And bedrock attitudes about attendance seem to be changing. A recent noted that one in four students now doesn鈥檛 think being chronically absent from school 鈥渋s a problem.鈥� The study found that about 40% of school districts consider reducing chronic absenteeism among their top three most pressing challenges. One in 12 ranks it as their biggest challenge. 

As school districts push to lower absenteeism rates, the software company , which helps schools keep track of students and communicate with parents, examined four years of its own attendance intervention data across hundreds of school districts. It analyzed 3.3 million text messages across 15 states, representing 88,000 students and 22,000 educators. 

In a , it finds that improving attendance often comes down to a handful of basic tasks. Here鈥檚 a breakdown of the key takeaways:

1: Early intervention works

Contacting families before students become chronically absent is crucial. Once a student crosses the 10% threshold, fixing their attendance becomes much harder, so intervening when students register just three to five absences is most effective. Contacting parents early with a letter improved attendance dramatically, reducing absence rates by 28%.

Researchers found that 51% of students whose families receive just one letter don’t need a second one. The 鈥渟ave rate鈥� for these students suggests that many families simply don’t realize how quickly absences accumulate. 

2: Timing and communication methods matter

Parents are highly responsive to text messages, researchers found, with 73% of texts garnering a response from parents in just 11 minutes. They鈥檒l engage with schools when communication is 鈥渁ccessible, timely and specific.鈥�

鈥淭he method does matter,鈥� said Joy Smithson, a SchoolStatus data scientist. 鈥淲e get a lot higher rates of response with text messages.鈥� Placing a phone call, on the other hand, is 鈥渇or those more critical conversations,鈥� she said.

Kara Stern, the company鈥檚 director of education, agreed. 鈥淣ot every parent is in a position where they can pick up a phone call during the day. For many people, it might jeopardize your work situation, and so to assume that that’s the best way to reach a parent is not necessarily to be in tune with the actual realities of the parents in your community.鈥�

The best times to text families, the data suggests, are either around 8 a.m., when parents and students are preparing for school, or 2-4 p.m., typically during pickup times. These align with natural breaks in parents’ daily routines, when they’re most likely to check their phones.

The best time of year to engage families is August or September. Parents who hear from schools early maintain higher response rates throughout the year 鈥� 77% vs. 71% 鈥� and respond, on average, one minute faster. By January, 33% of these parents are still engaging with schools, compared to just 16% of parents who first heard from schools later in the fall term. 

That suggests that early conversations 鈥渄o extra work,鈥� researchers maintain, establishing trust, opening communication channels and signaling to families that working together matters.

鈥淚t’s important to reach out at the beginning of the year, so that you’re not waiting for a crisis,鈥� said Smithson, 鈥渂ecause it’s too late to build a relationship at that point.鈥�

3. Plain language outperforms edu-jargon

Researchers found that being specific about how much school a student has missed outperforms vague messages such as, 鈥淲e’ve noticed some absences.” 

Direct offers of help, such as 鈥淩eply if you need support with transportation or health concerns,” also outperform lengthy explanations of attendance policy.

And when students are older, direct messages can be very effective.

鈥淲hat this data shows us is that connection is really driving so much of a student’s experience,鈥� said Stern. 鈥淲hen a school is able to reach out to the kid and say, 鈥楬ey, Greg, we missed you today, what’s going on? What do you need to help you come to school?鈥� that’s a really different experience than having a form letter appear at your house saying, 鈥楪reg has missed school six days.鈥欌�� 

She added, 鈥淲hat I hope districts will take away from this report is that communication is intervention,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t’s not extra work. It’s the work that makes everything else stick.鈥�

4: Three key moments merit extra attention

Students at three moments in their school careers are more likely to be chronically absent: in pre-K, sixth grade and high school. Stern called them 鈥渉igh alert moments.鈥�

Surprisingly, pre-K students have the highest chronic absenteeism rates of any group, mostly due to the high frequency of illness and families underestimating the impact of missing school. 

Sixth grade is 鈥渢he tipping point,鈥� said Stern, with chronic absenteeism spiking by 3.3 percentage points from fifth to sixth grade, the sharpest increase across all grades.

Smithson said middle-schoolers typically have more autonomy. They鈥檙e often getting their first mobile phones. And current sixth-graders, she said, were in kindergarten when COVID hit in 2020. 鈥淪o just imagine knowing that patterns get established in kindergarten,鈥� she said. For those kindergartners in 2020, school 鈥渞eally got disrupted,鈥� with their baseline experience of school being 鈥渃ategorically different鈥� from what it should have been.

And for many students, the transition from elementary school to middle school represents a shift from a safe, contained environment, where both students and parents are highly engaged, to a less personal one, with less consistency and connectivity, said Stern. Students 鈥渄on’t know that there is someone who’s really paying attention, who cares that they’re there, who knows what’s happening with them, and so maybe it doesn’t really matter if they’re there or not.鈥�

And middle school can also be the place where many students first experience bullying, which also worsens attendance.

In high school, chronic absence rates more than double, and students have lower response rates to traditional methods like letters, suggesting that schools should contact students directly 鈥� actually, they found that direct student messaging could work for students as young as 11. 

A text message to a high school freshman can start a conversation that wouldn’t happen otherwise. Pairing these messages with notes to parents can improve response rates in these critical years, researchers found.

鈥淭he chronic absenteeism numbers in high school suggest that kids are really voting with their feet,鈥� said Stern. 鈥淎nd so one way to get them back would be to invite them in to be part of the solution, to say, 鈥榃hat is it that is not meeting your needs? How can we include your voice in the process of making high school what you want it to be?鈥欌��

In many ways, the new findings echo what researchers like Johns Hopkins University鈥檚 and have long suggested. Chang, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit , said Wednesday鈥檚 report 鈥渞eflects what we know from common sense and research. Improving attendance is possible when we use data to take early action as well as determine where we should invest in building relationships so we can partner with students and families to encourage showing up, monitor absences, and address barriers to getting to school.鈥�

But Chang said that while timely, data-informed engagement of families is essential, 鈥渋t is not always sufficient and should be combined with other strategies for identifying and addressing barriers to getting to school.鈥� Those barriers could exist in the community or in schools and should be addressed in 鈥渁 comprehensive, systemic approach.鈥�

She suggested that of interventions is sometimes necessary, including 鈥渋ntensive interventions鈥� for students who miss more than 20% of school days. It could include housing supports, a student attendance review board, a community-based, non-criminal truancy court, individualized learning and success plans and even, as a last resort, legal intervention.

Stern and Smithson said the findings boil down, in a larger sense, to the importance of what they call 鈥渁ctive noticing鈥� about attendance. 

鈥淚 really think that it would be a big plus for faculties to actively notice every week and go through their rosters,鈥� said Stern. 鈥溾�榃ho do we not know? Who can’t speak about this child? Who doesn’t know anything about this student’s life after school? We have someone that we need to actually pay attention to learning more about 鈥� who’s suddenly not coming to school, who’s turned it around and suddenly being there?鈥� 鈥澛�

Smithson said the biggest takeaway for educators is that 鈥淭iming is everything. Do not wait. Act with urgency. It’s about building those relationships, and it’s just so important 鈥� and it’s so important to start right away.鈥�

For a year and a half in 2023 and 2024, Cohen traversed the country, interviewing educators, researchers and policymakers and observing tutoring sessions in seven states and the District of Columbia. 

Now the vice president of policy for the education group , Cohen shares her findings in a new book, out today from Harvard Education Press: .

She explores 鈥渢he accidental experiment鈥� that took place across American schools starting in 2020, as researchers figured out the principles of what was originally called 鈥渉igh-dosage tutoring鈥� but has come to be known as 鈥渉igh-impact tutoring.鈥� 

Its four pillars, according to Stanford鈥檚 : 

1. It must take place at least three days a week.
2. Sessions last at least 30 minutes.
3. Sessions are with a consistent tutor.
4. There are no more than four students working in a group. 

The moment couldn鈥檛 have been more tailor-made for such a comprehensive intervention. In the course of just a few months, federal aid to K鈥�12 schools more than tripled, with districts slated to get at least 90% of the new funding. Federal rules eventually dictated that they reserve at least 20% of the largest pot of money to treat pandemic-related learning loss. Tutoring, Cohen writes, 鈥渜uickly became the watchword of how learning loss should be addressed.鈥�

Cohen interviewed everyone from Stanford scholar Susanna Loeb, whose research helped lay the groundwork for the movement, to Katreena Shelby, a Washington, D.C., middle school principal who somehow found a way to get a tutor for every student in her school.

Ahead of the book鈥檚 publication, Cohen spoke to 社区黑料鈥檚 Greg Toppo about her findings and her belief that, despite the bleakness of the past few years, educators 鈥渨ant to do good things for kids, and they’re willing to try new things.鈥�

Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

I want to start with a kind of impertinent question: I believe it was former U.S. Education Secretary Bill Bennett who said that many schools serve up what he called a “14-egg omelet.” Have you heard of this?

No, but I like where it’s going.

When what they’re doing doesn’t work, they just do more of the same. I’m guessing you would say that high-impact tutoring does not resemble one of Bennett’s lousy omelets. Are schools truly doing something different?

It’s, of course, impossible to answer universally for every school and every tutoring program. And there have been tutoring programs that haven’t been super additive. But at this point, the schools that have implemented high-impact or high-dosage tutoring within the definition of what that is 鈥� and to the gold standard that the evidence suggests 鈥� are offering something different. Whether that’s home fries on the side of the omelet or a salad, you can choose, but it’s something else.

You write that a couple of places have done better jobs than others. New Mexico, for instance, seems to have made a few missteps. What’s the difference between places where tutoring is working and where it’s not?

Where tutoring works the best is where it is a strategy in service of a broader goal. Sometimes in education we make the mistake of thinking the thing is the goal, and tutoring isn’t the goal. I don’t want people to do tutoring just to do tutoring. I care if kids are learning in school, and so the places that are doing a great job with tutoring, first of all, are doing tutoring in service of the goal of improving learning, and that means it’s often connected to lots of other pieces around instruction, curriculum and all sorts of other things. One is being strategic. Two is recognizing that to do this kind of program well requires a lot of effort on the implementation side, and being willing to put in the resources necessary. Literally assigning someone at a district or at a school a role of high-impact tutoring manager 鈥� who a significant part, if not all, of their job for some period of time is making sure this program is working 鈥� is another hallmark of places that have had success as well.

When you were in Louisiana, you looked at this Teach for America Ignite program, and you mention that it’s become a strong pipeline for TFA Fellows and, by extension, teachers. Should we look at tutoring as a pipeline for teaching?

I think so. We have an evergreen population of college students, even if fewer than we used to. We’re always going to have some amount of college students. And what’s generally true about those young adults is that a lot of them are looking for ways to make some money, and a lot of them are not sure what they really want to do with their lives. So one of the interesting things 鈥� and the TFA program highlights this 鈥� is that when you create opportunities for young people to be involved in education, as a tutor, for example, they start thinking, “Oh, maybe this is a career that I would want to do.”

I like to joke that teacher unions have done such a great PR job that they’ve actually convinced people that they shouldn’t want to be teachers. They’ve convinced the American public that teachers don’t get paid enough and aren’t respected. And if you look at parent polls, more than 50% of parents in this country say they to become teachers.

But what we’ve learned from some of the tutoring with college students is that when you actually give them a positive framework to enter the education space and interact with young people in this way, they start thinking about it. It’s not just the TFA program 鈥� I would say also the in charter schools in New York and New Jersey, that also has had partnerships in D.C. and other places. Similarly, they’re using college grads through the AmeriCorps program. A lot of those young people end up sticking around and becoming teachers.

At a school in D.C., you met Delilah, who you say could easily pass for a high school student, but she’s doing this great job leading students on a lesson about Homer鈥檚 Odyssey. It made me think that tutoring could blur the boundaries between who is an effective teacher 鈥� and how we find them. Do you have any thoughts on that?

I don’t know about 鈥渂lur,鈥� but it certainly broadens how we might think about who can play effective roles in the learning of young people. And we see that in a few places. This isn’t in the book, but in Chattanooga, Tenn., they had a that started during COVID where they actually hired high school students to tutor elementary school students. And those high schoolers, I believe, were getting school credit, and were getting paid. I spoke with this young woman, and she would literally walk down the hill from her high school to the elementary school, where she worked as a tutor and got real-world experience. She said she felt like she was treated like one of the staff at the school, and it was an incredibly positive experience. She is now graduating high school a year early and enrolling at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville to become a teacher, and she’s the first person in her family to go to college. 

The other thing that I did write about is the way that education schools are rethinking the role of tutoring in teacher prep. We have all these college kids or young adults that we might want to expose to education. But then what about those who already think they want to work in education? The dean of the ed school of Bowling Green State University, which is the biggest teacher prep program in Ohio, has always been committed to giving kids as much field work and experience as possible, because she says, “I want to make sure before I send these students as graduates into classrooms, that that’s really where they want to be. How many different kinds of opportunities can we give people who think they want to be teachers to actually play teacher-like roles?” And so they’ve really leaned into tutoring. They think that the experience of me, Liz, trying to really just help Greg master how to read or how to do third-grade math is going to help me in the classroom, but also gives me more touch points to make sure this is really what I want to do. 

Another way to think about that: A principal in Alexandria, Va., told me, “The one thing I’m always looking for is how do I get my kids more time? More time learning. How do we give our kids more time?” And it wasn’t just him that I heard this from. This is a repeated theme that school leaders and teachers feel: Tutoring helps them add time. Time on task, quality learning time. And time is often the most precious resource we have in education, and that is how a lot of folks are thinking about this.

One of the things you say is that if tutoring is woven into a school culture, the relationship that the student has with the tutor can be this “fulcrum that changes the student’s trajectory.” You’re imagining that tutoring could really transform schools at a very basic level, that the student-tutor relationship is transformative for a lot of kids.

