Students walk down the hall at Burroughs Elementary in Tulsa on April 8. Tulsa students took benchmark tests three times this school year, on top of state exams, to track academic progress. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
OKLAHOMA CITY — As national data shows the academic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, Oklahoma districts report stubborn challenges that worsened during the global crisis.
Leaders of local districts say students’ poor attendance and behavior have thrown up barriers to reaching or exceeding pre-pandemic levels of academic achievement.
A national report shows the gap to pre-pandemic results widened during the 2023-24 school year, despite billions in public spending on recovery efforts.
Test scores from 7.7 million U.S. students in grades 3-8 show the average student would need the equivalent of 4.8 extra months of instruction to catch up in reading and 4.4 additional months in math, according to the report from NWEA, a testing company and research center.