Learning Losses Recorded Across Developed Nations in Wake of Pandemic

Math teacher Doug Walters sits among empty desks as he takes part in a video conference with other teachers to prepare for at-home learning at Twentynine Palms Junior High School in Twentynine Palms, Calif., on Aug. 18, 2020. Gregory Bull/AP Photo

Teenagers in developed nations including the United States have seen a decline in their reading and math test scores, which experts attribute in part to learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data published on Dec. 5.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in mathematics, reading, and science, and what they can do with the knowledge they have, via annual tests.

PISA typically conducts the testing every three years, but the planned 2021 test was postponed because of the pandemic.

In 2022, as nations were still dealing with the ongoing effects of the pandemic, nearly 700,000 students from 81 OECD member and partner economies—representing 29 million across the world—took the PISA test, which was administered among 15-year-olds.

Results from the latest assessment found, on average, an “unprecedented drop in performance across the OECD” members and partner economies, which include Australia, Canada, the United States, the UK, and Germany, among others.

When compared to 2018, mean performance across participating nations fell by 10 points in reading and by nearly 15 points in mathematics, which is equivalent to three-quarters of a year’s worth of learning, according to the findings.

The decline in mathematics scores is three times greater than any previous consecutive change, according to the assessment. When it comes to science, however, scores changed little since 2018, according to the latest findings.

Still, the latest results have sparked concern among the OECD, which noted that 1 in 4 of the students tested are now considered to be low performers in mathematics, reading, and science on average across OECD countries.

“This means they can struggle to do tasks such as use basic algorithms or interpret simple texts. This trend is more pronounced in 18 countries and economies, where more than 60 percent of 15-year-olds are falling behind,” the OECD said of the latest assessment results.

Pandemic Learning Loss a Global Phenomenon

According to the latest data, the United States, which has historically lagged behind other OECD countries, ranked 28th out of 37, scoring an average of 465 points on the test—7 points lower than the average OECD score of 472.

The average math score among American teens fell by 13 points between 2019 and 2022, compared with a decline of 15 points for the typical country in the OECD.

Reading and science stayed mostly even, a trend that was mainly seen among OECD countries overall.

“Learning loss due to the pandemic was a global phenomenon,” Martin West, academic dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said in a statement. ”We’ve never seen, in an international assessment, consistent declines across a large number of school systems in the way we see here.”

Elsewhere, the assessment found that Albania saw the greatest decrease in math scores, with a decline of 69 points. That was followed by Jordan, with 39 points, and Iceland, with 36.

However, the findings also raised concerns among nations including Germany, Iceland, and the Netherlands, which saw drops of 25 points or more in math scores. Twenty points is roughly equivalent to a year’s worth of learning.

Singapore had the highest scores by far across all three subjects, and several nations, including Canada, Estonia, and Japan, performed better than average on all three exams.

Students attend a class at a middle school, in this file photo. Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty Images

Scores Declining Prior to Pandemic

Despite the decline in test results in past years, the study authors stressed that the latest results can only be partially attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that scores in reading and science had already been falling before the stringent lockdowns.

For example, nations including Belgium, Canada, Czechia, Finland, France, Hungary, Iceland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Slovakia had already been experiencing negative trends in math performance prior to 2018, the OECD noted.

“The relationship between pandemic-induced school closures, often cited as the main cause of performance decline is not so direct. Across the OECD, around half of the students experienced closures for more than three months,” the OECD wrote in its assessment.

“However, PISA results show no clear difference in performance trends between education systems with limited school closures such as Iceland, Sweden, and Chinese Taipei, and systems that experienced longer school closures, such as Brazil, Ireland, and Jamaica.”

Overall, the OECD noted a strong connection between investment in education and average performance, along with parental engagement and teacher support in student learning.

“PISA data shows that teachers’ support is particularly important in times of disruption, including by providing extra pedagogical and motivational support to students. The availability of teachers to help students in need had the strongest relationship to mathematics performance across the OECD, compared to other experiences linked to COVID-19 school closure,” the OECD wrote. “These students were also more confident than their peers to learn autonomously and remotely.”

Despite this, just 1 in 5 students overall reported that they received extra help from teachers in some of their mathematics lessons last year, while about 8 percent said they never or almost never received additional support, according to the assessment.