That’s right. What made this story so powerful was the power of the relationships. To me, the big takeaway is that young people are really hungry for meaningful adult relationships in ways beyond what even the best classroom teacher can possibly give to a full classroom of kids. Even when I interviewed some of those TFA college tutors, the thing they would tell me that surprised them about their experience was that kids were willing to open up to them even after just building a relationship on a Zoom call and doing tutoring. And I don’t know if it’s because after the pandemic there had been so much disconnect and isolation that people were hungry for a reconnect, or if it’s just a truism of human nature that we like to have relationships with other humans.

There’s something really powerful about bringing more people in to interact with young people in education, in an educational setting, in a variety of ways. And that’s why, even though generally I’m pretty bullish on tech 鈥� I don’t write in the book at all about AI because the stuff’s being built too rapidly 鈥� while tech can inform and empower, what’s happened, at least in the last five years, is really a story about human relationships, and it’s worth telling in a time when people feel more separate.

Near the end of the book, you talk about one way to make tutoring work on a large scale, something called outcomes-based contracting. Would you like to talk about that?

I wrote a whole chapter about contracting, and tried to make it so you wouldn’t fall asleep while you read it. Partly why I dedicated so much space to it is because I actually think that we spend a lot of money on education in this country 鈥� we really do 鈥� and we don’t often get a lot for it. And so it’s interesting that we have this model now. Tutoring is the perfect case study to do an outcomes-based contract, because we have potentially clear outcomes that we’re trying to measure: We want kids to grow a certain amount, and then we can actually link the money to what we’re getting from it. 

Especially now that federal COVID funds are gone, district and state budgets are tightening. I hope we don’t throw the success of tutoring that we’ve had to the wayside and instead think about how do we continue helping it deliver on its promise? And so if you can measure it and then pay only for getting the results that you want, that seems worthwhile, and something that we probably haven’t spent enough time exploring.

Speaking of ESSER funds, that’s a lot of money that’s basically gone. You mention AmeriCorps as well 鈥� AmeriCorps is either. Going forward, where can schools turn if they want to fund these sorts of things? What’s out there that is not at so much risk?

First of all, some districts are using their Title I funds. Now, those Title I funds might have been used for something else, and so you have to maybe make some tough choices 鈥� and I’m not going to say you should definitely do tutoring. I’m saying you should look at the evidence: What are you getting out of whatever it was you were doing? If you’re already doing tutoring and it’s going well, I’d rather a district keep it and give up something else that’s not working as well.

Ector County, Texas, has kept their tutoring program going to some extent, using Title I funds. Some other districts have done some similar work, even as districts like Guilford County, N.C., are having to scale back. But they are repurposing existing Title I funds, often to do this. One reason it’s really important to continue making the case for tutoring鈥檚 impact is that you can convince state legislatures, in some places at least, to fund tutoring. Louisiana put , both for last school year and this current year, into high-impact tutoring. And the funny thing about Louisiana is I didn’t even end up writing about it because it was happening so quickly last year while I was trying to finish the book.

I was like, “Wow, it’s a lot of money. Is this really going to happen?” And this year, 2025-2026, Louisiana is tutoring something like 240,000 kids using $30 million from their state budget, and I think some other district funds too, in a pretty effective model tied to their Science of Reading and their math work. And they have funded a lot of other pieces too, around curriculum, teacher professional development and instructional coaches. So for them, tutoring is that exact thing I said earlier about being a strategy within their broader goal of how to overhaul core instruction 鈥� and the state’s put in real money for it.

Connecticut passed to continue some high-impact tutoring work. But then in other states, we aren’t seeing that. Where to look for money? Can you convince your state legislatures to support tutoring because it works? Some places are able to do that.

And also some city budgets: The mayor in D.C. has . And the mayor in Nashville has into tutoring. 

At the end of the book, you lay out these three truisms from your reporting: “1. Public schools are hungry for new ideas that work. 2. Tutoring works. 3. Nothing is perfect.” It sounds like you’re a bit impatient here, and just want us to sort of get on with it. 

I do! Every single day you have kids showing up to school, and those kids either want to learn or it’s our job to help them want to learn, and we need to figure out the tools to do that. If you look, for instance, at continued problems with chronic absenteeism, we flipped a switch during the pandemic, and we thought we could just flip it back on.  That’s not what’s happened. So I believe we have to continue the sense of urgency that we had in 2021 and 2022, because there are kids every day in our schools. But the other thing I really want people to know is that in all of these places I went, people want to do good things for kids, and they’re willing to try new things and implement new programs and make big changes.

That’s not the reputation that K-12 public education has overall. And I want people to believe that that is part of the story of public education in the United States in 2025. I want us to get on with it, because it’s what people want to do. So let’s just do the thing.

In the winter, students can snowshoe, icefish or bust out new snowtubes at a nearby hill as their classmates calculate speed and acceleration. 

Pandemic era funding allowed schools to get creative with bringing students back to the classroom. At Limestone, led to the formation of an outdoor science program, principal Ben Lothrop said.

鈥淓verything is connected to the curriculum,鈥� Lothrop said. 鈥淭hey’re certainly having fun and they’re learning lifelong skills, but they’re actually learning about math and science too.鈥�

About four hours away, Maine Academy of Natural Sciences鈥� outdoor programming is the school鈥檚 鈥渂read and butter,鈥� said Evan Coleman, the school鈥檚 director of curriculum and instruction. The high school campus in central Maine is host to several greenhouses, a collection of beehives and a sugar shack, outdoor programs that have been expanded through COVID funding.

In the years since the pandemic, however, the purpose of spending time outdoors 鈥� or 鈥済reen time鈥� 鈥� has become a possible next step toward reengaging students and boosting mental health and academics 鈥� the same goal behind a growing movement of cell phone bans and restrictions. Schools are also being seen as key in closing the “nature gap,鈥� where low-income communities have less access to green space than wealthier families.

鈥淵ou don’t need a giant swath of green space or forest to get a lot of these mental and physical health benefits,鈥� said Lincoln Larson, an associate professor at North Carolina State University鈥檚 Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management. 鈥淪ometimes just a tree on the sidewalk can yield a lot of the same benefits, or a little pocket park. It doesn’t have to be this giant well-planned thing.鈥�

Some barriers exist, including in the most extreme cases where urban schools are located on 鈥� areas that lack green space and absorb heat. For other schools that may not be as limited by environmental factors, large outdoor programming has slowed down because of the expiration of school COVID relief money in Sept. 2024. Holding classes outside can even be challenging sometimes as schools navigate teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and limited flexibility with curriculum. 

Research shows a correlation between time spent outside and students’ , skills and academic and , so although 鈥渢echnology isn鈥檛 going away鈥� and 鈥渕uch of it is really important for learning,鈥� said Page Nichols, the chief innovation officer at the Maine Department of Education, time outdoors 鈥渞eally speaks for itself and how it’s supporting a student holistically.鈥�

Local have pushed for the importance of incorporating green space on school campuses. Earlier this year, and joined state and in signing laws aimed at establishing more outdoor programs for students. 

By early 2026, Maine鈥檚 education department plans to issue outside learning recommendations to schools to help them expand programs that may boost student well-being with little to no cost and where they may have limited outdoor space.

The hope is that the work means outdoor time won鈥檛 have to become 鈥渢his big extra lift because it’s really a part of the [school] day,鈥� Nichols said. It may be a model for other states to follow, 鈥渂ut, it takes a while to get there.鈥�

Schools as an equity bridge for the ‘nature gap’ 

Getting a child outside isn鈥檛 always as easy as it sounds as dedicated outdoor space is changing quickly. 

Jenny Rowland-Shea, the director for public lands at the , said the United States is losing natural land at a rate of a football field every 30 seconds and 鈥渋t is disproportionately affecting communities of color and low-income communities.鈥�

Communities of color are three times more likely, at 74%, than white communities (23%) to live in nature deprived areas, defined as places with less nature than the state average. About 70% of low-income communities live in nature-deprived areas, which is 20% higher than those with higher economic stability, according to a Rowland-Shea conducted. 

鈥淲e’re also finding that families with children are more likely to live in these areas that are nature deprived,鈥� Rowland-Shea said. 鈥淭hat’s only compounded when we look at families with children who are people of color and that are low income.鈥� 

There鈥檚 a hope that schools may be able to bridge the 鈥渘ature gap.鈥�

鈥淜ids may not have a park in their backyard or that鈥檚 walkable in their neighborhood, but pretty much all kids go to schools and they spend a lot of time there, so the idea is that if you can have green school yards, then that’s a way to provide equitable access to nature for all,鈥� said Kathryn Stevenson, an associate professor at the College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University. 

Just 10, 15 minutes helps

While children are spending less time outdoors, they鈥檙e also spending over seven hours in front of cellphones and computers, to the National Recreation and Park Association.

It鈥檚 a mental health double-whammy as studies show that excessive screen time and heightens stress reactions while time outside has the on the brain.

The and theories are 鈥渢wo prevailing鈥� proposals that explain the benefits of outdoor time on the human body, Larson said.

The theories suggest 鈥渢hat when we’re constantly bombarded by electronic stimuli 鈥� our minds are just frantic,鈥� Larson said. But, time outdoors has a natural effect on the brains that lowers stress levels. For students specifically, this means better memory, concentration, mood and overall well-being.

鈥淣ature gives us space, gives us time and gives our brains just an opportunity to reset 鈥� to restore our attention 鈥� so that we can deeply engage with things,鈥� Larson said. 鈥淵ou could stare at a tree and your mind slowly calms down.鈥� 

An appetite for the outdoors from students and educators

Like many other states, Maine signed that requires schools to have policies around cell phone use by 2026. 

Administrators at both Limestone Community School and Maine Academy of Natural Sciences have not implemented full bell-to-bell bans, but allow students to have access to their phones during lunch. They say their programming has helped keep students off their phones naturally.

 鈥淚 won鈥檛 say the problem is gone across the board, but kids got on board really quickly, especially when they鈥檙e doing things that they鈥檙e engaged in,鈥� said Coleman of the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences. 鈥淏ringing back the joy of that type of learning in the physical world is something 鈥� that keeps students interested in what we do as a school.鈥�

Since establishing their outdoor science program , Limestone principal Lothrop, said he鈥檚 seen an increase in attendance and improvement in classroom behavior.

鈥淭he kids want to be here,鈥� Lothrop said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want to miss anything. They know today we might be making syrup, or they know in English class they might be reading this book that they’ve gotten into.鈥�

Tracy Larson, a former teacher who now works at , a Minnesota based nonprofit that provides outdoor programming to schools, said from her experience, outdoor education has also become a way to fill the opportunity gap affecting low income students. 

鈥淔or students who are not intrinsically motivated to learn in the classroom when they go outside 鈥�,鈥� Larson said, 鈥測ou start to see them tapping into their curiosity, wanting to connect with others and maybe finding that this is really where they thrive.鈥�

The appetite for outdoor learning extends across the country and is something students have expressed interest in for years.

In September 2020, researchers at the University of Michigan to 14-24 year olds that asked the youth to respond with their thoughts on time spent in nature and well-being. 

With over 1,000 respondents, the study found nearly 90% wanted to spend more time in nature, over 50% said nature made them feel calm and 22% said it reduced stress and anxiety. About 22% of responses also said there were barriers toward spending more time outside, including busy schedules, the pandemic and their environment. 

鈥淎 big takeaway was that the youth did see nature as like a real resource that could support mental and physical health,鈥� said Astrid Zamora, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University School of Medicine and a coauthor of the report, 鈥渂ut accessing it wasn’t always an option.鈥�

In the first nationwide indicator of how older students have fared since the pandemic, the news is bad, but not surprising: COVID took a bite out of already declining basic skills.

Between 2019 and 2024, scores in both math and reading sank three percentage points, a statistically significant drop, according to the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP tests, often called 鈥渢he Nation鈥檚 Report Card.鈥� 

Tested in the spring of 2024, just 22% of seniors were 鈥減roficient鈥� or above in math, down from 24% in 2019. And just 35% were proficient in reading, down from 37% in 2019. Higher percentages in 2024 also scored in NAEP鈥檚 鈥渂elow basic鈥� level in both subjects.

The results, released Tuesday by the U.S. Education Department, are 鈥渟obering,鈥� said Matthew Soldner, acting commissioner of the . He noted 鈥渟ignificant declines in achievement鈥� among the lowest-performing students going back even before the pandemic. In one particularly grim indicator, a larger percentage of the Class of 2024 scored in the tests鈥� 鈥渂elow basic鈥� level in both math and reading than in any previous assessment dating back decades.

Among other findings: 

• In math, 45% of students scored below basic, compared to 40% in 2019 and 35% in 2013;
• In reading, 32% of students were below basic, up from 30% in 2019 and 28% in 2015;
• 45% reported a 鈥渓ow level of interest and enjoyment鈥� in reading, a slight improvement from 49% in 2019;
• Just 35% met NCES鈥檚 standard for being academically prepared for college, down from 37% in 2019. 

Of special concern: female students, who typically outperform their male peers in reading, saw worse results than in 2019, while male students鈥� reading across all achievement levels were basically flat.

The reading decline among female students aligns with previous findings about the severe toll that both the pandemic and social media have taken on adolescent girls. One found that teen girls were struggling the most relative to other groups when it comes to anxiety and depression, as well as the physical manifestations of these problems, such as headaches and stomach aches.

Morgan Polikoff, a professor of education at the and an author on the study, noted that the poor results 鈥渁re coming at a terrible time, when there is zero federal effort to improve education through policy and indeed the federal government is withholding education dollars over tired culture war battles.鈥�

鈥榃e have not recovered from COVID鈥�

Dan Goldhaber of the American Institutes for Research said the new results are particularly troublesome in light of the federal government鈥檚 $190 billion COVID investment in schools. Given that effort, he said, the five years between 2019 and 2024 should have brought 鈥渂oth sharp drops and recovery鈥� as students lived through the pandemic and schools benefited from unprecedented investment. But except in limited cases, scores never improved.

