In nearly every state, students are struggling to recover their math and reading skills back to pre-pandemic levels. Florida students, especially, remain behind.
In terms of recovery between 2019 and 2024, the state ranked 36th in math and 45th in reading, according to a report called the Education Recovery Scorecard.
Borne out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Education Recovery Scorecard is a collaboration between the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard and Stanford’s Educational Opportunity Project, and it provides a detailed look at how school districts in the nation are doing.
Forty-three states are represented in the study.
Last month, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), widely known as The Nation’s Report Card, gave us a state-level view of how 4th and 8th graders — those who take the test were faring. It found that five years after the pandemic began, those students are only now beginning to make up ground in math. But, overall, they still performed below pre-pandemic levels in both reading and math.
It is important to note that while Florida's fourth-graders are doing worse than previous years, their scores in both math and reading are still higher than the national average.
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The Scorecard builds on that NAEP data by combining it with state test scores to provide a clearer, district-level look at learning loss and recovery from grades 3 through 8.
With it, we’re able to see that Florida students, overall, remain over half a grade level behind in math compared to their 2019 peers. But some individual districts, including Pinellas, is doing better than they were in 2019.
Reading, however, is more of a concern. The report shows not a single Florida district has returned to their 2019 levels and, on average, remain over three-quarters of a grade level behind.
The report also found that, generally, income and racial disparities have increased.
Across the nation, high-income districts were nearly four times more likely to have recovered in math and reading than low-income districts.
And the disparity in scores between students in predominantly non-minority and predominantly minority districts has grown by 15%.
Click here for more detailed reports and data.
A closer look at Tampa Bay area districts
School districts in the Tampa Bay region are doing worse in reading than they were in 2019 before the pandemic, as is true across the state and nation.
Pinellas County is the closest to recovering to their 2019 reading score.
Between 2019 and 2022, Pinellas schools improved in reading slightly, but in 2024, it dropped slightly more, cancelling out that progress.
Manatee County schools also improved their reading slightly between 2019 and 2022, but dropped significantly, nearly three-quarters of a grade level, in 2024. That puts them below the state average.
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The lowest scoring districts in the area are Polk, Hernando and, Hillsborough — the third largest district in the state, representing more than 240,000 students.
All three districts serve a majority low-income student population, with at least around 60% of students eligible for Free and Reduced Price Lunch.
Looking across the state, Sarasota, Lake, Duval, Pasco, Palm Beach, Polk, Miami-Dade, and Osceola remain at least 80% of a grade level below their 2019 scores in reading.
What about math?
Since 2019, math scores in Florida districts have declined more than half a grade level. But, unlike with reading, the state is starting to see a slow recovery.
Between 2022 and 2024, math scores improved slightly (by 2% of a grade level).
Sarasota, which tops all Tampa Bay Region districts in both math and reading, is the only one that follows the state trend. The district improved its math score between 2022 and 2024 as well— also slightly, by 1% of a grade level.
However, the district did not recover enough to its 2019 level.
On the other hand, Pinellas represents somewhat of a bright spot. The district started below the national average in 2019, but made a significant improvement since then. Even though the district's achievement dropped slightly between 2022 and 2024, it still remains above its pre-pandemic math score.
Across the state, Orange and Collier also exceeded their 2019 levels in math.
What can Florida schools do?
Out of the roughly 8,700 districts nationwide included in the study, over 100 performed above pre-pandemic levels in both math and reading.
The report found that about 6% of students in grades 3-8 go to schools in those districts.
None of those districts are in Florida. And, as we saw, Pinellas County Schools was the only district that recovered in one area — math.
Pandemic relief aid, known as ESSER funds, helped prevent more learning loss.
Florida received $10.9 billion in federal pandemic relief for K-12 schools — or roughly $3,800 per student — which is slightly more than the national average of $3,700 per student.
But it mattered how districts spent the money. Student achievement grew more in districts that spent aid dollars on academic interventions such as tutoring or summer school.
And, with no more of that aid coming, authors of the study say it’s important to strategize how to continue programs that target learning loss.
Tom Kane, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard, is one of the leaders of the Scorecard project. He said there isn't one "smoking gun" that explains the continued slide after the pandemic.
"But the most obvious contributing factor looks like it's absenteeism, which is substantially up and so that obviously matters," said Kane.
About 19% of Florida students were chronically absent in 2023, which means they missed at least 10% of the school year. That's nearly double pre-pandemic levels.
"When there's a different group of kids absent every day, teachers are constantly having to reteach the same material," said Kane.
But it can't be up to the schools alone, said Kane. The wider community — whether that's businesses or local government leaders — needs to get involved to figure out how to get kids engaged and back in school.
