Kindergarteners who weren’t in school during pandemic struggle too

Affecting multiple school years, the pandemic caused K-12 students to fall behind academically. But according to test scores from the online assessment i-Ready, kindergarteners – children who were in diapers during the pandemic – need help catching up in academics as well, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

Compared to students entering kindergarten before the pandemic, current students started school with weaker math and reading skills and were less likely to start school at grade level, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

“We are still seeing sizable gaps in school readiness, in school performance for kids who weren’t even in school at the time of the pandemic,” Emily Oster, a Brown University researcher who has studied pandemic-era learning, told The Wall Street Journal. 

Based on reporting from The Wall Street Journal, possible causes include: lower participation in early-childhood education; decreased participation in kindergarten, which is optional in some states; the pandemic’s impact on families outside of school; and shifts in student enrollment or test participation.