鈥淭hese results, to me, are just more confirmation that we have not recovered from COVID,鈥� Goldhaber said. 鈥淎nd my guess is that some of why we haven’t recovered is because of the trends in achievement that we saw in the decade prior to the pandemic.鈥�

Tom Kane of the Harvard Graduate School of Education agreed: 鈥淪omething fundamental in U.S. schools is broken and we need to fix it,鈥� he said. 

Kane theorized that among top candidates for the malaise are: absenteeism rates that have yet to return to pre-pandemic norms; reduced school system commitments to test-driven accountability, and the effects of social media.

In 2024, 31% of 12th-graders who took the tests reported missing three or more days of school in the prior month, compared to 26% who took the math tests in 2019 and 25% who took reading tests. Kane noted that has found students who miss school make instruction less effective for others when they return because they鈥檙e spending teachers鈥� time getting themselves caught up on what they missed.

Former U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said the past several administrations have squandered the power of the federal government when it comes to education policy, weakening its ability to push improvements.

“When you take your foot off the gas and stop using federal leadership, federal imperative around these performance issues, it shows up,” she said in an interview. Spellings, who now leads the , a Washington, D.C., think tank that encourages civil political discourse between parties, noted that the Every Student Succeeds Act, implemented by President Obama, was 鈥渓ess muscular” than No Child Left Behind, enacted under President George W. Bush and overseen by Spellings. “We know how to use the federal role in smarter ways to the benefit of kids, and we stopped doing it.”

鈥楾ruly a five-alarm fire鈥�

The latest NAEP tests were administered from January through March 2024, to a sampling of students in 1,500 schools nationwide, with 24,300 seniors sitting for reading tests and 19,300 for math. The tests last about an hour and are administered on laptops or tablet computers. They carry no stakes for students, who are, in some cases, just weeks from graduation. As a result, researchers have found that far fewer 12th-graders perceive that they must do well on the tests 鈥� a found that 86% of fourth-graders said it鈥檚 important, while just 35% of 12th-graders said the same.

But Kane and others said that may be a negligible factor in the poor results, since scores are as low, in many cases, as they鈥檝e ever been. 鈥淭hat can’t be explained by kids just not thinking the test matters,鈥� said Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University.

Low stakes notwithstanding, USC鈥檚 Polikoff said the results are unsurprising and 鈥渘o less disappointing鈥� on that account. Seniors鈥� poor performance, he said, closely matches recent trends from earlier grades and has been on the decline .

Of special concern, he and others said, are the achievement declines of the lowest performing students in both math and reading 鈥� especially the unprecedented rise in students performing below basic. 鈥淭hat our lowest achieving students are falling so far behind is truly a five-alarm fire,鈥� he said. 

AIR鈥檚 Goldhaber pointed out that much of the overall decline in 12th-grade scores can be attributed to sharp drops by this group. 鈥淥ne of the reasons that the average NAEP tests are coming down,鈥� he said, 鈥渋s because the bottom is just falling out of the distribution.鈥�

While researchers are just beginning to get their arms around why skills are suffering at the moment, Polikoff agreed that the rise of and social media are at play, as well as declines in and 鈥渢he current toxic political moment that high schoolers are probably sensitive to and that distracts from real efforts to improve schools.鈥�

Harvard鈥檚 Kane said he鈥檚 eager to see results from research related to the recent proliferation of school mobile phone bans, but worried that, given the slow pace of academic research, the findings won鈥檛 come fast enough to make a difference. 鈥淚’m just worried that left to our own, without a concerted, coordinated effort, there’s going to be competing studies about the effect of cell phone bans and it’s going to get caught up in politics. We can’t wait for that. There needs to be a concerted effort to try to form a scientific consensus on what was the effect of the ban, in the next year or two.鈥�

Rebecca Winthrop, director of the Brookings Institution鈥檚 Center for Universal Education and co-author of on teen disengagement, said COVID鈥檚 鈥渞ipple effects鈥� are long-lasting, affecting many aspects of students鈥� lives. 鈥淚f you have your first couple of years of high school where you really have very little learning happening, it’s not a surprise that you’re going to be performing much worse on your core competencies than other generations,鈥� she said.

Winthrop and a co-author found that teens are disengaging from school 鈥渁cross the board,鈥� in both public and private schools, responding to what they perceive as poor-quality instruction, irrelevant pedagogy and unsupportive environments. 

鈥淏ut kids who are from higher-income families get second chances when they disengage,鈥� Winthrop said. 鈥淧oor kids don’t.鈥�

CRPE鈥檚 Lake said the disappointing results are 鈥渇rustrating,鈥� since she and others have been sounding the alarm for several years now 鈥渢hat if we don’t change course, things will be very bad 鈥� and things are very bad.鈥�

The solutions, she said, will come from improving bedrock indicators 鈥� instruction and teacher quality, especially for struggling students, as well as 鈥漚ccountability for adults in the system.鈥�

鈥淚f there鈥檚 one thing that I’d say people should focus on, it鈥檚 the kids who are in free-fall decline,鈥� Lake said. 鈥淚t’s way more than most people think. Only the top 10% of kids are continuing to do well. All the others are declining. 鈥� We know what to do. We just need to figure out how to get it done.鈥�

As grim as the results are, Harvard鈥檚 Kane said, they point to the ongoing importance of NAEP at a time when its future is less than certain. Just weeks after the second Trump administration took office, Department of Government Efficiency workers slashed Education Department personnel, firing NCES鈥檚 longtime director and reducing its headcount from about 100 employees to three.

But as many states loosen accountability requirements, he said, the federal testing role becomes more, not less, important. Without NAEP, he said, 鈥渨e could have just coasted along鈥� unaware of the bigger picture.

As the Trump administration works to reconfigure the Institute for Education Sciences, Kane said, 鈥渋t ought to be a vehicle for answering these questions: 鈥榃hat was the effect of the cell phone bans? How do we lower absenteeism?鈥� And that could be done in partnership with states. But it requires a strategy. It’s not just going to happen. Somebody is going to have to decide that these are priorities and work with states to try to find the answers.鈥�

74 Senior Writer Linda Jacobson contributed to this report.

Disclosures: The Future of High School Network and 社区黑料 both receive financial support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, XQ and the Walton Family Foundation.

As the world settled into pandemic life, students who graduated from high school during the COVID-19 crisis started new chapters of their lives in social and academic seclusion.

Many spent their senior year on Zoom, without homecomings, proms or graduations. They struggled to pass classes and navigate college applications. And they entered college with gaps in study skills and anxiety about social interactions.

They spent their first year of college 鈥� typically a time of discovery 鈥� in online classes or alone in dorm rooms. Now, some are graduating from college, while others simply gave up.

Across California students grappled with transitioning to college during the pandemic. The challenges were magnified in the Inland Empire, where only about a quarter of all adults hold four-year degrees, compared to 37% statewide.

鈥淚 felt really lonely, and it was really, really stressful at that time,鈥� said Maribel Gamez-Reyes, A UC Riverside student from Inglewood.

Holes in their education

Especially for students who are the first in their families to attend college, what should have been their moment of triumph became months of tension. Some questioned whether they even belonged on a college campus, said UC Riverside Dean of Students Christine Mata.

鈥淒uring lockdown students weren’t able to bond and build connections to the institution, or even access support structures,鈥� she said.

Their academic shortfalls and social isolation took a toll. UC Riverside found that math and writing skills were lower among the students who graduated from high school during the pandemic than for previous high school graduates.

In 2019, before COVID, about 13% of incoming freshmen entered UC Riverside at the lowest math level. In 2020 about 20% of freshmen 鈥� the class that lost nearly half its senior year to the pandemic 鈥� fell into the lowest math tier.

The 2021 class of high school graduates saw the percentage of low-performing math students tick up even more, to 22%. Those students had spent half their junior year and nearly all their senior year in remote learning.

Likewise, 25% of freshmen entered the university at the lowest writing level in 2019. In 2020 32% fell into the bottom tier. The following year 29% of incoming students started at the lowest writing level.

Math and English levels among incoming freshmen have improved in the past couple of years, university data show.

Grade inflation in high school contributed to those pandemic-era gaps, said Lesley Davidson-Boyd, associate vice president of California State University, San Bernardino. Some high school seniors graduated at the time with stellar grades but below-average test scores in math and English, she said.

鈥淭here were a lot of holes in their education,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here were vital pieces that were missing.鈥�

The federal government sent schools billions in extra pandemic funding, but much of California鈥檚 higher education money was not spent on helping students catch up academically.

California received about $34 billion in pandemic aid to education, with about $10 billion of that dedicated to colleges and universities, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Of that, $4 billion was direct aid to students, for help with tuition and other college expenses.

Institutions got $5.3 billion and spent some of that on technology to accommodate remote learning. But much of it went to replacing lost revenue, which administrators said backfilled losses from campus and dormitory closures, and enrollment declines.

Enrollment also took a hit at some California colleges and universities, including many Inland Empire campuses. While enrollment in the University of California system overall has climbed steadily since 2020, it remained flat at UC Riverside since 2020. In the decade before the pandemic, its four-year graduation rate climbed from less than 50% to 67%. But that slid to 60% for the class that started in 2020.

California State Universities鈥� enrollment numbers dropped during the pandemic, and while admissions finally started rebounding system-wide, it has continued to decline at Cal State San Bernardino from more than 20,000 in 2019 to less than 18,000 in 2024. Four-year graduation rates at Cal State San Bernardino had nearly doubled, from about 13% in 2009, to 25% in 2019, before dropping slightly for the class that started during the first year of the pandemic, in 2020.

Enrollment at the California Community College system fell sharply during the pandemic, but has rebounded throughout the state, including the Inland Empire.

Adriana Banda: Playing catch-up

Pandemic graduates who did go to college often played catch-up in their first year, trying to recover academic skills they lost during remote learning.

For Adriana Banda, pandemic education was a lonely exercise in perseverance. Desert Hot Springs High School offered students the chance to go back in person on limited class schedules, with social distancing precautions, but some of Banda鈥檚 family members faced medical risks, so it was a 鈥渘o-brainer鈥� to stay home and learn remotely, she said.

鈥淚 had to learn on my own,鈥� said Banda, now 22. 鈥淚 honestly didn鈥檛 learn much that year. I was just trying to get through high school.鈥�

For years she had looked forward to senior milestones 鈥� prom, grad night, a senior sunset gathering and weekends with friends 鈥� but she watched them fall away as COVID-19 persisted.

鈥淗aving all of my senior experiences taken away from me was really disappointing and discouraging,鈥� she said.

Banda plodded through Zoom classes and graduated high school in 2021. She became the first in her family to go to college when she enrolled at Cal State San Bernardino鈥檚 Palm Desert campus. 

鈥淭ransitioning into college was honestly really hard, especially after coming from a year of remote learning,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think during that year I lost the foundational skills I had in school.鈥�

Professors expected high-level work but didn鈥檛 always help students struggling with pandemic learning loss, she said.

鈥淭he professors didn鈥檛 really capture the idea that these students might need more help and support, because of the fact that they weren鈥檛 learning in a regular environment for the past year and a half,鈥� Banda said.

The social disruption was even worse: 鈥淚鈥檓 naturally a shy person, so transitioning from a year full of almost no social communication to being back in the classroom and having to make these relationships and friendships work was really, really hard.鈥�

Getting a campus job at the social services office got her out of her shell. In that role she had to engage with other students but noticed many weren鈥檛 receptive.

鈥淧eople just generally weren鈥檛 comfortable having regular conversations anymore,鈥� Banda said. 鈥淭hey would avoid eye contact and get nervous.鈥�

Banda is scheduled to graduate in spring 2026 and plans to pursue a master鈥檚 degree and a career as a hospital social worker. The tough lessons of the pandemic will guide her work, she said.

鈥淪eeing how much people genuinely can struggle, and how limited help is, going into social work I鈥檓 going to keep that in my head,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 always going to try to the best of my ability to help people.鈥�

Bringing back campus life

Reestablishing campus culture and student life might seem like a lower priority than boosting academic performance in the wake of the pandemic, but university leaders say they鈥檙e intertwined. Without connections to classmates and professors, students feel less committed to college.

鈥淪tudents don鈥檛 have the will to stay in school if they don鈥檛 feel connected to the campus,鈥� Davidson-Boyd, of Cal State San Bernardino, said. 鈥淲e saw a rise in dropout rates, and we know that doesn鈥檛 just have to do with academics, but connectability to campus as well.鈥�

First year continuation rates for the campus fell, from almost 85% for students who started in 2019 to 78% for those who started in 2020 and 80% for those who started in 2021.

While universities typically encourage students to take a full course load and push through challenging classes, Cal State San Bernardino tried to keep students in school by making it easier for them to drop classes without penalties.

Most students who tried to withdraw from classes but couldn鈥檛 do so wound up failing anyway. After two failed classes, many gave up, Davidson-Boyd said: 鈥淭his was a way to give them an out so they feel like they have more agency over the process.鈥�

Even after pandemic restrictions loosened, campuses continued virtual instruction for some classes and kept dorms at reduced occupancy.

鈥淒uring lockdown students weren’t able to bond and build connections to the institution, or even access support structures,鈥� Mata said. 鈥淭hey remember being lonely. They were trying to figure out college and it wasn’t what they thought it would be at that time.鈥�

That disengagement hindered attendance and participation during and after the pandemic, Davidson-Boyd said.

鈥淎 lot of our students who are failing classes, it鈥檚 not that they don鈥檛 understand the content,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just not showing up. Professors are saying that when students are in class they鈥檙e not engaged in the same way.鈥�

Cal State San Bernardino reinforced study skills through summer programs for some incoming students, with primers on writing fundamentals and 鈥渉ow-to college math,鈥� she said. And the university introduced a freshman course with tips on identifying their interests, participating in campus events and even asking instructors for help.

Maribel Gamez-Reyes: College application panic

Maribel Gamez-Reyes鈥� senior year at St. Mary鈥檚 Academy, an all-girls Catholic High School in Inglewood, was a marathon of Zoom classes and digital homework.

She struggled with virtual math lessons, and spent so much time online she needed a new glasses prescription for eye strain.

Meanwhile her friendships faded, and lively, campus-wide assemblies she looked forward to were cancelled.

