Post-pandemic achievement recovery based on student characteristics and district-level policies

September 2026

It is well-established that student achievement has declined dramatically since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, less is known how these patterns may vary by developmental timing of exposure to the pandemic and how district-level policies may have influenced student recovery. This descriptive study examined patterns of achievement across middle childhood during and after the COVID-19 pandemic for the population of Grade 3 through 8 students attending North Carolina public schools, and the role of pandemic relief policy in mitigating learning loss (2017-2023; N=1,463,253, 51% Male, 25% Black, 20% Hispanic, 45% White). Students showed evidence of recovery in academic achievement, though scores still lag behind pre-pandemic benchmarks. Low-income students demonstrated strong evidence of recovery in reading. Younger students (Grade 3 in 2021) demonstrated the strongest rates of recovery across subjects, suggesting important variation based on the developmental timing of exposure to the pandemic. Finally, district-level policies of in-person instruction and pandemic relief funding explained only modest variation in achievement scores above and beyond pre-pandemic levels of achievement. These findings contribute to a growing body of pandemic-era literature by examining heterogeneity in achievement recovery by developmental timing of exposure and district-level policies.

Keywords

COVID-19, longitudinal, middle childhood, academic trajectories, developmental processes

Education level

K-12 Education

Topics

Student Learning