| Title: |
What Would Happen if We Returned to Pre-COVID Attendance Levels? |
| Language: |
English |
| Authors: |
David Blazar; Seth Gershenson; Ethan Hutt; American Enterprise Institute (AEI) |
| Source: |
American Enterprise Institute. 2025. |
| Availability: |
American Enterprise Institute. 1150 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-862-5800; Fax: 202-862-7177; Web site: http://www.aei.org |
| Peer Reviewed: |
N |
| Page Count: |
24 |
| Publication Date: |
2025 |
| Document Type: |
Reports - Evaluative |
| Education Level: |
Elementary Education; Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education; High Schools |
| Descriptors: |
School Districts; Urban Schools; COVID-19; Pandemics; Attendance; Achievement Gains; Elementary Schools; Middle Schools; Influences; Educational Trends; Trend Analysis; Local Norms |
| Geographic Terms: |
North Carolina |
| Abstract: |
Students across the country suffered varying amounts of learning loss during and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic. While recent gains have been made, the recovery has been slower than many would like and remains incomplete. Chronic absenteeism increased during this period, raising questions about its role in driving learning loss and hampering the subsequent recovery. In this report, the authors investigate these questions using administrative data from North Carolina and a large urban school district. Specifically, they document trends in aggregate and subgroup average standardized test scores and chronic absenteeism from fall 2018 through spring 2023. Then, borrowing what are arguably causal estimates of chronic absenteeism's impact on achievement established in prior research, the authors estimate the share of learning loss that could be recovered if, in 2023, they had returned to pre-COVID attendance levels. About 8 percent of the learning loss in math since 2019 can be explained by elevated chronic absence in 2022-23. For economically disadvantaged students, the share is as high as 10 percent. This suggests that while chronic absenteeism is and should remain a serious concern for policymakers, school leaders, and other stakeholders, eliminating it is no silver bullet for fully recovering from COVID-induced learning loss. |
| Abstractor: |
ERIC |
| Entry Date: |
2026 |
| Accession Number: |
ED677907 |
| Database: |
ERIC |