鈥淭hat was disappointing,鈥� said Gamez-Reyes, now 21. 鈥淚t was overwhelming, because I realized I wasn鈥檛 going to experience all that, and there was this lingering fear because I didn鈥檛 know what to expect.鈥�

College applications triggered panic attacks, she said, even with online help from her high school counselor and English teacher.

鈥淚 was literally overthinking every decision I was making.鈥�

Gamez-Reyes was excited to be admitted to UC Riverside, but life on campus sparked more stress. The first semester most of her classes were online, which kept her confined to her dorm room and took the joy out of her favorite subject, English. One of her few in-person classes was a math course, but it was held in a large lecture hall and required students to wear masks.

鈥淚 had so much anxiety about coming here,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut even then I tried to push forward because it was my first choice.鈥�

Her mom kept her grounded. 鈥淢y mom never went to college, and she was very proud of me for going to college 鈥� She said, 鈥業 know you’re scared and you don鈥檛 know people, but you have to try.鈥欌��

Gamez-Reyes started small. She chose a residence hall known for its social life, with an open layout that encouraged students to hang out in the hallway or lounge.

She eventually found her niche at the college newspaper, the Highlander, first as a contributing writer and then as arts and entertainment editor, where she oversaw coverage of books, fashion, movies and concerts. She made friends in the newsroom and met people while covering live events. She is scheduled to graduate this year and plans to pursue a PhD program in English.

鈥淚鈥檝e found these spaces where I feel really comfortable, and I鈥檝e excelled overall,鈥� Gamez-Reyes said. 鈥淓ven though I didn鈥檛 get to experience some of these exciting moments in high school, I’m experiencing that now.鈥�

Small steps toward socializing

Social avoidance was the norm for pandemic graduates, Mata said. Whether because of fear of infection or the months of isolation, students were wary of parties and preferred simple outdoor events, she said.

鈥淭he very basic activities that pre-pandemic students wouldn鈥檛 be interested in, like a carnival, when we came back to campus, those were the things students gravitated to,鈥� she said.

Outdoor movie nights also were a hit, offering the right balance of space and social interaction.

鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like starting small and drawing them out with very basic interactions to break down that social isolation that they developed,鈥� Mata said.

At Cal State San Bernardino fraternity and sorority recruitment declined, along with other clubs and activities, Davidson-Boyd said. Students weren鈥檛 just feeling antisocial, she said. They were also scared.

鈥淲e instilled some panic that just being around other people could get you sick,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o I think we鈥檙e deprogramming that now.鈥�

Carson Fajardo: Drawing students out of dorm rooms

Early in the pandemic, Carson Fajardo was optimistic that Rancho Cucamonga High School would reopen after a few weeks, in time for an assembly he was planning as student treasurer. He felt 鈥渂ummed and discouraged鈥� when it became clear that school wouldn鈥檛 resume in person that year or even the next.

鈥淭he class of 2020 got it pretty bad because they didn鈥檛 get graduation or prom,鈥� said Fajardo, now 22. 鈥淏ut I still stand on the fact that the class of 2021 had it way worse, because we had everything taken from us. Not only was it junior prom and opportunities, but almost our entire senior year.鈥�

During his senior year Fajardo kept busy with virtual student government meetings and planned fundraisers with local boba shops and pizza places. He played Call of Duty and sometimes fell asleep in Zoom class.

He thought that was all behind him once he entered Cal State San Bernardino as a business major in 2021.

鈥淏ecause I felt thwarted in my high school career, I took that to heart in my college career and really wanted to make the most of it,鈥� he said.

Fajardo became a programming coordinator for his residence hall. But it was an uphill battle to get anyone to join in activities.

鈥淥nly a few extroverted people were coming out to these events, but the introverted students were stuck in their dorm rooms and not wanting to come out,鈥� he said.

Students welcomed low-key gatherings such as video nights or arts-and-crafts sessions. But a 鈥渉omecoming-esqe small dance party鈥� with a DJ, theme and decorations drew only 50 guests.

鈥淲e tried to bring back some of what was lost, but it just didn鈥檛 pan out well,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t just fell on its face.鈥�

Some classes also were disappointing. Although professors found students disengaged, Fajardo thought some professors were also checked out, recycling online lessons from the remote learning period for use in asynchronous classes, where students work at their own pace.

鈥淭hey taught online through COVID and then reposted their lectures for asynchronous classes where they don鈥檛 need to teach and can count it as a class, when all they’re doing is clicking a button,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no real interaction, no feedback from professors in some of these classes.鈥�

In his junior year Fajardo ran for student government president and won, which gave him a bigger platform to 鈥渂uild back campus culture.鈥� Drawing on his dorm experience, he tried to offer something for everyone. A 鈥淐osmic Coyote鈥� night drew 900 students with laid-back bowling rounds, karaoke, line dancing and a high-energy mosh pit outside. That became an annual event, and a lesson in leadership for Fajardo.

鈥淚 think a lot of my growth as a leader came in because before I was more oblivious to what other people鈥檚 interests are, or what I think other people鈥檚 interests are,鈥� he said.

The largest production that year was 鈥淐oyote Fest,鈥� which drew about 7,000 people to a concert featuring rapper Schoolboy Q, along with rides, slides, a ferris wheel, mechanical bull and jousting.

Fajardo graduated in May and plans to pursue a master鈥檚 degree and a career in nonprofit fundraising.

鈥淚t鈥檚 cool for me, starting on the campus and seeing where it was when I first got here, in comparison to where it is now,鈥� he said. 鈥淭radition is the backbone of campus culture.鈥�

Maintaining motivation to graduate

One challenge to keeping students in college comes from the regional job market, Boyd-Davidson said. After all, pay at many warehouse jobs in the Inland Empire start at about $20 per hour and can rise to $35 per hour or more for supervisory positions.

鈥淭he Inland Empire has some of the lowest graduation rates in the country,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e know we’re fighting an uphill battle to get students in school and keep them in school, especially because at warehouse jobs, which we鈥檙e surrounded by, the wages are so high.鈥�

For students paying their own bills or helping support families, the payoff of a college degree isn鈥檛 always obvious, she said.

Katie Honeycutt, 21, graduated from San Gorgonio High School in San Bernardino in 2021 and enrolled at San Bernardino Valley College in a pharmacy technician program in spring, 2022.

鈥淚 had a six-month gap because I didn鈥檛 know exactly where to start, and I didn’t have the guidance because nobody in my family was in college,鈥� Honeycutt said.

While she enjoyed some in-person college classes, she switched to online classes to coordinate with her work schedule as a supervisor at Ross Dress for Less. The virtual college courses were just as hard as remote learning in high school, she said, and she was missing math skills and other fundamentals she should have learned in her senior year.

鈥淚 ended up dropping (the classes), because it was just too much to handle all at once,鈥� Honeycutt said. 鈥淚 do have stuff to pay, and I can鈥檛 just focus on just school.鈥�

Rather than only highlighting the financial rewards of a college degree, Davidson-Boyd said university officials gained traction by discussing the less immediate benefits of higher education: the greater range of career choices college graduates have and the opportunity to contribute to their communities.

While students who started college during the pandemic still feel a sense of loss or hardship, many who graduate have a sense of accomplishment for having made it through.

鈥淭here鈥檚 resiliency, because of what they had to face in starting their collegiate journey,鈥� Mata said. 鈥淚 just remind them how special they are and how proud they should be.鈥�

This article was and was republished under the license.

In early 2020, the findings suggested that children were essentially unaffected by the virus and minimally contagious when they caught it. He envisioned a magazine piece arguing for reopening schools, and began pitching it to major outlets. 

No one was interested.

Eventually, WIRED agreed to run it, and as he reported it, the evidence only seemed to build. In New York City, out of more than 14,000 deaths at the time were reported in people under 18. He remembers thinking: 鈥淭his is a major, major story.鈥� As the magazine took its time with edits, he was in a panic, 鈥渨aiting to get scooped鈥� by other media. 

It never happened.

He soon realized that most major outlets had little curiosity about the science 鈥� or lack of it 鈥� underlying COVID remediations. 

His piece, , appeared in mid-May and instantly went viral. But its premise 鈥� that the U.S. was following 鈥渁 divergent path鈥� on reopening 鈥� got lost in the larger debate swirling in major media. And Zweig, a former magazine fact-checker who had always entertained the notion that health authorities and journalists in legacy media took science seriously, began to wonder what he鈥檇 missed.

A year later, with his two kids still not back to school full time despite mountains of evidence that it could be done safely, his sense of who the 鈥済ood guys鈥� were had been thoroughly shaken. Social isolation, masking and hybrid schooling were taking an enormous toll on his kids and millions of others nationwide, even as most schools in Europe opened early and stayed open, often without the dogged reliance on masking and distancing that American schools employed.

鈥淭he sense that all of this suffering for them and millions of other kids was for naught consumed me,鈥� he writes. 鈥淚 could not silence the voice in my head that this was gravely stupid.鈥�

By 2021, he was testifying as an expert witness before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on reopening schools, as well as a House subcommittee on the pandemic.

Five years after the first school closures, Zweig鈥檚 third book, An Abundance of Caution, out Tuesday, looks back on what he considers the questionable deliberations surrounding COVID at almost every level. While it takes the pandemic as its subject, Zweig notes that the book is about something much broader: 鈥渁 country ill-equipped to act sensibly under duress.鈥�

He finds bad decisions everywhere, with experts basing assertions about the virulence of the virus on that themselves were based essentially on guesswork. Media outlets, he alleges, routinely overhyped the seriousness of the virus, despite that children were not major carriers 鈥� and schools .

The media perseverated on the effectiveness of remedies like masking, social distancing and isolation, Zweig finds, despite that any of them made a difference. For months, they credulously transcribed experts鈥� predictions, often relying on the loudest, most overwrought voices, who often brought questionable credentials to the task. In one instance, an expert quoted on reopening was actually a consultant for smokeless tobacco companies.

Lawmakers dropped the ball as well, he says, prioritizing 鈥� perhaps even fetishizing 鈥� 鈥漵afety鈥� over normalcy, even when there was little evidence for keeping schools closed beyond the few weeks in which public health experts urged Americans to 鈥渇latten the curve鈥� of COVID cases.

Zweig has found a receptive audience for his reporting on the center-right 鈥� the book this week was excerpted in the conservative online publication 鈥� but his work has also bolstered arguments in left-of-center publications, from and to and .

Ahead of the book鈥檚 publication, Zweig spoke to 社区黑料鈥檚 Greg Toppo, further exploring its themes of a false medical consensus amid America鈥檚 鈥渦niquely acrimonious and tribalist political environment.鈥�

Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

By May 2020, schools in The Netherlands, Norway, Finland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, and more than a dozen other nations had reopened, with evidence mounting that COVID wasn’t even a modest risk to children. At a European Union conference, researchers reported that reopening schools there brought no significant increase in infections. Why weren’t we in lockstep with Europe? 

That is a very good question, which I spend 500 pages discussing [Laughs]. I’m saying that jokingly, but I’m not joking. The answer to that is long and complex. A uniquely acrimonious and tribalist political environment in America is one large reason. It’s not the only reason, but it is a significant reason.

You bemoan the politics surrounding the pandemic, but in one instance you quote on mitigation efforts. Early on, in March 2020, he  talked about wanting to act aggressively. DeWine invoked the example of St. Louis, which did so in the and had a death rate of just 358 per 100,000 people, while Philadelphia was slower to respond and suffered 748 deaths per 100,000. “We all want to be St Louis,” he said. Part of me wonders: What’s wrong with that? Motivating people to not be the bad example makes sense, doesn鈥檛 it? 

The example that so many politicians and so many media outlets used from the 1918 pandemic, where they often compared St. Louis to Philadelphia, was a deeply flawed misunderstanding of what the data actually showed over time. This was a misrepresentation and misunderstanding about what school closures can actually accomplish over time.

What鈥檚 the basic flaw in that approach?

A core flaw in the entire pandemic response, and in particular school closures, was the assumption that everyone was going to remain home and sequestered from each other for a lengthy period of time. While these interventions could be effective for a week or maybe two weeks or so, over time there is no way of effectively stopping the spread of a highly contagious respiratory virus in a free society, and in particular a society as economically and professionally stratified as America.

From the beginning, a significant portion of people in our country continued to move about because they had to. So while the laptop class sat home, and their children were home in a comfortable room, possibly aided by tutors or maybe a pod teacher, or maybe they were in private school, a significant portion of our country were delivering food and goods and other services from warehouses and restaurants and  slaughterhouses to the wealthier Americans who sat at home on Zoom. 

This was one of the most class-based, inequality-thrust decisions in our recent history. And to make matters worse is the idea which was continually perpetuated, that if you didn’t comply, that you were immoral, that there was a tremendous amount of virtue attached to the notion of staying home. Yet a significant portion of society could never comply with that. Beyond professional obligations, there are many millions of children who live in homes that are not safe, that are not conducive to being sequestered in a room for hours upon hours and sitting in front of a screen that they were supposed to learn from.

This whole idea that closing schools was going to have any impact was just manifestly absurd from very early, and there is just an endless amount of evidence, much of which I observed myself as a parent over time: Kids are going to interact with each other no matter what, and particularly when you think about kids whose parents had to work. What happened with them? Did they stay home alone? Some did, but many of them went to a grandparent’s house, a neighbor looked after them, or they went to a daycare or other situation where they were intermixing with children from a whole variety of nearby neighborhoods and towns. What I show is that this whole hybrid model, where schools were only open two days a week for some kids, or less, with the idea that that was going to mitigate transmission, was nonsensical, and there are tons of data that show this. 

You can look at cellular phone data, and you can see the mobility of American citizens began to increase over time. What we can see is that this completely is in line with what scientists had known for many, many years: People’s ability to comply with unpleasant or difficult directives understandably wanes over time, and there was never any inkling that human beings, by and large, were going to all just imprison themselves and be hermetically sealed. Only the most motivated and financially capable people could and would actually achieve that.

It sounds like you’re saying that we were asking schools to do something that virtually no one else could do.

