School District and Community Factors Associated with Test Score Declines During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Using data from approximately 7,800 school districts, we show that test score declines during the pandemic were large and highly variable. We find that test score declines were larger in lower-income and minority districts, but that within districts, White students and non–economically disadvantaged students lost about the same amount of ground as Black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students. We find that the test score declines were larger in districts where more of the 2020–2021 school year was spent in remote or hybrid instructional modalities, where students had less access to broadband access at home, where the pandemic led to larger disruptions to local social and economic activity, and in communities where trust in government institutions was low.