Young Children’s Resilience in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

There is a lot of data about how the pandemic affected learning in grades K-12, but there is not enough on how it has impacted the country’s youngest learners. In 2021, seeing a gap in systematic data collected on 3- and 4-year-olds’ learning and development over the last three years, Acelero Learning began a research-practice partnership with MDRC (a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization) to meet that need.

This brief takes a look at Head Start students’ development last winter/spring and shines a light on the early childhood landscape. It also aims to build further research on the development of young children. It summarizes the initial results from a study led by MDRC that is examining post-pandemic language, literacy, math, and executive functioning skills of children enrolled in our Head Start programs.