Mid-year data from Amplify, a curriculum and assessment provider, shows that while the so-called 鈥淐OVID cohort鈥� of students in kindergarten, first and second grade are making progress, they haven鈥檛 caught up to where students in those grade levels were performing before schools shut down in March 2020.聽

At this point in the 2019-20 school year, for example, 58 percent of first-graders were scoring at or above the grade-level goals. This time last year 鈥� when only about half of the nation鈥檚 schools were offering full-time, in-person learning 鈥� 44 percent of first-graders were on track. Now 48 percent are reaching the benchmark.

Results from fourth- and fifth-graders, however, show greater recovery, with the rates of students meeting benchmarks nearly back to the same level they were in the winter of the 2019-20 school year.

鈥淟earning disruptions had a significant impact on our literacy outcomes,鈥� said Susan Lambert, chief academic officer of elementary humanities at Amplify. She added that this year鈥檚 quarantines and short-term closures have likely contributed to the slow progress. 鈥淔or the youngest learners to go to school for two or three days and then be out for 10 鈥� it鈥檚 not just picking up where you left off; it鈥檚 actually starting all over again.鈥�

Whether they skipped kindergarten and pre-K or spent much of their school years learning over Zoom, students in the primary grades didn鈥檛 have a normal introduction to reading. Educators note that less time to build vocabulary skills through socializing and disparities in children鈥檚 home lives 鈥� some had parents who read to them every night while others missed out 鈥� have contributed to the gaps. But reading experts and tutoring providers say they鈥檙e seeing students make strong gains with one-on-one support. The pandemic, they add, has only brought greater awareness to a persistent challenge. 

鈥淲hat has happened in the past couple years is more dramatic, but it鈥檚 not anything new for us who work in early literacy. Children have been struggling with reading for years and years,鈥� said Kate Bauer-Jones, who runs Future Forward, an early literacy and family engagement program that works with districts in Alabama, Georgia and Wisconsin. The program recently received a $14 million from the U.S. Department of Education to expand to eight more states.

to improve reading instruction continue to spread, but Kymyona Burk, senior policy fellow for early literacy at the Foundation for Excellence in Education, said it can take two to three years before districts start to see gains. Schools, she said, also need to identify children who might have learning disabilities and provide parents with materials to use at home.

She added that even when children returned to in-person learning, social distancing from peers and teachers still got in the way of listening and speaking, which contribute to early reading skills. 

The Amplify data also shows racial disparities, with Black and Hispanic students in K-2 not making as strong of a comeback as white students and gaps growing larger than they were before the pandemic.

Amplify assesses students with DIBELS, or Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills 鈥� a widely used measure of early reading development. The results are drawn from a national sample of 400,000 K-5 students from 1,300 schools in 37 states, allowing the researchers to compare pre-pandemic and current performance. While the schools in the research sample are more likely to be in large urban areas 鈥� and spent a longer period on remote or hybrid learning 鈥� Paul Gazzerro, Amplify鈥檚 director of data analytics, said he鈥檚 seeing similar performance across all schools using its assessment, which he described as 鈥渟obering.鈥�

DIBELS itself doesn鈥檛 involve a lot of reading, but helps to predict how well children develop literacy skills by testing how fast and accurately they identify words, explained Rachael Gabriel, an associate professor of literacy education at the University of Connecticut.

She agreed that racial gaps in the early grades are widening and that 鈥渟tudents are coming into K and 1 with different sets of skills鈥� than before the pandemic. But at the same time, schools are 鈥渄oubling down鈥� on remediation and using both virtual and in-person tutoring programs to help students catch up.

She urged parents without access to tutoring to keep reading and writing with their children.

鈥淭his doesn鈥檛 solve the problem,鈥� she said, 鈥渂ut it鈥檚 a protective factor that makes students more resilient鈥� when instruction doesn鈥檛 match their needs.

Future Forward鈥檚 tutors are seeing those needs up close.

鈥淲e have first-graders who can’t sing the alphabet song,鈥� Bauer-Jones said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing first graders coming in with no familiarity with text.鈥�

During remote learning, her tutors mailed magnetic letters, books and literacy materials to children鈥檚 homes. But even if students consistently participated in Zoom sessions, those were 鈥渋n no way, shape or form equivalent to in-person learning,鈥� she said. 

In fact, she added, tutors don鈥檛 see much difference in skills between young children who skipped pre-K or kindergarten in 2020-21 completely and those who spent much of that year in virtual learning.

Now that students are back in school, Bauer-Jones is concerned about the second graders who have 鈥渘ever had a normal school experience,鈥� she said, asking a question also on the minds of most teachers and parents: 鈥淲hat in the world are we going to see from those kids when they hit the third grade benchmark next year?鈥�

鈥楿ndoing the trauma鈥�

Many of this year鈥檚 third-graders also missed key opportunities to become stronger readers, said Jessica Sliwerski, CEO of Open Up Resources, a nonprofit curriculum provider, and founder of , a virtual tutoring model that offers students 15 minutes of one-on-one help over Zoom during the school day. Now in California, New York and Massachusetts, the program will serve 1,000 students by this fall. 

Sliwerski acknowledged the challenges of expanding tutoring, but noted that depending on volunteers can limit a program鈥檚 success. Her tutors aren鈥檛 volunteers; they make $20 per hour.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 affect sustainable change through reliance on volunteers,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 want people who might go work in an Amazon warehouse to come be a tutor.鈥�

She recounted how In October, some third graders tested at kindergarten and first grade levels, when by the end of first, they should be automatically recognizing words and reading them fluently. 

Results from a pilot program at Kipp Bridge Academy in West Oakland showed that when tutors began working with the third graders on decoding skills, they responded with 77 percent accuracy on a DIBELS 鈥渙ral reading fluency鈥� test. After 53 days, their accuracy increased to 86 percent.

Sliwerski called the growth 鈥減owerful.鈥�

鈥淚t’s changing their identities as readers and undoing the trauma that they brought into the program when they said things like, 鈥業’m not a good reader鈥� and 鈥業 hate reading,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淭his group of students will not necessarily leave us on grade level, but will leave us as stronger, more accurate decoders.鈥