The footprint of the COVID-19 pandemic in reading performance of students in the U.S. with and without disabilities

Eleni Chatzoglou; Sarah Fishstrom; S Blair Payne; Tim T Andress; Sharon Vaughn

doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104585

The footprint of the COVID-19 pandemic in reading performance of students in the U.S. with and without disabilities

Res Dev Disabil. 2023 Sep:140:104585. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104585. Epub 2023 Jul 31.

Authors

Eleni Chatzoglou¹, Sarah Fishstrom², S Blair Payne³, Tim T Andress³, Sharon Vaughn³

Affiliations

¹ The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, Department of Special Education, The University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA. Electronic address: eleni.chatzoglou@utexas.edu.
² The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, Department of Special Education, The University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA; University of Hawai]i at Mānoa, HI, USA.
³ The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, Department of Special Education, The University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA.

PMID: 37531814
DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104585

Abstract

Background: Many schools around the world involuntarily began remote learning in March of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought immediate changes and challenges to teaching and learning that are likely to influence student achievement into the foreseeable future. While large numbers of students face difficulties in learning to read under typical conditions, remote learning resulted in substantial deficits in reading outcomes.

Aims: This study aimed to examine the relative impact of the pandemic on reading performance in United States (U.S.) for students with and without disabilities.

Methods: and procedure: In this interpretive analysis, we compared the progress of a large sample of students (n = 219,500) by using the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data, in two grade levels (Grades 4 and 8), with and without disabilities, at two time points (2019 and 2022).

Outcomes and results: Statistically significant decreases were identified on the reading outcomes of students in U.S. Students without disabilities experienced a significant decrease in their reading outcomes pre- and post-pandemic, compared to students with disabilities (SWDs).

Conclusions and implications: We discuss the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' reading performance and the implications for effective reading instructions in the future.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; Reading development; School closure.

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Disabled Persons*
Humans
Pandemics
Reading
Students
United States / epidemiology