A national report released Thursday gave an F grade to the accountability report card system maintained by the Rhode Island Department of Education because it was hard to find and compare performance metrics from before 2020 and in recent years. (Getty Images)
The pandemic profoundly slowed students’ learning in schools, with kids missing out on academics, social life and other important developments. Have things improved since then? It’s hard to know, based on the longitudinal data states present on pandemic learning loss.
When it comes to presenting data about the pandemic’s impacts on learning, Rhode Island and 12 other states are flunking, according to a report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) released Thursday. The center is based at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.
Statewide data systems on public schools’ performance metrics — like graduation rates, attendance, student test scores, and per-pupil expenditures — are comparable to the report cards students receive. Publicly accessible, these report cards are meant to keep schools accountable in their delivery of a quality education, and might provide a fuller picture of the pandemic’s long-term ramifications for learning. The researchers specifically look at longitudinal data, or changes over time.