What is COVID Slide?

^{The term COVID slide has been coined to describe the effects of the disruption to student’s learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.}

School closures and the inconsistent quality of remote learning have widened existing opportunity gaps and created new ones. The latest study done by researchers at McKinsey & Company "students, on average, started school [Fall 2020] about three months behind where we would expect them to be in mathematics." As for reading, students were "a month and a half behind historical averages."

Researchers from Johns Hopkins found that “children from low-income families who were chronically absent in kindergarten also had the lowest levels of achievement in fifth grade.” In the same study, they found “chronic absence in one early grade is linked with lower test scores throughout elementary school.” COVID-related absences will undoubtedly have lasting effects for years to come.