Nearly half of all public school students in the U.S. that entered the 2022-2023 academic year are lagging behind benchmarks, according to a new Department of Education report.

The National Center for Education Statistics School Pulse Panel report, published Thursday, shows 49% of students are performing below grade level in at least one academic subject, up from the 36% average of a typical pre-pandemic year. This year’s survey garnered the largest response on record with 1,026 public schools participating.

The findings help quantify the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on academic achievement at public schools. During the onset of the pandemic, many educational institutions transitioned to remote learning as the number of Covid-19 cases rapidly increased – and the decisions administrators made about remaining open became a major political issue.

James Fogarty, executive director of advocacy group A+ Schools, said pandemic-induced absences from staff and students took a toll on curriculum.”There are ripple effects that happen that we don’t always think of,” Fogarty said. “What do you do if you’re the teacher and you have 12 or 20 different kids in your class who’ve been out for the big chunks of time? How do you then readjust your curriculum?”

The report also shows that most schools’ use of targeted learning strategies maintained or increased. One such strategy focused on individualized learning using new, grade level content to teach prior-grade concepts. No schools decreased their use of these strategies since June, per the report, and the learning recovery was roughly stagnant compared with last year.

“Many students were behind grade level at the start of the current academic year, including in core academic subjects like English and mathematics,” National Center for Education Statistics Commissioner Peggy G. Carr said in a press release accompanying the report. “These data suggest that academic recovery will take time.”

English and mathematics were the top subjects in which public school students were behind one grade level or more, with 99% of schools that said they had students behind grade level reporting such lags. Science and social studies trailed behind at 80% and 69% of schools, respectively. While there currently isn’t any information available from NCES on how long recovery will take, the degree to which academic progress has backtracked since the pandemic is significant.

“The School Pulse Panel is an innovative and valuable tool in understanding how the pandemic has affected the condition of education,” said Mark Schneider, director of the Institute of Education Sciences. “NCES and IES are committed to collecting high quality data to inform education policy and improve practices in support of learning recovery.”

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