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The Post-Covid American Student Literacy Crisis is a United States Education crisis representing the recent and rapid decline of school enrollment, mathematic and reading comprehension, chronic absenteeism,[1] as well as a statistic decrease in average test scores and passed courses.[2][3][4][5]
The pandemic was not the all-encompassing cause of the crisis. Advocates raised concerns about declining reading comprehension and classroom performance in 2019.[6]
Causes
Switch to Online Learning
In midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic, starting in March 2020 of the 2019-2020 school year, nationwide schools began committing to 3-8 week periods of absences from in-person school, to be replaced with online class, typically over zoom. This initial commitment for students transformed into capricious and experimental mixes by various locales of full online learning, hybrid courses, and in-person instruction with face masks, until the 2022-23 school year. The latter being an unknown and unusual way of life for United States citizens, causing political controversy, particularly in regards to school mandates.
Students in schools who received longer periods of remote education had a correlated decrease of reading and mathematics achievement.[7] During remote learning, academically struggling students delayed proper progress due to fewer opportunities to have meaningful teacher intervention, thus worsening their proficiency.[8] In Ohio, english language arts comprehension and test scores declined uniformly across grades 3-10.[9] Similar trends appeared in a multitude of states.[10][11][12][13][14][15]
Mental health
COVID-19 lockdowns contributed to a worldwide economic recession. Not limited by, but included financial, interpersonal, and health challenges. This led to family stress and a hike in childhood mental health problems.
Youth mental health had been an extensive issue prior to the pandemic. Since 2007, suicide has been the second leading cause of death for 10-24 year olds.[16][17] Childhood anxiety and depression diagnoses have increased dramatically between 2016-2020.[18]
An estimated 203,649 children under 18 in the United States, a ratio of 1:360, lost a caregiver or parent to Covid-19. Seventy percent of the 203,649 were under the age of 13.[19] Childhood grief is now more prevalent an issue.[20]
For children in troubled homes, with alcoholic or abusive parents, distance learning meant they had no escape.[21]
For younger students during lockdowns and remote learning, many had friendship networks dissolve, putting their social development and lives on complete pause. The return from remote learning to an in-person school schedule led to challenges in anxiety unlike other generations past's experience.
Educators say they also see a concerning increase in apathy — about grades, how students treat each other and themselves — and a lot less empathy.“I have never seen kids be so mean to each other in my life,”[21]
Teacher Shortage
Teacher retention has been an issue for the past ten years, with there being a gradual flight of teachers especially in the public education sector.[22] Opportunities for better pay, drawbacks of personal freedoms, behavioral classroom obstacles, and heavy stress[23] have been central components in the gradual fleeing of educators, as well as the decrease of young adults willing to begin a career in K-12 education.
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated these trends. In Arkansas during the 2021-22 school year, only 77.6% of teachers were retained in their original schools.[24]