Technical appendix for: From loss to recovery: Diverging paths and uneven gains across schools - technical appendix

Oct 15, 2026

Technical appendix detailing the sample, data sources, and methods behind the research brief “From Loss to Recovery: Diverging Paths and Uneven Gains Across Schools.” The analysis quantifies recovery across U.S. public schools using MAP Growth results, contrasting recovery to 2019 achievement levels and post-pandemic gains from 2021 to 2024. Schools are selected from NWEA longitudinal student achievement data and linked to NCES CCD demographics, with standardized RIT scores aggregated to school or grade levels for declines, gains, and total recovery.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

1. Introduction

2. Data

3. Methods

3.1 Score standardization and aggregation

3.2 EISA score conversion and achievement measures

List of Tables and Figures

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Figure 1

TECHNICAL BRIEF Technical appendix for: From Loss to Recovery: Diverging Paths and Uneven Gains Across Schools February 2026 Emily Morton, Megan Kuhfeld, Ayesha Hashim, and Scott Peters NWEA, a division of HMH, supports students and educators worldwide by providing assessment solutions, insightful reports, professional learning offerings, and research services. Visit [NWEA.org](NWEA.org) to find out how NWEA can partner with you to help all kids learn. © 2026 NWEA. NWEA and MAP are registered trademarks, and MAP Growth is a trademark of NWEA in the US and in other countries. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be modified or further distributed without written permission from NWEA. Suggested citation Morton, E. , Kuhfeld, M. , Hashim, A. , & Peters, S. (2026) . Technical appendix for: From Loss to Recovery: Diverging Paths and Uneven Gains Across Schools. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 2 2. Data ....................................................................................................................................... 2 3. Methods ................................................................................................................................. 2 List of Tables and Figures Table 1. Sample School Demographics Relative to U.S. Population of Schools ......................... 4 Table 2. Average MAP Growth Achievement and Recovery by Recovered Status ..................... 5 Table 3. Demographics and Achievement by School Demographic Group................................. 6 Figure 1. Association Between School-Level Declines and Recovery (Grades 3-8) ................... 7 Technical appendix for: From loss to recovery: Diverging paths and uneven gains across schools Page 1 1. Introduction The purpose of this technical appendix is to more fully describe the sample, methods, and results of the research brief From Loss to Recovery: Diverging Paths and Uneven Gains Across Schools. We investigated two research questions in this brief: 1. What is the distribution of recovery across schools, measured as (a) recovery to 2019 achievement levels and (b) post-pandemic achievement gains from 2021 to 2024? 2. How do these measures of recovery vary by grade and school demographics? 2. Data The data for this study are from the NWEA anonymized longitudinal student achievement database and the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) . Schools use MAP Growth assessments to monitor elementary and secondary students’ reading and math achievement and gains, administering assessments up to three times per year: in the fall, winter, and spring. Additional details about MAP Growth’s reliability and validity are available in the 2019 MAP Growth technical report (Meyer, 2019) . We match schools in the NWEA sample to publicly available school enrollment and demographic data from the CCD using their NCES school identifier. The sample for our study is drawn from the set of U.S. public schools that used MAP Growth to test students in both math and reading in grades 3-8 in fall 2019, 2021, and 2024. To be included in the analytic sample, a school had to test at least 50% of enrolled students (based on CCD enrollment) across all tested grades and at least 10 students and 60% of enrolled students per grade included in the analysis across each of the three terms. Schools had to meet these criteria for both subjects. The resulting sample includes 9,326 schools that generally reflect the population of U.S. public schools in terms of enrollment and demographics (see Appendix Table 1) . Average achievement and recovery metrics are presented in Appendix Table 2, and average school demographics and achievement by school demographic group (i.e. , urbanicity, poverty level, and racial majority) are presented in Appendix Table 3. 3. Methods To allow for changes in tes

FAQs

What are the two research questions addressed by this technical appendix?

It examines (1) the distribution of recovery across schools, defined by recovery to 2019 achievement levels and post-pandemic gains from 2021 to 2024, and (2) how these measures vary by grade and school demographics.

What data sources are used for the study?

The study uses the NWEA anonymized longitudinal student achievement database linked to NCES CCD Common Core of Data enrollment and demographic information via NCES school identifiers.

How are MAP Growth scores standardized and used in the analysis?

MAP Growth scores are standardized within grade, subject, and instructional week using pre-pandemic NWEA norms, then aggregated to the school or school-grade level by averaging student scores for each term.

Oct 15, 2026

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