A Broader View of Recovery: Exploring Non-Test Student Outcomes in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced student test scores, and ESSER-funded academic interventions largely failed to recover those losses. Yet few researchers have examined whether these interventions affected students in ways beyond test scores. We use rich longitudinal data from Guilford County Schools (GCS) to document trends before and after the pandemic in attendance, suspensions, disciplinary referrals, and course grades from 2016-17 through 2023-24. All non-test outcomes worsened in GCS after the pandemic, widening pre-existing gaps by race and school poverty level. We also estimate how participation in GCS’s tutoring and summer school in 2021–22 and 2022–23 affect these non-test outcomes. Students who participated in recovery interventions showed improved attendance and discipline in the following year. Effects varied across interventions: summer school robustly improved attendance the following school year, while tutoring improved discipline in one year (2021–22) and attendance in the other (2022–23). These results demonstrate that academic interventions support students on dimensions beyond traditionally measured academic performance and contribute to recovering student engagement and well-being.