Even if schools were closed, the point is that children were still mixing with people, and the adults themselves were mixing as well. Lockdowns in a free society do not work over time. There’s some evidence that perhaps they could work if they are absolute and total, where every single thing is closed for a very brief period of time. But the idea that children were locked out of a school building while adults could go to restaurants and bars and casinos and offices and stores 鈥� the idea that that logically was going to have any impact 鈥� was absurd. Yet it continued for more than a year for many children.

Including yours. At a certain point in summer of 2020, it seemed as if schools might reopen in the fall. And then on July 6, President Trump tweeted, all caps, “SCHOOLS MUST OPEN IN THE FALL.” As you write, four days later, the American Academy of Pediatrics came out . They had argued “forcefully and unambiguously” for opening schools before this. How much of this disaster was, as you say, Newtonian physics in the political realm? 

The equal and opposite reaction. 

Trump is for it? I’m against it.

It’s quite stark. The example from the American Academy of Pediatrics is quite stunning. The about-face was so obvious that even NPR . But that’s just one example. Throughout the book, I show over and over how people on the left were just reactive against Trump, and even those who wanted to talk about what they thought was wrong often generally didn’t do so. 

I had doctors, many of whom were at prestigious institutions around the country, reaching out to me, talking 鈥� always off the record 鈥� about how they vehemently disagreed with what was going on in schools: Mask mandates with kids, if the particular schools were open, or quarantines, or barriers on the desks, the six feet of distancing 鈥� all of these things that we were told were critical and that there was a consensus, and that this is “what the experts say.”

All these things were a manufactured consensus. This was artificial, and unfortunately, I couldn’t talk about it that much because all of this was off the record. 

Many of these doctors and others, including former CDC officials who would reach out to me, were simply afraid of being cast out amongst their peers. But many of them also were very explicitly told by their administrators, by their bosses at their university hospital or whatever institutions they were with, that they were not allowed to say this. They were not allowed to go against the narrative of the CDC. To me, that鈥檚 a far more frightening form of censorship, that the American public was misled in part because there was a false story about a medical consensus. I had access to this information, knowing it was a false narrative, but I was constrained in what I could say. But I will say this: That sort of false narrative continued, not just from doctors who were contacting me and other health experts. 

All we had to do was look at Europe: Tens of millions of children were in school there. But by and large, the media ignored this 鈥� not just the media, but our health officials. Or they contrived a variety of reasons that were false about why those kids were in school there.

That actually leads me to my question about journalism: You seem to hold a special disdain for the coverage of the New York Times, which you feel set the tone for fearful, expert-based coverage that largely ignored evidence. What happened, and how did things go wrong so quickly there?

Well, I single out the Times only because they were particularly egregious in their misleading coverage about the pandemic in general and in particular about children in schools. It’s not exclusive, I talk about all sorts of media outlets, but there’s extra focus on the Times because arguably it is the most influential news outlet in the country, certainly amongst the elite decision makers in our culture, whether in politics or other fields. It’s very important for how policy gets made in our country. The framing that The New York Times puts on certain topics is very important. 

If you think about Israel and Palestine, people already have kind of baked-in positions on that largely, so the framing of the Times will probably just anger one group or another, depending on the story. But something like the pandemic, this was new. So people didn’t come at it with a preconceived idea. They came somewhat blank-slate, at least among the broader kind of political left who reads The New York Times. The Times is telling them, “Don’t look over there. Don’t look at what’s happening here,” and if you do look then they give you a about a school in Georgia without providing any context, or a about Israel without providing any context. 

So one of the important things that I hope readers come away with after they finish my book is an understanding about how media can be incredibly misleading without necessarily publishing errors or facts that aren’t true; that you can write something that’s fact checked, and it still can be incredibly misleading by the way the story is framed, by the information that’s left out, by who you choose to interview and quote. All those things are incredibly important regarding how people perceive reality, and you can do all of it without having any errors.

I want to ask about your kids. How are they doing five years later? I guess they’re now in eighth and 10th grade?

That’s right.

How do they see this period of their lives?

They’re like any other teenagers. It’s impossible to have specific correlates for most circumstances, to say, “Pandemic school courses now have led to X in my child.” We, of course, can look at broader data, and rightfully so. There’s a lot of focus on “learning loss” and test scores. And there are a number of studies that clearly show a direct correlation: The less time that kids were in school during the pandemic, the worse their educational outcomes and scores were. We know that it’s directly linked to that. There’s no ambiguity.  

But what I talk about in the book is that there’s so much that happens in life that you can’t quantify. If you just think about what happened to the high school football player who was relying on a scholarship in order to get into college, but the senior year season was terminated. Never happened. What happened to that kid and so many others like him? What happens to the kids who relied on their school theater program or arts programs? 

What happened to the kids who relied on teachers to report abuse at home, because teachers and educators are the No. 1 reporter of child abuse. When schools were closed, those kids had nowhere to go and no one to see what was happening. So a perverse thing happened during the pandemic: Child abuse reports actually went down. But it’s not because there was less abuse. It’s that children lost this important vehicle to actually bring what was happening behind closed doors into the light. Harm is incurred whether there’s a lingering effect or not. 

I’m glad you brought up abuse because that’s one of those things people don’t necessarily see right away.

This was known immediately. In April 2020, they already could see this. The data were already coming in. So to be very clear, health officials knew harm, great harm, was being done to many children, and they continued with the school closures nonetheless. 

A lot of “blue” parents say that COVID radicalized them. And I wonder how you鈥檇 describe what it did to you?

I wouldn’t say I’ve been radicalized, but I would say as someone who, generally, for my whole adult life, had positioned myself pretty far on the left, I have always been an independent thinker. I’m not one to go with the crowd. I’ve been independent politically. But observing the way our health authorities behaved in conjunction with legacy media, both of which are predominantly on the political left, and observing the complete disconnect from science, from following evidence, from a clear-eyed, honest view of empirical reality, was incredibly destabilizing. You can never go back from that once you observe that type of behavior. 

These were supposed to be the good guys. I’m not saying this was purposeful, necessarily, or conscious, but people’s hatred for Trump and hatred for Republicans or people on the right so dramatically distorted the lens through which they were seeing the world that they conducted themselves in a fashion that was completely disconnected from reality. One of the great ironies of that era was these lawn signs, “In this house, we believe in science.” These people with the lawn signs generally had absolutely no clue what the science said. They had no clue what they were talking about.

What I’m left with after reading the book is just this kind of sick feeling about what’s going to happen the next time, in the next pandemic. I wonder if you have a sense.

It’s so hard to know. I would just close by saying that I hope my book can do a small part in trying to reveal how the views of society, and in particular, of elite society, spin. My book is essentially one giant case study, composed of a series of case studies, of how health officials and the media operated. And by reading through this narrative of these case studies, you gain a deeper understanding about how things actually work, how individuals and societies make decisions with limited information. Hopefully, people will be armed with that awareness and knowledge. So whatever the next crisis is 鈥� it doesn’t need to be a pandemic 鈥� you鈥檒l have a more clear-eyed and educated view about what’s actually going on around you. And perhaps that will be able to ultimately change what’s going on around us.

Since the pandemic, the Los Angeles Unified School District has lost more than 70,000 students. Enrollment has fallen to 408,083, from a peak of 746,831 in 2002. Losses , too, with the district shedding more than 11,000 kids. 

Nearly half of the district鈥檚 456 zoned elementary schools 鈥� 225 campuses 鈥� are half-full or worse, and 56 have seen rosters fall by 70% or more, according to a new analysis of more than 30 years of local attendance data. 

Decades of shrinking classes recently prompted L.A. school board president Scott Schmerelson to say district leadership needs to start talking about closing or combining schools, something that some other big U.S. cities are already doing.

But LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in an interview with 社区黑料 he鈥檚 pumping the brakes on closing or consolidating schools, a tactic that often sparks protests in impacted neighborhoods.

Instead, Carvalho said, he鈥檚 starting with a fresh idea for how to solve some of the problems associated with dwindling admissions in LAUSD, one that he said may also stave off a financial crisis for the district caused by falling per-pupil funding. 

He believes the L.A. Unified can fight the financial losses that could force it to close or consolidate schools by shutting down underutilized buildings on multi-building campuses or unused portions of individual school buildings, while keeping other parts operational. 

鈥淲hen you close a school, it may very well extinguish the only protective area in a community for kids,鈥� Carvalho said of his motivations for avoiding 鈥� at almost any cost 鈥� school closures, even amid demographic changes and . 

If L.A. Unified can consolidate its shrinking schools into a fraction of the classrooms or buildings, Carvalho explained, it could save on staffing and facilities costs that could otherwise force the district into closing schools.

鈥淵ou close buildings that are either not up to par or are underutilized within those schools, prior to a conversation regarding the closure of the school itself,鈥� he said.

That鈥檚 because, Carvalho said, when a school is closed, students still have to go somewhere; and staffing levels set by union contracts will prevent the district from shedding too many teachers.

鈥淪o what do you save on? You save, basically, on the maintenance of that school,鈥� he said, plus the salaries of principals and a few other staffers.

鈥淭he savings,鈥� he concluded, 鈥渁re not what people think.鈥�

L.A. Unified is starting with a plan to survey its schools to see where unused space exists, Carvalho said. After that, a process will be created to close or employ unused classrooms in other ways. He didn鈥檛 offer examples, but other districts have embedded child care centers or afterschool programs in empty classrooms. 

But Carvalho faces pressure to act from a school board that鈥檚 concerned with the district鈥檚 increasingly dire loss of students.

Schmerelson, the board鈥檚 term-limited president, pushed the issue closer to the forefront earlier this year when he said that the district needs to consider consolidating or closing schools.

Since LAUSD is funded on a per-pupil basis from local, state and federal sources, Schmerelson said, the loss of students directly threatens the fiscal health of the district at a time when pandemic-era federal relief funding has dried up.

鈥淲e’re going to have to fasten our seat belts and endure this ride,鈥� Schmerelson said in an interview this winter. 

Just as important as the financial pressures, Schmerelson explained, are the social and academic ones.

Under-enrolled schools can鈥檛 provide a robust education, he said, since there aren鈥檛 enough kids to fill up classrooms and float basic programs such as sports teams or a science club.

And with fewer kids to go around, more Los Angeles schools are failing to attract enough students to hit such a threshold, a number that is often pegged at about 200 kids for traditional public schools in an urban district like L.A.

What to do when schools shrink beyond the point of viability is a thorny problem for LAUSD. But now, a study published this month by a watchdog group has offered a fresh look at the challenge.

鈥�,鈥� a 36-page report published by a nonpartisan nonprofit led by Tim DeRoche, an author and parent who lives in Los Angeles, draws on official attendance data for LAUSD鈥檚 zoned elementary schools for the years 1995 to 2024. 

DeRoche鈥檚 investigation of LAUSD produced some startling conclusions.

鈥淭he district is shrinking dramatically,鈥� said DeRoche, who, among other things, on the history of U.S. school attendance zones.

Most zoned L.A. elementary schools are almost half empty, and many are operating at less than 25% capacity, DeRoche said. 

Enrollment has dropped by more than 46%, he added, leaving more than 160,000 empty seats. Thirty-four schools have fewer than 200 students enrolled; a dozen of those schools once had enrollment over 400.

DeRoche said the steepest drops tended to be in poorer neighborhoods and lower performing schools, while higher performing schools retained more students.

He said tactics, such as the one proposed by Carvalho to limit campus usage, could make a difference to preserve programs, but ultimately LAUSD will have to reckon with the financial problems posed by surplus seats.

鈥淒istricts around the country are going to be facing these financial crises, and the potential closure of schools,鈥� DeRoche warned. 鈥淚n L.A. that is a dramatic problem that cuts across every neighborhood of the city.鈥�

Drops in per-pupil funding combined with persistent overhead will put the squeeze on LAUSD, he said, just as falling admissions have forced other school systems to make tough decisions.

More districts in other cities and states are starting a process of closing or combining schools after enrollments that cratered in the pandemic failed to bounce back. 

Results with school closures have been mixed.

New York City, faced with excess capacity and enrollment declines like L.A., has some of its tiny schools, and so far managed to avoid huge public outcry. School closures in Denver and have been a painful business.

Tanya Ortiz Franklin, who represents neighborhoods in L.A. including Watts and San Pedro, is another member of the LAUSD board who is calling for a plan to combine or close the city鈥檚 underused schools.

鈥淚t doesn’t make sense to keep the same number of campuses when costs of everything are increasing,鈥� she explained.

鈥淎nd yet,鈥� Franklin added, 鈥渢hat is a very hard conversation to have with community members who are afraid of losing their neighborhood school.鈥�

Still, she said the district ought to start having those tough talks about closing schools soon, to maximize chances of successfully managing properties while continuing to serve the needs of families.

The possibilities the board member sees are myriad. Some school buildings might even be best put to use, she said, by serving as housing for teachers. But first the district has to talk to families and analyze the data to find out what neighborhoods really need. 

鈥淲e could be using our properties in different ways,鈥� Franklin said, 鈥渢hat still contribute to the vibrancy and the needs of the community.鈥�

Armed with $190 billion in COVID-19 recovery funds from the federal government, nearly every state spent at least some of it on tutoring, with more than half adopting standards to ensure districts and schools used high-dosage, high-quality programs. During the 2022-23 school year alone, of federal pandemic aid on tutoring, on top of an estimated spent by districts on such efforts. 

Five years after the pandemic dramatically disrupted learning, with the federal aid now spent, America’s education system is still struggling to regain lost ground. The latest reveal persistent academic gaps, underscoring the urgent need for effective interventions.

Amid all the setbacks, tutoring has broken through as one of the few recovery strategies that states and districts are strategically embedding into their budgets鈥攅xpanding, refining, and solidifying programs that, in some cases, have delivered significant gains in student achievement. 

Even in these politically divisive times, there鈥檚 one thing we can all agree on: Every student deserves the opportunity to build foundational skills in reading, writing, and math that will serve them through life. With nearly $1 trillion spent on education each year, we must ensure that investment translates into real educational opportunities that lead to good jobs and meaningful lives. 

