THE LANDSCAPE: THE READING ACHIEVEMENT GAP Educators and families alike can attest to the toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on academic learning for myriad reasons, including community health issues, the challenges of remote learning, district-wide budget cuts, decreased family resources, teacher shortages, and mental-health challenges. The most recent 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed that the average reading score on the NAEP fell three points from 2019 to 2022—the largest drop since 1990. This sobering decline spanned students’ race, income level, school type, and location, and it disproportionately affected students in the bottom 10th percentile nationwide—students more likely to be from low-income communities and communities of color. Educators have already begun impressive work to help increase achievement across the student population. Research tells us, however, that the work of closing the gap involves efforts and resources outside of the school day. Alexander et al. (2007) found that, prior to high school, learning gains across family income levels are nearly equal during the school year. It is time outside of school—specifically larger blocks of it—that are a challenge due to what they call “the unequalizing press of children’s out-of-school learning environments” (Alexander et al., 2007, p. 168).
The achievement gap by family income traces substantially to unequal learning opportunities in children’s home and community environments (Alexander et al., 2007, p. 168).
These findings track with an earlier study that revealed “the achievement levels of children from poor socioeconomic backgrounds increase on par with those from favored economic backgrounds when school is open” (Entwisle et al., 1997, p. 152). By the end of Grade 5, however, the gap between the wealthiest and poorest students widens to nearly three years—even for those low-income students who entered school with a learning gap of less than one year (Entwisle et al., 1997).
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