California Students Lose 5 Months Progress in Math Over Pandemic

California students lost nearly half a year’s worth of math progress from 2019 to 2022, according to a recent study measuring pandemic learning loss by researchers at Stanford and Harvard universities.

The “Education Recovery Scorecard” study, published in October, used previous compared pre-pandemic academic progress to that made over the pandemic.

The study found that California students lost an average of almost five months of progress in math, and one month in reading over the past three years.

The data also shows urban districts suffered more math loss than rural, suburban, or town districts.

California’s two largest districts—Los Angeles Unified and San Diego Unified—mirrored the state’s numbers in math.

However, in reading, both districts fared slightly better than the state average, though both still reported some loss.

Despite that, Los Angeles’ numbers show a smaller decline overall than its 2019 numbers, scoring slightly better than in 2018.

Meanwhile in Orange County, districts that usually make progress lost some ground in math.

Capistrano, Irvine, Placencia-Yorba Linda, Newport-Mesa, and Orange unified school districts, along with Fullerton Elementary lost between two and three months’ worth of math learning over the pandemic. All districts previously made some sort of progress in math pre-pandemic, according to the report.

Orange Unified, Santa Ana Unified, and Anaheim Elementary lost nearly five to six months of math progress.

But several Orange County school districts made small gains in reading—Fountain Valley, Capistrano, and Irvine unified school districts, and Fullerton and Cypress elementary schools.

Orange Unified and Placencia-Yorba Linda Unified maintained their reading scores from 2019, while Newport-Mesa Unified and Anaheim Elementary lost about a month’s worth of reading progress.

Thomas Kane, a Harvard professor and author of the study, said the report is intended to help districts understand where they need to improve.

“Our hope is that policymakers and educators can use these detailed data to better target education recovery efforts toward the communities, schools, and students who were most harmed by the pandemic,” Kane said in the report.

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