High-dosage tutoring delivered during the school day from a consistent, well-trained tutor is the . In Rapid City, South Dakota, a group of retired teachers come to Title I schools each day to work as tutors, one-on-one with predominantly indigenous students. In Harrison, Colorado, paraprofessionals tutor students 鈥� and become so inspired by the academic success that they become full-time teachers themselves through innovative educator apprenticeship models. In Springfield, Ohio, aspiring teachers tutor local elementary school students building their skills while shoring up those of their students.

Over the past two decades, our organizations have dedicated significant resources to studying, supporting, and scaling this approach. Not only are we optimistic about what we are seeing, but we are firmly convinced that school systems, policymakers, and philanthropic leaders must double down on their commitment and investment to this transformative work.

This belief is driven by significant progress and success across several key areas: continued on tutoring outcomes; from parents and teachers and schools; viable paths to affordable delivery at scale; new models that solve of time, people, and money; better understanding of policies and data systems that improve tutoring delivery; and a with the potential for significant breakthroughs.  

High-dosage tutoring is uniquely effective in helping students learn, including when implemented at scale. A by University of Virginia researcher Beth Schueler, along with Brown University鈥檚 Matthew A. Kraft and Grace T. Falken, analyzed 282 randomized control trials and found that large-scale tutoring programs yield months of additional student learning per year, though effectiveness diminished as programs scale beyond 1,000 students. Yet even large-scale tutoring results were stronger than educational interventions like summer school, class size reduction, and extended school days. Additionally, of continue to find , even in challenging learning conditions. 

Importantly, schools and parents want more tutoring in their schools. The most of school leaders found that high-dosage tutoring implementation increased again last year, growing from 39% of schools in 2022-23 to 46% of schools in 2023-24. This is not just a fleeting post-pandemic trend 鈥� schools are investing in tutoring even as federal relief funding winds down, because tutoring is wildly popular with parents. In Louisiana, high-dosage tutoring outperformed every other education policy polled, with an astonishing 90% approval. 

Despite our prevailing partisan politics, the push for more tutoring comes from red and blue states, from city systems and rural counties 鈥� with whether tutoring is the next big bipartisan school reform. 

Arkansas passed regulations outlining the characteristics of quality tutoring and requiring student-level reporting of delivery so that the state can manage implementation, elevate best practices, and support struggling schools. Baltimore City Public Schools is currently tutoring over 10,000 students through partnerships with external tutoring providers and a district-run program using paraprofessionals. 

Pitt County, North Carolina partnered with to provide critical tutors to multilingual learners, using technology to deliver services in students鈥� native languages, including even American Sign Language, in rural schools. And New Mexico is expanding virtual middle school math tutoring statewide, breaking down barriers to access for students in rural areas. 

Federal pandemic aid may be gone, but state appropriators are putting money where they鈥檙e seeing progress: Virginia added for academic recovery, with on high-dosage tutoring for its students who are furthest behind academically. Maryland stood up a $28 million middle school math tutoring program for underserved students. And in state funds last year for intensive tutoring.

Finally, we are at the very beginning of a wave of innovation fueled by emerging technologies like AI. Innovation through has helped of tutoring as well as . The months of learning from past studies will soon come from without losing the ability to personalize tutoring sessions, support tutoring quality, and maintain program effectiveness in student learning. 

Collectively, our organizations, and other like-minded organizations such as the National Student Support Accelerator and Saga Education, have supported tutoring delivery to hundreds of thousands of students, have launched and published dozens of studies on tutoring, and have infused tens of millions of dollars into the space to spur innovation and capture learning. But we still have more work to do. 

Five years after the pandemic began, students remain behind where they should be, and the gaps between Black and Latino students and their peers are . Federal relief funding that allowed districts to try new things has run out. And yet the evidence has never been clearer: High-dosage tutoring works and can help millions of students. But without action, this critical intervention risks being lost to politics, budget cuts and inertia. There is with continued investment in high-dosage tutoring. 

We must double down on evidence-based strategies, reject fatalism, and embrace the urgency of this moment. The latest NAEP scores confirm what鈥檚 at stake. States, districts, and funders must step up to ensure that every student who needs tutoring gets it. This isn鈥檛 just an investment in students 鈥� it鈥檚 an investment in our country鈥檚 future.

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provide financial support to Accelerate and 社区黑料.

When schools were handed an unprecedented $129 billion in federal pandemic aid, it wasn鈥檛 surprising that COVID-related equipment topped the shopping list as schools rushed to snap up hotspots, laptops, desk dividers, and air filters.

But another widespread pattern is emerging as federal officials tally up the spending: Many districts also used their one-time funding to take care of longstanding needs, like replacing aging infrastructure and outdated textbooks, that schools previously wanted to tackle but could not afford to do so.

Around 1 in 3 school districts and charter operators nationwide, or some 5,200, used COVID relief during the 2022-23 school year to adopt new curriculum or learning materials, . That made it the most common strategy to address learning loss, which schools spent $11 billion on that year.

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Schools spent some $6 billion in federal pandemic aid that same year to . That meant 1 out of every 10 COVID relief dollars spent during the 2022-23 school year went toward a school building. It was six times more than what states spent on tutoring.

And half of all COVID relief dollars schools spent that year, or just under $25 billion, were spent on staff salaries and benefits. A good chunk of that went toward paying new social workers and school nurses, with the aid.

Now that the COVID aid is mostly gone 鈥� 鈥� schools are confronting big questions about how they will cover curriculum overhauls and critical building repairs going forward, as well as how many of those additional staffers will lose their jobs. Many school districts, especially those with declining enrollments, are considering closing schools or cutting programs to balance their budgets.

The report looks at how the nation鈥檚 roughly 16,000 school districts and charter operators spent just over $49 billion in COVID relief dollars during the 2022-23 school year. Nearly all of the first two COVID relief packages had been exhausted and schools were halfway through spending their last and largest aid package by the end of the 2022-23 school year. Schools had spent some $117 billion in pandemic aid by that point.

Investing in people and projects with the potential for long-term payoffs made sense, federal officials say, and the Biden administration encouraged this type of spending.

Federal officials also believe provisions in the COVID aid laws that required states to maintain their own school funding will help schools return to more usual levels of funding more easily than they did following the Great Recession. When stimulus packages enacted in the wake of that financial crisis expired, many states slashed education funding and .

鈥淭here are certainly difficult decisions that are going to get made after $130 billion is fully invested,鈥� said Adam Schott, the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Education Department鈥檚 Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. 鈥淲e are just not seeing the type of fiscal cliff that we saw 10, 12, 15 years ago.鈥�

Part of the reason for that, Schott said, is that the Biden administration urged schools to spend the pandemic aid on both immediate needs but also long-term academic goals.

To the administration, investing in school buildings 鈥� and getting rid of issues like asbestos, mold, and lead 鈥� was also crucial.

鈥淔or decades, we鈥檝e known that a classroom that鈥檚 90 degrees in May or in September is an impediment to in-person learning,鈥� Schott said. 鈥淲e saw this as really core to academic recovery.鈥�

Many schools spent on curriculum amid worrying test scores

The new data about spending on curriculum and classroom materials comes as many states and districts and math, opting for materials that .

That spending also coincides with of and test score data showing that American children are academically stagnant or falling behind their earlier counterparts. That was true even before the pandemic. But the trend is .

And while recent state test scores have shown , 鈥淲e are clearly not where we ought to be,鈥� Schott said.

Now that the federal COVID aid is gone, 鈥渟tates have to be ready to grab the baton,鈥� he added, whether that鈥檚 finding new ways to spend existing federal funding, or adding money to state education budgets. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to keep beating that drum with every minute we鈥檝e got left.鈥�

The new federal report also comes as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to start his second term in a few days. It鈥檚 unclear how or if top education officials in his administration will push schools to continue pandemic-era programs.

On the campaign trail, , and give more responsibility to state officials 鈥� who already largely control what and how kids learn.

By the 2022-23 school year, most students were back to learning in person for a second school year. The pandemic was declared officially over halfway through the school year. But many students were struggling to follow the routines of school. .

was a 鈥� though it鈥檚 unclear if some of these programs helped kids improve academically. About 2 in 5 school districts or charter school operators used COVID aid on summer programs that school year, reaching around 4.5 million students.

A smaller number of districts and charter operators 鈥� around 1 in 10 nationally, or around 2,100 鈥� used pandemic money to add instructional time. Researchers were .

Meanwhile, states spent $1 billion on tutoring that school year, and districts ran intensive tutoring programs that reached some 3 million kids, or around 6% of public school students. Of those students, around half were from low-income families, while 13% were students with disabilities and 14% were learning English as a new language 鈥� suggesting that many students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds did not receive tutoring.

鈥� a figure researchers have already said was likely much smaller than the share of kids who needed extra academic help after the pandemic鈥檚 disruptions to learning.

The report points out that COVID aid helped to put 鈥渕ore people working in America鈥檚 schools than at any time in the last decade.鈥� As of October 2024, the report notes, schools had added some 643,000 jobs since 2021, with a 43% increase in social workers and a 23% increase in school nurses.

Some school finance experts have criticized schools for . They鈥檝e said the hiring and firing is destabilizing, especially for schools that already had more staff turnover prior to the pandemic.

Still, Schott defended that use of the money. He pointed out that some of the added spending helped to raise low teacher pay or invest in gummed-up educator pipelines. Other spending got 鈥渕ore caring eyes on kids鈥� at a chaotic time.

鈥淵ou couldn鈥檛 maintain consistency for kids, you couldn鈥檛 deliver instruction, you couldn鈥檛 get core nutrition services flowing without people,鈥� he said.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at . 

California鈥檚 public school students are continuing to rebound from the pandemic, with more showing up for class, more graduating and fewer misbehaving at school, according to new data released today.

The California School Dashboard, a color-coded snapshot of how students and schools are faring, showed improvements in many categories during the 2023-24 school year 鈥� a relief for schools trying to help students recover academically and social-emotionally after the 2020 campus closures.

The most notable improvement was in attendance. The percentage of students who were chronically absent, missing more than 10% of school days in a year, dropped to about 20%, a significant decline from when it peaked at 30% three years ago. Prior to the pandemic about 12% of students were chronically absent.

鈥淭his is good news,鈥� said Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, a nonprofit that advocates for school attendance. 鈥淚鈥檓 pleasantly surprised. 鈥� To benefit from all the services that schools are offering, kids have to show up.鈥�

Since the pandemic, schools across the state have been doubling down on efforts to lure students back to school. Many used their federal and state COVID-19 relief money to hire outreach workers, add bus routes, host pizza parties and otherwise make it easier and more enticing to come to school. Some districts had  to solve transportation and other obstacles.

Chronic absenteeism continues to improve after pandemic peak

Those efforts paid off, Chang said. While the pizza parties helped, she pointed to many schools鈥� focus on improving campus climate overall. That includes counseling, social-emotional learning, stronger relationships between school staff and families, and health and wellness services.

Pandemic relief , so some districts will be scrambling to maintain these programs going forward. But the state鈥檚 recent investments in community schools, arts education, transitional kindergarten and other services will help, Chang said.

Recognition for long-term English learners 

Another noteworthy item in the Dashboard is the inclusion of a new student group: long-term English learners, or students who were not fluent in English after seven years. The reasons for these students鈥� delays vary, but in general they鈥檙e not receiving adequate help learning English and as a result, lag far behind their peers academically.

About 10% of students who were ever classified as English learners were considered long-term English learners last year, according to state data. Those students had some of the lowest math and English language arts scores of any of California鈥檚 13 other student groups.

鈥淲e鈥檙e celebrating this significant milestone, that long-term English learners get the spotlight they deserve and they are no longer invisible,鈥� said Martha Hernandez, director of Californians Together, which advocates for students who are English learners. 鈥淏ut now the work begins to ensure their needs are met.鈥�

Schools and other education agencies need to work together to help families who are recent immigrants by finding translators, provide counseling to students, boost bilingual education and bring in tutors to help with English and academic skills, said Lindsay Tornatore, director of systems improvement and student success at California County Superintendents, which represents county office of education superintendents.

鈥楴ot good enough鈥�

Elsewhere on the dashboard, the graduation rate was 86.4%, up a bit from the previous year and higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 84.2%. But a related item on the dashboard raised alarm bells with researchers. The number of students meeting the requirements for admission to California鈥檚 public universities was up only slightly 鈥� an increase of just 3,700 students among a graduating class of 438,000.  Close to half of high school graduates are ineligible for the University of California or California State University.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 just not good enough,鈥� said Alix Gallagher, interim managing director at the nonpartisan think tank Policy Analysis for California Education. 鈥淚t means the recovery has been anemic, and that鈥檚 a problem. We need a different approach, starting at the state level.鈥�

Most California high schoolers graduate in four years

But only about half of graduates meet University of California or California State University admission criteria, also known as A-G requirements.

She pointed to some districts鈥� policies of placing students on math tracks that don鈥檛 allow them to meet the college admission requirements by their senior year. While not all students should be expected to enroll in four-year colleges, they should at least have the option available, she said.

The Department of Education hailed a drop in the suspension rate, among all student groups. Student misbehavior had increased after schools re-opened, and schools struggled to maintain a positive atmosphere for staff and other students. The rate dropped from 3.6% to 3.3% last year.

No major changes to format

The dashboard itself has been . The data is too hard for parents to navigate, and the color coding can be misleading, according to a report from the Center for Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University. 

For example, a school might earn an orange color, the second-from-lowest designation, for showing slight improvements, but its scores might actually be lower than schools that earned a red, the lowest ranking. The state said it would consider making some changes but hadn鈥檛 made any major alterations on this year鈥檚 version.

The dashboard was released a few weeks earlier than it was last year. By 2026 the dashboard鈥檚 release will coincide with the Smarter Balanced test score announcement in mid-October.   

This was originally published on .

In both cases, we collaborate with programs across the country that help bring additional people into schools 鈥� beyond traditional staffers 鈥� to meet the scale and intensity of students鈥� post-pandemic needs. 

