This report from the Education Policy Institute shows that children’s maths results are still lower than they were pre-pandemic.
The analysis is based on outcomes for pupils in years 3 to 9 and is drawn from over six million assessments in Renaissance’s Star Reading and Star Maths from 2017/18 to 2022/23. It finds that the extent of this lost learning is the equivalent of over four months of learning in secondary schools and two month in primary schools.
While primary reading scores showed a marginal overall increase compared to pre-pandemic levels, the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students on these assessments widened from 10.8 months to 12.7 months. In secondary reading, average achievement dipped slightly, driven by plummeting scores among disadvantaged pupils, causing the disadvantage gap to increase from 18.8 to 21.2 months.
In mathematics, both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged primary students showed declines, but the gap stretched from 6.9 months to 8.7 months. For secondary math, overall outcomes fell but a rebound among disadvantaged students in 2022/23 trimmed that gap from 17.7 months to 15.9 months - though still wider than pre-pandemic.
Students designated as persistently disadvantaged demonstrated drastically lower achievement than those briefly eligible for meal assistance. This disparity proved comparable to the divide between consistently disadvantaged pupils and their non-disadvantaged classmates.