classrooms and whether those have any positive effects on students’ academic performance. Nevada does not have a state law on students’ use of cellphones, but school districts such as Clark, Washoe, Nye and Carson City have adopted different policies to curb phone use.