Introduction

The pandemic has confronted schools across the globe with a public health challenge on a scale and of a duration few will have experienced before. Most were closed to in-person teaching and learning for several months last year and many remain closed now. Teaching of course didn’t stop but in most countries was conducted remotely. Nevertheless, students and their teachers had to adapt to new ways of instruction and learning as the severity of the pandemic became more obvious and day-to-day life was severely curtailed.

The question is, how did children cope? How did lockdown affect their academic performance, their mental wellbeing and their social skills? In one sense, of course, it’s too early to tell. Many schools have either not fully returned to in-person teaching for all or they are still in lockdown. Even where schools have largely resumed teaching as normal, social distancing and other public health protocols continue to have an impact on instruction and learning. It will take time to draw any firm conclusions about the longer-term effects of this unprecedented disruption.

On the other hand, schools are understandably eager to pinpoint what they can about their students as soon as possible. Some have been able to conduct assessments, particularly in the final few months of last year. Others are planning for tests as soon as is practicable during this academic year.

This report is a snapshot of the data we have gleaned from schools so far on students’ reading ability based on our New Group Reading Test (NGRT). As the assessment cycle was disrupted for many schools by renewed lockdowns, it is based on preliminary results. We have also conducted an analysis of the data available from our other assessments about how children are faring in maths, science and English, which is available here.

We hope that both reports will help schools support their students and teachers over the next few months – and provide a counterpoint to some of the less helpful speculation that has surrounded education since the pandemic began. Because all the signs are that although learning has been disrupted and children are understandably eager to get back into school and to return to normality, they are also resilient. Yes, some children have been badly affected and some are undeniably struggling. But it would be foolish to ignore the evidence of the data we have or the testimony of teachers on the ground – both of which suggest that students continued to make progress even if much of everyday life slowed down.

Main findings

From the data available so far, there are reasons to show that in international schools the reading ability of students has held up remarkably well – not only in comparison to previous years but also in comparison to schools in the UK. The main score we use in NGRT is called the ‘Standard Age Score’ (SAS). Student attainment is benchmarked to a norm group of performances from children of the same age who are representative of the student population.

In a typical year, without the impact of Covid-19, we would expect little variation from a mean score of 100 within a population. Any movement greater than 3 SAS points is deemed significant when considering such large datasets. As you can see from the table below, students’ scores in international schools barely moved and primaries aren’t disaggregated from secondaries in the international schools’ category.

Table 1: Average variation in NGRT mean SAS for the periods 2018-2019 and 2019-2020

Nonetheless, the overall picture is clear – children’s reading ability does not appear to have been significantly affected by the disruption caused by the pandemic, regardless of type of school. Primary school children seem to have been affected a little more than secondary school students, but not significantly.

Using the same data, we can see that in 2018-19 in international schools, 50% of them registered a drop in students’ SAS scores and 50% a rise. Last year during the pandemic the proportion that saw a drop in their overall scores increased slightly to 52.8% while the number who witnessed a rise correspondingly fell to 47.2% – overall, a minor change in students’ reading abilities given the scale of the disruption to their learning.

Table 2: Percentage of schools with increased or decreased SAS for the periods 2018-2019 and 2019-2020

What are the implications?

Reports from individual schools around the world appear to back up the broader picture. Both of the schools in this report – the Nord Anglia International School in Dubai and the Canadian School in Guadalajara, Mexico – say that the reading ability of the majority of their students not only met but exceeded expectations. What is remarkable about this is that a large percentage of the students in Dubai and virtually of those in Guadalajara are EAL students, many of whom cannot count on English language immersion in the home.

While we have found overall that reading ability has remained consistent, it is important to understand that there is increased variability in school SAS scores in the UK and overseas, which suggests wider fluctuations in individual student performance. In both the Dubai and Guadalajara schools, for instance, teachers report that while on the whole average and higher ability students met or exceeded expected progress in their reading, some of these students struggled. Nor can it be assumed that all the components of reading have been absorbed equally well. If decoding and reading recall appear strong, can the same be said of inference and comprehension? Although we did not see much difference in performance on these sections of the test at a global level, at school level, it is likely that there are differences occurring.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to identify which students need what support. Even if children are back in school, it’s not straightforward to put in place interventions such as group guided reading or listening to children read aloud when students are forced to wear masks and strict social distancing measures are in place. As one teacher in Dubai observed: “You can teach remotely, but it’s harder to investigate remotely. You have to check for all ability ranges because some of the levers that were available in school aren’t available anymore.”

Her remarks underscore the importance of schools conducting assessments as soon as is practicable and benchmarking them against the baseline. That should give a more detailed insight into reading behaviours and enable teachers to decide which child needs what support.

Accessing the wider curriculum

Fears were also expressed during the pandemic that any negative impact on student literacy would have a knock-on effect on the wider curriculum. Last year we published a report that highlighted the strong correlation between reading ability and eventual exam success in a range of subjects. High scores in reading, for instance, were strongly correlated with good performances in maths and sciences as well as English and arts subjects.

As reading generally appears to have been minimally impacted, there is no reason to suppose that access to the wider curriculum has been curtailed. In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests that some schools have noticed an increase in students’ text-based skills during the pandemic. When asked why they think this has happened, teachers have pointed to the way instruction was delivered remotely. Most teaching and learning depended on text-based assignments such as worksheets rather than multi-modal delivery. Lessons may have been online and high-tech, but the substance of what children were actually asked to do was firmly grounded in text. This, they suggest, may have greatly increased the literacy skills of students, particularly those of independent and high-ability readers.

Attitudes to school and learning

What of other indicators of student performance and wellbeing? Preliminary data for our Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS) measure indicate that teachers can be cautiously optimistic here too. While some teachers were worried that students would not be looking forward to going back to school after lockdowns were lifted, initial assessments show that attitudes to school remained in line with levels pre-pandemic, in 2018. In some cases, there were even slight increases, in particular around students’ feeling about school and attitudes to attendance.

However, while locked-down students may be keen to get back into the classroom, the PASS data does indicate some areas of concern, particularly in attitudes to their own abilities as learners. The graph below demonstrates the link between attitudes – namely perceived learning capability, self-regard as a learner and response to curriculum demands – and reading ability. The steeper the difference, as highlighted, the stronger the correlation.

As students return to the classroom, teachers would be well advised to look at the first of these indicators – perceived learning capability – in particular. Any increase in a student’s negative attitudes in this area could develop into longer term confidence issues, and impair reading ability, if not investigated and addressed at the earliest opportunity.

Conclusion

Despite the many disruptions and challenges schools have had to face this past academic year, teachers and students appear to have coped remarkably well, especially when it comes to supporting reading.

Preliminary data from NGRT assessments carried out in international and UK schools and first-hand accounts from teachers paint a near universal picture – reading ability overall has not declined significantly. Primary school children have been affected a little more than secondary-age students, but not by much. Most children have made expected progress in reading – or indeed exceeded it, especially those in higher ability groups.

However, this relatively positive overall picture should not lead us to conclude that the pandemic has had no impact on children’s reading. Some students have undoubtedly suffered and their reading ability has been impaired. Nor is it always obvious who has been worst affected or how – if decoding is resilient, is the same true of comprehension, for instance?

Teachers have told us that the pandemic and measures taken to alleviate its worst effects have often made it impossible to investigate what specific support individual children need or to put in place the necessary interventions. Where baseline NGRT data is available, benchmarking students’ progress as they return to the classroom is proving helpful. But many schools are now urgently assessing their students as soon as is practicable to enable them to pinpoint exactly what children have learnt during lockdown, what has failed to stick and what teachers need to do address any gaps in their learning.