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It’s now been three years since schools were shut down because of the pandemic, but the impact is still being felt.

The Northwest Evaluation Association released new research Tuesday that suggests education gaps are still widening.
The study took fall and spring test scores from nearly 6.7 million students to estimate learning progress. That information was then compared to pre-Covid benchmarks.

Unfortunately, the results show that all but the third graders are learning math and reading slower than they did before the lockdowns. That includes a 19-percent drop in sixth-grade reading levels and a 15-percent drop in fifth-grade math gains.

The study’s lead researcher, Kathryn Lewis, says it won’t be easy to close that gap. The NWEA warns that most students now need an extra 4.5 months of math instruction and 4.1 months of reading instruction to fully recover.