Federal pandemic funding boosted student achievement, report finds
Federal funding given to school districts to stanch pandemic learning loss resulted in a boost in student achievement, a Harvard University study found.
The unprecedented federal funding given to school districts to stanch pandemic learning loss resulted in a boost in student achievement in some schools, a Harvard University study published Wednesday found.
“The dollars had an impact, especially in the high-poverty schools, because that’s where the money was targeted,” Thomas Kane, a co-author of the study and the faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard, told NBC News. “And the impacts, although modest, were big enough to justify the magnitude of the investment.”
The federal government invested almost $190 billion in K-12 education in 2020 and 2021 to help schools stay open and recover the learning loss.
The report found that each additional $1,000 in relief aid per student was associated with a 0.03 grade equivalent increase in math, or approximately six days of learning, and a 0.018 grade equivalent increase in reading, or approximately three days of learning.
In the nation’s highest-poverty school districts, students received an additional $7,700 per student in federal aid, while most affluent districts received less, the report said.
Rating: 5