To describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students, researchers have translated test scores into months of learning to claim how many months/years students are behind in school. Despite its perceived accessibility, there are major downsides to this translation. To inform future uses by researchers and media, we discuss in this brief how to calculate this metric as well as its trade-offs.

Using data from Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measures of Academic Progress assessment, reading achievement was analyzed from 224 students with visual impairments in grades 3–10, in four states over an eight-year time period.