Among the many ways in which schools are being transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the change in kindergarten enrollment is likely to have important consequences in classrooms across the nation. Because the academic and nonacademic skills students develop in their preschool and early elementary school years are foundational to important longer-term outcomes, understanding these changes and finding ways to effectively support our youngest students’ learning is critical for educators and leaders. Drawing on recent research, we offer four timely considerations for district, school, and classroom leaders.

In this CPRE Knowledge Hub Research Minutes podcast, Megan Kuhfeld discusses what NWEA research using fall 2020 test scores of more than four million students shows about the academic achievement and growth of US students, and some of the many questions that remain.

In this SAGE perspectives blog, Angela Johnson shares some key findings from NWEA research exploring how school shutdowns impacted student achievement at the start of the 2020-21 school year.

In this Education Commission of the States EdNote blog, Beth Tarasawa and Aaliyah Samuel share some key findings and actionable takeaways from NWEA research exploring how school shutdowns impacted student achievement at the start of the 2020-21 academic year.

In this Inside IES Research blog, RAND and NWEA researchers share some early findings from their work under an IES grant to develop strategies for schools and districts to address the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions on student assessment programs. In the blog, they describe some key findings from surveys and interviews on key concerns of districts and schools arising from the lack of assessment data from spring 2020.

These visualizations allow you to explore key questions from our report, Learning during COVID-19: Initial findings on students’ reading and math achievement and growth.

In this National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) Ingram Olkin “Statistics Serving Society” Forum, experts from around the country share statistical and data-analytic challenges they have faced as they have reported on and researched issues around the impact of COVID-19 in U.S. schools. Read more on the forum and presenters on the NISS webpage.