The pandemic highlighted vital roles in school systems, from learning and socialization to nutrition programs, transportation, and mental health. As of 2024, California students are half a year behind their 2019 predecessors, remaining 31% of a grade equivalent below pre-pandemic levels. They are not the only state falling behind. A pandemic isn’t something education institutions, or anywhere, can just shake off, but have to innovate to stay connected with their students.
Here are 3 things schools are still feeling from the pandemic:
Continued Learning loss
Since the pandemic, researchers have kept an eye on proficiency rates, exposing a decline in both English and Math. Math revealed deep declines and large gaps when compared to the prepandemic trend. There is an interactive dataset showing the “learning trajectories” that will be kept up to date on K-12 learning scores.
Teacher and Student Declining Retention
K-12 enrollment peaked in 2019 with almost 50.8 million students in public school, but since the pandemic it hasn’t recovered. Since the pandemic, more families have sought alternatives to public schools such as private, charter, and homeschooling. For teachers, inflation has risen faster than salaries, even as several states have approved teacher pay increases. This leads to nearly 1 in 5 teachers having second jobs outside school during the school year. Pay is only one factor in the declining teacher rate, but it is a very important one that continues to grow as more funds are cut.
Hybrid Environments Continuing to Grow
Hybrid learning has become widespread, with 63% of students using online tools daily, and the online education market becoming valued over 171 billion dollars. This ramps up even more for colleges, having over a quarter of students enrolled exclusively online. Hybrid learning has grown because it’s able to personalize learning with individual self-pacing lesson plans, improves engagement with interactive activities, provides students with a flexible schedule while developing future-ready skills with technology.
What have you seen in your school that has become abundant during the pandemic and stuck around?
Resources
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/9-charts-that-show-the-lasting-effects-of-covid-on-schools/2025/03
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