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Published:
July 2022
Authors:
J. Edward Guthrie
S. Colby Woods
About the Brief
To help inform and support district decision-making and future planning throughout the 2020-21 school year, the Tennessee Education Research Alliance (TERA) worked with six school districts in Tennessee by monitoring, analyzing, and reporting on key trends in their data. As part of a continued effort to understand the ways the pandemic may have impacted student outcomes, this final report from our work with these partner districts presents trends in student attendance and achievement during the 2020-21 school year. Specifically, we describe key patterns in attendance data from six districts and state assessment data from five districts.
Key Findings
- Student chronic absenteeism was higher in the 2020-21 school year than in previous years, and nearly one in four students was classified as chronically absent by the end of the year.
- Student chronic absenteeism increased as the 2020-21 school year progressed, especially among English Learners, students of color, and students who are economically disadvantaged.
- In the 2020-21 school year, TNReady scores for grades 5-8 were significantly lower than previous years in both math and English, but with dramatically greater drops in math.
- Drops in TNReady scores were largely consistent across student race, socioeconomic status, and prior achievement.
Suggested Citation
Guthrie, J. E. & Woods, S. C. (2022). Pandemic Effects on Student Attendance and Achievement during the 2020-21 School Year: Trends from Six Tennessee Districts. Tennessee Education Research Alliance