How COVID-19 Regular School Closures Could Impact DC Student Proficiency in 2020–21

RELEASED APRIL 2020

In mid-March when we understood less about how the pandemic would last, EmpowerK12 set out to estimate the impact of the pandemic and abrupt transition to distance learning on student achievement. We surveyed the literature for research on summer learning loss as well as other recent natural disasters such as Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Katrina. Then, we compared the similarity of those outcomes with DC-specific data points, including some DC-specific summer learning loss data and differentiated growth for students by attendance rate. Finally, we apply a model based on national research and local data to determine how PARCC achievement rates in 2021-2023 may be impacted.