Understanding progress in the 2020 to 2021 academic year: Complete findings from the spring term

NA (site), NA (city), England, United Kingdom

Abstract:

"This report presents the Education Policy Institute and Renaissance Learning's fourth assessment of the learning loss experienced by pupils in England as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It builds on our third report that was published in June 2021. It is based on assessment data from Renaissance Learning's Star Reading and Star Maths. Star Assessments are computer-adaptive in nature and adapt to the individual, providing an assessment that identifies gaps in learning from the entirety of the curriculum independent of their current year group. Star assessments also include a standardised measure which takes account of the pupil's age in years and months.

This data has been linked with data held by the Department for Education in the National Pupil Database which has enabled us to carry out analysis by pupil characteristic. In our previous report we carried out analysis of assessments undertaken in the spring term in 2020/21 which enabled us to carry out an initial assessment of whether pupils lost learning as a result of the second instance of in-person school closures for the majority of pupils. In this report we will, for the first time, breakdown our estimates of learning loss for the spring term by various characteristics to understand how the latest disruptions to in-person learning have impacted certain characteristic groups. We will also, for the first time, provide estimates of learning loss for secondary-aged pupils in reading for the spring term."

The Full Report is available online.

Publication Date:
10/29/2021