Pandemic Learning Loss Hit the U.S. Hard. It’s as Bad or Worse Across the World.

livemint.com:

The most comprehensive global look at test scores since the pandemic shows learning loss is a stubborn worldwide problem, with American 15-year-olds experiencing similar or slightly less severe setbacks compared with peers in other countries. Economically developed nations saw substantial drops in reading and math on international exams, according to new data released Tuesday. U.S.

scores also declined sharply in math but held roughly steady in reading. Among 37 participating countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which coordinates the exam, the U.S.’s scores now rank sixth in reading, 12th in science and 28th in math. These were slight improvements compared with 2018, the last time the exam was given.

“Learning loss due to the pandemic was a global phenomenon," said Martin West, the academic dean at Harvard Graduate School of Education. “We’ve never seen, in an international assessment, consistent declines across a large number of school systems in the way we see here." The Program for International Student Assessment was administered last year to 15-year-olds in math, reading and science. That included a sample of 4,600 U.S.

students who were typically in 10th grade when they took the test. U.S. students’ math scores fell by 13 points between 2018 and 2022, compared with a decline of 15 points for the typical country in the OECD.

Twenty points is roughly equivalent to a year’s worth of learning. In reading, OECD countries fell by 10 points on average, while the U.S. scores were statistically unchanged.

Science results were essentially flat in both the U.S. and in OECD countries overall. Several countries—including Canada, Estonia and Japan—performed better than average on all three