AmeriCorps has been a critical asset to this work, providing committed and engaged citizens willing to serve their schools and communities in a time of enormous need. If Congress does not act, though, AmeriCorps’s participation could drop significantly 鈥� or even go away altogether. This would impact hundreds of thousands of students at a critical time.

AmeriCorps provides funding to nonprofit organizations and stipends to volunteers, allowing them to work full time in communities. Thousands of them assist schools with tutoring to help address learning recovery and develop relationships with students and their families to take on chronic absenteeism.

In Philadelphia, for example, recruits, trains and coaches a racially and generationally diverse cohort of AmeriCorps members who work full time delivering daily, 30-minute, in-person tutoring to pairs of students in grades K-3. Joyful Readers’ AmeriCorps tutors utilize a multi-sensory, structured language program that provides research-based materials and strategies that are essential to a comprehensive reading, spelling and handwriting program. They served approximately 1,120 students during the 2023-24 school year.

In Minnesota, Mississippi and New York, delivers high-dosage math tutoring to K-3 students using AmeriCorps members, providing early intervention. Math Corps AmeriCorps tutors also track students’ progress and regularly meet with coaches to assess data and work toward learning targets. To date, Math Corps has served 55,451 students across urban, rural and suburban schools, with the goal of using evidence-based math curriculum to set students on a STEM career trajectory.

implements the Minnesota Promise Fellows program, deploying AmeriCorps members as success coaches in schools and districts statewide to address chronic absenteeism. Promise Fellows serve on district attendance teams and assist school and district staff by collecting data; sharing information on health care, mental health, housing and other resources with students and families; and forging strong relationships with young people to support engagement, attendance and academic success.

AmeriCorps has been around since the 1990s, with support from both Democratic and Republican administrations and congressional leadership, and in that time has grown to recruit around 70,000 members each year. The House has now proposed gutting AmeriCorps. The Senate should reject that proposal and fund AmeriCorps at a level that ensures that service will continue uninterrupted. In fact, schools and communities 鈥� especially those that have been historically underserved 鈥� need more AmeriCorps members to act as tutors, mentors and student success coaches to meet this moment. 

Schools and communities are working hard to get kids back to where they should be. . Absenteeism is a massive challenge facing schools, and they want help in addressing it. Effective strategies exist, but schools need additional adults 鈥� with robust training and ongoing guidance from leadership 鈥� to help schools, families and students address various obstacles to regular school attendance. When schools have a majority of students behind grade level in reading and math, as is true in many high-poverty areas, they need to employ high-dosage tutoring. These initiatives require people 鈥� and AmeriCorps each year identifies precisely the kind of people the nation’s students need. 

This is a key moment to help schools and children across the country. There is broad bipartisan agreement about the urgency of addressing learning gaps and absenteeism, and there is enormous public support for initiatives like tutoring that reach the most vulnerable kids. Congress needs to ensure that AmeriCorps can deploy the tens of thousands of dedicated individuals willing to serve in schools and communities at this crucial moment.

AmeriCorps works in all 50 states 鈥� one of the rare programs that benefits both red and blue America. The cost of restoring AmeriCorps program levels and helping hundreds of thousands of kids is modest. But the cost of inaction is high. Unaddressed learning loss and absenteeism will lead to fewer students graduating prepared for adult success, resulting in social and economic costs to communities and the nation. We urge Congress to support AmeriCorps, its members working in schools across the country and the students they serve.

And here鈥檚 a twist: The same core difficulties are bedeviling teachers too.

The findings, contained in a new working paper, are believed to be the first to identify brain changes as an explanation for why students have suffered, both inside and outside the classroom, since the pandemic drove millions out of the classroom. 

, a Harvard University psychologist who studies the effects of stress on executive functions and who is the study鈥檚 lead author, said the new findings offer the first evidence to help us 鈥渦nderstand the 鈥榳hy鈥欌�� of the pandemic downturn 鈥� 鈥渨hat is actually causing all these issues that we’re seeing and talking about in the news.鈥�

The paper, from the educational assessment and services company“, examines the cognitive skills of students nationwide and finds that, simply put, over the past several years, kids鈥� famously ever-changing brains have changed for the worse.聽

Since the pandemic鈥檚 onset, students across all ages and economic levels have begun to demonstrate weaker memory and 鈥渇lexible thinking鈥� skills 鈥� those represent the mental bandwidth needed for multitasking, shifting from one activity to another and juggling the day鈥檚 demands. But for a few groups, such as younger and lower-income children, the changes have been more profound.

They also show that their teachers鈥� brains are weaker in almost identical ways, which could help explain high rates of frustration and burnout. They suggest school districts have their work cut out for them if they want to keep their best employees on the payroll and returning to the classroom each fall. 

Understanding the 鈥榳hy鈥� of pandemic downturn

The data come from a large, widely-used assessment, the , developed in 2013 at the University of Pennsylvania. It consists of a series of cognitive tasks that measure subjects鈥� accuracy and speed in several major cognitive domains, including working memory, abstraction, sustained attention, episodic memory and processing speed. 

MindPrint has administered the assessment periodically to its clients over the past decade. The most recent rounds totaled 35,000 students and 4,000 teachers in 27 states.

By most measures, U.S. students are suffering. Last year, NAEP scores showed the average 13-year-old鈥檚 understanding of math dropping to levels last seen in the 1990s and reading levels dropping to 1971, when the test was first administered.

More recent research has shown that while older children are showing encouraging signs of academic recovery, younger kids aren鈥檛 making the same progress. Many students who weren鈥檛 even in a formal school setting when COVID hit are already falling behind 鈥� especially in math.

The Penn assessment found that children who attended elementary or pre-school during the pandemic and who are now 8 to13 years old showed the largest declines in memory. 

鈥淵ounger kids haven’t really developed a lot of these core cognitive skills,鈥� Tsai said. 鈥淚t hasn’t solidified for them, either through development or just through practice in the classroom. And so younger kids are more vulnerable to these pandemic shifts.鈥�

But students across all age groups showed worse flexible thinking, which researchers now theorize contributes to lower academic performance 鈥� as well as challenging behaviors.

Tsai said kids from lower income backgrounds were more vulnerable to these changes, specifically in verbal reasoning and verbal memory, than their higher income peers, with bigger declines in verbal scores, which are highly correlated with academic achievement in all subjects.

Adults in the study had similar declines in both memory and flexible thinking, possibly explaining higher reported levels of and .

Nancy Weinstein, MindPrint鈥檚 CEO, said weaker flexible thinking isn鈥檛 necessarily a problem for experienced teachers who have developed strategies to cope with stressful situations and can modify plans on the fly. But those with less experience may be unable to change gears when lessons go astray or students act out in class. That may lead to higher teacher burnout.

Across the board, teachers鈥� skills suffered in areas such as verbal and abstract reasoning, spatial perception, attention and working memory, but they saw the greatest losses in verbal memory and flexible thinking.

鈥淚f we care about that, we need to know how to help them,鈥� Weinstein said. 鈥淎nd there are some tried and true things you can do.鈥�

She said schools should consider sharing data like this with teachers so they can understand that their frustration in class might not be due to students alone. That could make a big difference, she said, in 鈥渢heir willingness to put in the effort to change, as opposed to saying, ‘Why bother?’鈥�

For students, Weinstein said, offering them more opportunities to practice skills with between study sessions could help. Schools should also consider 鈥溾�� techniques that break learning into chunks and address each individually.

Could such techniques help students 鈥� and teachers 鈥� regain a measure of pre-pandemic skills? Weinstein suggests the answer is 鈥淵es.鈥�

鈥淭he environment will matter, but certainly we can regain some of that if we do the right things,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd we know what the right things are to do.鈥�

Crystal Green-Braswell, coordinator of staff wellness and culture for the Little Rock School District in Arkansas, said offering the Penn assessment to teachers and staff has helped many think more deeply about their work 鈥� and about their own thinking. 

鈥淧eople who have had the assessment will say, ‘Now, you know my processing speed is slower 鈥� y’all are going to have to give me a moment,’鈥� she said. 

That鈥檚 a huge change in a profession in which most workers have been asked 鈥渢o take ourselves out of the equation and just get the work done,鈥� Green-Braswell said. 

She sees offering such insights to educators as part of 鈥渞ehumanizing鈥� teaching. 鈥淲hen we provide this kind of assessment and we provide this kind of space for folks to actually get to know themselves, we are humanizing this profession and helping people to realize, ‘You play a role. You play an active role. You matter.’ 鈥�

鈥淭he thing that really struck us as we looked across all of the data points 鈥� [is] there鈥檚 just a disproportionate impact for those [special populations of] students across the board,鈥� said Robin Lake, director of the at Arizona State University.  鈥淲hat I think really came through to us 鈥� especially in the parent interviews we conducted this year 鈥� was parents were experiencing a system that wasn鈥檛 functioning even before the pandemic effectively for them.鈥�

At a press conference Tuesday, Lake called the report鈥檚 findings a 鈥渨arning bell for systemic reform.鈥� 

Disadvantaged students continue 鈥渂earing the brunt of slow and uneven recovery鈥� from pandemic-era school closures, Lake said, and their struggles come at a time when their numbers are growing.

There was a surge of roughly 343,000 students identified for special education from the 2020鈥�21 to the 2022鈥�23 school years a trend which appears on track to continue. There are variations across states and student groups, with Black and Hispanic students being identified at higher rates.   

Lake said researchers are still trying to determine if this is just normal catch-up following under-identification during school closures, or if something more is going on.

The 2024 State of the American Student Report builds on two previous annual reports, which detailed the impact of COVID on students鈥� academic performance and well-being. Last year鈥檚 research focused on older students with little-to-no time left in the K-12 system, who saw what the organization described as 鈥渟hocking declines鈥� in college and career readiness. This year, CRPE interviewed parents and dug into data around particularly vulnerable student populations.

The academic impacts on students with disabilities and their rate of recovery varied from district to district, according to a CRPE-commissioned analysis by Georgia State professor Tim Sass. This, they believe, shows that what schools and districts did during and after the pandemic had real impact, but more research is needed to learn what kind of mitigation and recovery strategies proved most effective.

More than four years after COVID emerged, the average student who experienced school closures is still less than halfway to a , but Lake emphasized that averages can obscure particular students’ nuanced experiences. 鈥淯nder the hood of average,鈥� she said, she saw reason for both optimism and concern.

The good news: Students are bouncing back in some areas. The average student has recovered about of their pandemic-era learning losses in math and a quarter in reading.

Evidence-based practices, such as tutoring, high-quality curricula and extended learning time, are starting to get baked into school systems, she said, which she hopes will last beyond stimulus funds. 

Yet, many of these practices still aren鈥檛 reaching nearly enough students.

For example, across four major, urban public school systems in 2023, 8th graders with disabilities and English language learners continued to score significantly lower than their peers in English Language Arts. In New York City, 61% of all students demonstrated proficiency, while only 29% of students with disabilities and 9% of English learners did.

Chronic absenteeism also disproportionately plagues special populations, according to Sass鈥檚 analysis. And parents expressed frustration that during school closures their kids weren鈥檛 getting access to their legally required interventions. Simultaneously, they were concerned that expectations for their children were being lowered, while communication was dwindling.

鈥淥ne of our researchers started referring to this as ghosting,鈥� said Lake. 鈥淭hat the parents were being ghosted by their schools 鈥� [and] not getting information about how their kids were doing academically.鈥� 

Ultimately, they felt blindsided when they found out just how far behind their children had fallen. As students have returned to school buildings, more have been flagged as having special learning needs and requiring special education, after a dip during the pandemic. 

Especially when looking at 鈥淐OVID babies,鈥� those who didn鈥檛 necessarily get access to preschool or typical socialization, Lake wondered, 鈥淎re they being funneled into special education as a solution or do they really have a disability that needs to be addressed in special education?鈥� And, she added, 鈥淚s special education equipped to deal with this influx?鈥�

CRPE鈥檚 analysis found that special education identification rates varied greatly across school districts in Massachusetts, which reports more detailed data than most other states. For example, the rate of identification in kindergarten in Boston grew from 14% to 18% between 2018 and 2024, while about an hour away in Worcester, the pre-K identification jumped far more, from 26% to 38%. Lake said this variation demonstrates that the approach to identification matters, but still 鈥渢here are more questions than answers on this front.鈥� 

Lake emphasized that while special populations may be struggling more acutely, many of the issues they face in the classroom are similar to those of their peers. 

鈥淲hile we鈥檙e seeing a lot of kids moving into special education right now, maybe we need to flip the narrative and think about solving for the kids with the most complex needs,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd if we can figure out how to do that, making sure that all kids can be successful.鈥�

When I partnered with the Center on Reinventing Public Education on a reviewing how transparent state report cards are in reflecting COVID-19 learning loss and recovery, I came in with an open mind. I expected they would contain most of the information we sought and would mostly be pretty usable. I was wrong. I think everyone on our team was incredibly disappointed by many of the state report card websites and their inability to answer our primary questions of interest about the effects of COVID on student outcomes.

Here are four questions from our five analysts about these sites, based on direct quotes from a written interview we all completed after we finished rating the report cards, that we think states should consider moving forward. 

Where Is the Data?

The high-level takeaway from our report: It is extremely difficult on most state report card websites to track longitudinal performance data at the school level going back to before COVID. There are a few exceptions 鈥� seven states (Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Tennessee) earned an A for having this data available.

But even in many of these better-performing states, there were problems. Many state report cards make it difficult to do things that should be easy. Parents should be able to use the report cards to compare schools they are considering for their children, but in too many places, that is impossible. Advocates should be able to understand, at minimum, the performance of federally mandated student groups, such as children with disabilities and English learners, but many states completely bury these data. Further, report cards often lack other kinds of data that parents might want about available services, like advanced coursework, counseling, even sports and the arts. Overall, the reviewers were disappointed and disheartened.   

Are There Really No Best Practices?

