Dr. Valerie Adams-Bass was featured in a news article “Children Left Behind: Rutgers-Camden researcher explains how pandemic worsened racial achievement gap”
When it comes to the pandemic’s impact on academic achievement, no children are immune. But just as COVID-19 itself has hit underserved demographics the hardest, minority students in poorly equipped schools experienced the steepest slides in the national test-score decline.
According to a new federal study, math and reading scores fell across the board for the nation’s 9-year-olds during the first two years of the pandemic. However, explained Rutgers University–Camden Assistant Professor Valerie Adams-Bass, a researcher for the Department of Childhood Studies in the Camden College of Arts and Sciences, students of color face systemic disadvantages that exacerbate an already dire situation.