DC students' winter 23-24 test scores on nationally normed assessments show signs of learning acceleration in math and reading, achieving more than typical year's worth of growth on average. However, there are still large performance gaps compared to pre-COVID norms. K-2 students are on pace to return to pre-pandemic literacy achievement levels by this time next year.

This brief is a continuation of EmpowerK12’s ongoing research into DC students’ academic recovery and progress post-pandemic. Our prior reporting from 2021-22 showed staggering drops in literacy and numeracy skills in early grades due to COVID.

EK12 partnered with DC charter school networks, local school-based mental health experts from schools, and the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools at GW to learn how DC students and educators feel about and experience life and school during the pandemic. This update provides results from spring 2022 ThriveK12 wellbeing survey results.

In mid-March 2020, when we understood less about how the pandemic would last, EK12 set out to estimate the possible impact of the pandemic and abrupt transition to distance learning on student achievement. This brief summarizes research on school interruptions and our estimation methodology.