Texas educators are ringing the alarm on the educational struggles of the state's youngest scholars. There are visible gaps in learning, most notably since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, that are drawing concern from teachers and policymakers alike. The issues are particularly pronounced in foundational subjects like reading and math, affecting children who began schooling during or just after the height of the pandemic, according to The Texas Tribune.

Heather Harris, a third-grade teacher, noticed the lag in reading development and consequently her district, Plains Independent School District, brought aboard a reading specialist aimed at ameliorating this problem. San Antonio ISD's superintendent, Jaime Aquino, underscores the gaps in mathematical fluency, witnessing first-hand the struggle among fourth and fifth graders with basic math facts that should have been cemented earlier in their academic journey.

These observations correspond with the findings of Curriculum Associates Research, which compared recent academic growth with pre-pandemic metrics and unveiled that students enrolled in kindergarten or first grade around 2021 are most behind. As The Texas Tribune reported, these difficulties are attributed to disrupted early childhood experiences and the challenges of engaging with virtual learning during pandemics critical periods.

Furthermore, attendance in foundational early grades has not returned to pre-pandemic levels, which is detrimental to the development of key learning as Aquino articulated. "We told families to stay home during the pandemic. Now we’re sending the message: You have to be in school," Aquino told The Texas Tribune. Lower attendance and a significant 50,000-student drop in pre-K enrollment during the pandemic may have deepened the academic trough for the Texas education system.

Experts like Mary Lynn Pruneda, an education analyst, raise concerns over the impact on young learners, sighting the nebulous nature of currently available data. Dallas County, highlighting this theme, reported especially concerning declines in third-grade scores in math and reading between 2023 and 2024. These third graders would have been at a formative stage of their education, kindergarten, during the pandemic's peak. Policy efforts now gear towards collecting literacy data for early grades to craft timely interventions, a point of interest for state lawmakers according to Miguel Solis of Commit Partnership.

Reversing this downward trend may require a substantial increase in public education spending to support the hiring and retention of top-tier educators. Additionally, extending high-impact tutoring programs to younger students may offer a pathway to higher academic performance for those at the heart of these developmental concerns.