<p>The COVID-19 pandemic caused global impacts on all parts of life including education. One area of learning negatively impacted by the pandemic is writing. Teaching writing occurs in context and requires ongoing interaction in the form of feedback from teachers and peers, activities that may be more difficult in a virtual instruction environment. Existing research has indicated that this is what occurred during the pandemic for writing skills, however existing studies were largely conducted outside the United States. This study examined the impact of the pandemic on student writing performance using statewide achievement test data in writing including examination of various student and school-level variables that may be related to the degree of impact on student performance. Two cohorts of students enrolled in Texas public and charter schools in 4th and 7th grades before and after the COVID-19 pandemic were included in this longitudinal natural experiment study (<i>N</i> = 629,786). Results from multi-group path analyses indicated an overall negative effect of the pandemic on student performance in writing with various racial or ethnic groups differentially impacted. Geographic location of the school was not associated with a discernable pattern. Increased asynchronous virtual instruction resulted in increased negative impacts of the pandemic on writing. Study limitations, implications, and future directions are discussed.</p>