We were struck by the variation across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. One reviewer commented, 鈥淚t was as if 51 different contractors designed these report cards without so much as a single best practice about how they鈥檙e supposed to look or function.鈥� Some states leaned on graphs, others on tables. Some websites were easy to navigate, while others were befuddling. Some made subgroup data easy to find; others made it nearly impossible. Some report card websites couldn鈥檛 even easily be found through a Google search.

Our analysts also noted the difficulty of simply figuring out the basics of each site. 鈥淚 was surprised with how different each state report card was and the amount of time it took to familiarize myself with it enough to find the data I was looking for,鈥� one wrote. I felt this acutely as I examined all 51 report cards. It sometimes took two or three 10- to 15-minute visits to feel like I understood the layout of some of the sites. 

Overall, we felt that there surely must be some in reporting these kinds of data that states could draw on to improve their report cards. We all wanted easily navigable sites (i.e., that made it clear where to click to find what you wanted) where 1) measures were described in clear language and organized thematically, and 2) users could manipulate the data to answer their most important questions. No site met this bar, though some, such as Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma, were far better than others; Alaska, Louisiana, New York and Vermont

were among 11 states that earned the lowest grade for usability. There could be real value in researchers working with organizations like the Council of Chief State School Officers to lay out some explicit design principles. 

Who Is the Intended User?

State report cards are intended principally for parents. Realtors certainly think parents care about school quality; otherwise, they wouldn鈥檛 name local elementary schools in their listings. The popularity of sites like proves that at least some demand for school performance data exists. However, if parents are the main intended audience for these reports, it sure doesn鈥檛 seem that way. 鈥淚 could see [parents] spending considerably more time on this compared to our research team,鈥� said one of our researchers. Another described the situation for parents as 鈥渇rustrating and disempowering,鈥� echoing what the Data Quality Campaign found last year when it asked . 

We felt that the report cards were perhaps trying to serve too many audiences and, in the end, not serving any very well. States need to think clearly about whom they鈥檙e serving and redesign their report cards from the ground up, working with those groups to ensure usability. In particular, the language of the report cards needs to be clear for people who may not be experts in accountability terminology and education-related acronyms. Even with our levels of expertise, we were sometimes unclear about what different data points meant. 

Are State Reports Doomed to be a Compliance Exercise? 

A few reviewers thought some state report cards seem like a compliance exercise: States post them because the federal government requires them to, but, ultimately, they鈥檙e not concerned about whether these websites are usable. This is a somewhat cynical take, but it鈥檚 hard not to feel that way after reviewing some of these sites. 

But even if report card sites did start as compliance exercises, they can still serve a positive function in the long run. We don鈥檛 want to be Pollyannaish about their potential, but parents clearly care about the effectiveness of the schools they choose for their children, and states clearly can do better at communicating schools鈥� effectiveness.

We hope this review is a wake-up call for states to consider better reporting of school performance data. While private companies, like GreatSchools, can provide alternatives, states are missing an opportunity to shape parents鈥� thinking about what matters for school effectiveness, and why. The failure of states to provide high-quality, usable report cards raises a fifth question: Given the importance of effective public education and the apparent need and demand for the data, how can states justify doing such a lousy job at informing parents?

When Texas lawmakers passed legislation in 2015 that created a pathway for public schools to hire more teachers without formal classroom training, one goal was to make the profession more attractive to individuals from different paths who could offer hands-on learning to students.

Some school administrators made it clear they intended to place these so-called uncertified teachers in positions where they could leverage their fields of expertise and keep them away from core areas like math, reading and special education, which would remain under the care of their most seasoned educators.

That was before the COVID-19 pandemic, which left many longtime educators worried about their health and feeling underappreciated, underresourced and burnt out. They walked out of the classroom in droves, accelerating teacher shortages at a time when students were returning to in-person learning and schools needed them the most.

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Now some school districts are hiring uncertified teachers 鈥� some to provide instruction in core subjects 鈥� at an extraordinary pace.

In almost a decade since the law was passed, the number of uncertified teachers in the state鈥檚 public schools ballooned by 29%, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of state data. Uncertified teachers, many of whom are located in rural school districts, accounted for roughly 38% of newly hired instructors last year.

Some academic experts are dubbing the state鈥檚 growing reliance on uncertified teachers a crisis. A highlighted that kids lose three to four months of learning when they have a new teacher who is both uncertified and lacks experience working in a public school.

But with fewer people entering the profession through traditional pipelines, school districts are trying to give uncertified instructors the training and support they need to succeed in the classroom. School officials and education advocates are encouraging them to participate in teacher certification programs 鈥� and they hope lawmakers will set aside funds next year to help cover the costs.

The ask comes at a time when schools are already starved for a cash infusion. Many districts entered the school year having to spend more money than they are earning, largely because of the state鈥檚 rising cost of living and a half-decade of no increases to their base-level funding. Public school leaders remain upset that last year鈥檚 legislative sessions ended with no significant base funding increases despite the state having .

鈥淲hen you have a state where their coffers are full and local school districts where their coffers are empty, or in the process of being empty, you’re going to have to have some state help to make sure that we’re funding these types of programs,鈥� said Mark Henry, who served as Cy-Fair ISD鈥檚 superintendent for more than a decade until his retirement last year.

A tool to deal with teacher shortages

Prior to the passage of the 2015 law, known as , teachers would normally enter the profession through traditional college or university routes or via alternative certification programs, which are geared toward people who have a bachelor鈥檚 degree in a different field and need classroom training. Both pathways have seen in recent years.

The District of Innovation law was meant to give traditional public schools some of the flexibility that charter schools had long enjoyed, granting them exemptions from mandates on class sizes, school start dates and certification requirements. Before, uncertified educators in Texas could teach core classes only after obtaining and approved by the state education agency on a case-by-case basis.

With a District of Innovation , districts can now create a comprehensive educational program that identifies provisions under Texas law that make it difficult for them to reach their goals and offers ways to address those challenges. The plan must receive public input and gain local school board approval before districts can proceed with any exemptions.

Many districts have sought an exemption from the state鈥檚 teacher certification requirements to help combat their teacher shortages.

Texas has no statewide definition for , but one major indicator that points to a significant need for more teachers is the state鈥檚 teacher attrition rate, which tracks the percentage of educators who leave the field in any given year.

Since the start of the pandemic, the attrition rate has from roughly 9% to 12%, according to the Texas Education Agency. A historic 13.4% of teachers left the profession between fall 2021 and fall 2022.

The state commissioned a task force two years ago to look into the teacher shortage and make policy recommendations for legislators to address the problem, though not much of the group鈥檚 advice has been adopted into state law. The panel of educators and school administrators recommended that the state commit to respecting teachers鈥� time, improving training and increasing salaries. Texas ranks for average teacher pay, $8,828 less than the national average, according to the National Education Association.

The Texas House of Representatives鈥� Public Education Committee held a hearing in August to ask questions and gather information on the causes for the rising number of uncertified teachers and the effect on student outcomes. Lawmakers also discussed what many public education advocates see as a growing lack of respect for teachers, which the advocates say is fueling both the teacher shortage and the rise of uncertified teachers.

In recent years, Texas Republican leaders like Gov. and Lt. Gov. have routinely criticized public schools and instructors, accusing them of teaching children 鈥渨oke鈥� lessons on America’s history of systemic racism and keeping in their libraries reading materials that make inappropriate references to gender and sexuality. All the while, Abbott has been pushing for a program that would allow parents to use tax dollars to pay for their children’s private education, which public education advocates fear will plummet enrollment in public schools and ultimately result in less funding. School districts receive funding based on their average daily attendance.

鈥淣o one wants to go into something where they feel like they’re just going to be beat down day to day,鈥� said David Vroonland, former superintendent of Mesquite ISD who now works as executive director of the LEARN. 鈥淎nd I think the political commentary out there right now is doing a lot of harm to bringing more people into the space. Obviously, the other is we need to pay better.鈥�

Getting new teachers ready for the classroom

Educators who testified at last month鈥檚 legislative hearing also called on lawmakers to direct more financial resources to help teaching candidates go through high-quality preparation programs.

One such program in Brazosport ISD helped Amanda Garza McIntyre transition from being an administrative assistant at a construction company to becoming an eighth grade science teacher at Freeport Intermediate School.

McIntyre, who has a bachelor鈥檚 degree in health care administration, knew what Brazosport ISD does for children: the district helped her first-grade daughter learn how to read at grade level over the course of a semester. But starting a new career while raising her five kids seemed overwhelming, and she needed help.

The Brazosport ISD program allows aspiring teachers to earn a bachelor鈥檚 degree, teacher certification or both 鈥� at no cost. In return, program participants have to work in the district for at least three years. The program includes a paid residency that pairs candidates with a teacher mentor who works with them in a classroom for a full school year. Brazosport ISD pays for the program using funds from its own budget, grants and local partnerships.

Thanks to the hands-on training and guidance she received over the last year, which included working with some of the same children in her classroom now, McIntyre started as a full-time teacher earlier this month.

鈥淚 don’t know that I would have fully committed to going into teaching without knowing that I had that training and that preparedness to walk into a classroom and feel confident,鈥� McIntyre said.

The task force formed to study the root causes of Texas鈥� teacher shortage included in its recommendations that the state fund certification programs like the one Brazosport ISD is running.

Sam Cofer, chief operating officer of Jubilee Academies, a San Antonio-based charter school district, said it makes sense for the Legislature to help fund programs like Brazosport ISD鈥檚 but argued that certification is not the only way to increase the number of capable teachers in Texas classrooms.

Jubilee Academies filled many of its teacher vacancies in the last decade with substitute instructors. The district knew it would be difficult to compete for more experienced teachers with traditional districts that could offer more competitive salaries, Cofer said, so it expanded its pool of applicants to include people with a bachelor鈥檚 degree and work experience in other fields but without teaching certification.

Since 2015, Jubilee Academies鈥� percentage of uncertified teachers has risen from roughly 17% to 66%. During the 2023-24 school year, 60% of new hires at all Texas charter schools were people without formal classroom training.

Cofer said the district relies on instructional coaches to provide their new hires with the support they need to adapt to their new profession. He also said the district encourages certification but doesn鈥檛 require it.

Teacher certification does prepare new hires 鈥渂etter in a lot of ways to be a teacher in a public school,鈥� Cofer said. 鈥淏ut I also can’t be dismissive of the skill sets that may come along with people that don’t go through those programs that could also end up being effective teachers with the right amount of coaching and mentoring and guidance.鈥�

Public education advocates are hoping the state and school districts invest in quality teacher preparation, regardless of what avenue they take to get there.

鈥淚t’s not serving students to put people in those positions that don’t have the experience they need to be successful,鈥� said Priscilla Aquino-Garza, a former teacher who works as senior director of programs for Educate Texas, an organization focused on increasing academic achievement and educational equity for underserved children.

Shalona McCray, Longview ISD鈥檚 assistant superintendent of Human Resources and Community Relations, is grateful for the flexibility the District of Innovation law has granted schools. She said it allowed them to recruit from a more diverse talent pool as veteran educators left the profession in droves at the height of the pandemic. Since the law was passed, the district鈥檚 percentage of uncertified hires has skyrocketed from roughly 3% to 67%.

Longview ISD is committed to working with teachers to get them licensed through an alternative certification program or the district鈥檚 apprenticeship program, preferably within three years, McCray said. The District of Innovation law is a stepping stone, she said, to getting more people who care about education into the profession.

鈥淚’m gonna have to rely on District of Innovation to go out and find some teachers who are not certified but qualified,鈥� McCray said. 鈥淭hey have a bachelor’s degree, they have a passion, and then we’ll do everything we can to help them.鈥�

This article originally appeared in , a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

Disclosure: Educate Texas and Texas Tech University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete .

Knocking on the doors where kids had repeatedly missed school, the workers told parents of assistance the district could offer with transportation, school supplies, and even clothing. 

The effort, a standard strategy for LAUSD at this point, was designed and implemented by the district after the pandemic, when the number of students deemed chronically absent reached nearly half of total enrollment.  

Since then, the number of kids missing class has fallen, but it鈥檚 still nearly one-third of all students, so LA Unified has continued its push, said superintendent Alberto Carvalho. 

鈥淭he first priority is having kids at school,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e need kids in school.鈥� 

Both for academic and financial reasons, as it turns out. 

Rates of chronic absenteeism – defined by the district as missing ten percent or more of a school year – exploded in the pandemic, with nearly half of students missing that much class.   

Prior to the pandemic, the fire had already started. In the two years before Covid,  percent of students deemed chronically absent jumped from 13% to more than 18%. When school returned after shutdowns it rose to nearly half of all students.

The situation in LA wasn’t unique. But it threatened both academic and financial standing of the district, as well as endangering the lives of children who missed school. And causes for the persistent problem are complex, said Victor Flores, principal of John H. Liechty Middle School in Westlake.  

鈥淪ometimes it’s the parents that are working long hours, double jobs, and so it’s hard to get them to and from school,鈥� said Flores. 鈥淪ometimes it’s chronic illnesses that some students may have. There may be mental illness or other issues in the family.鈥� 

Even though daily attendance in LAUSD is rising, rates of chronic absenteeism stood at nearly one-third of students at the end of the last academic year, nearly double pre-pandemic levels. Officials in Los Angeles, around the state and even don鈥檛 see a full recovery any time soon. 

Here鈥檚 what鈥檚 to know about the sticky issue and how it affects LA Unified: 

1. No easy fixes for a long-term problem impacting LA鈥檚 most vulnerable students 

In L.A. Unified, just over 45% of students were chronically absent in 2021-22. The percentage dropped to 36.5% in 2022-23. The preliminary rate for the 2023-24 school shows improvement to 32.3%, but that鈥檚 still way above historic norms 鈥� and Carvalho said yearly, incremental gains will be how the district digs itself out.  

鈥淪ome of the challenges faced by these families transcend that which the school system can address,鈥� said Carvalho.  

The students impacted by the problem are the city鈥檚 neediest, said Graciela Ortiz, field coordinator for pupil services and attendance. Data kept by the district show homeless kids, poor kids and students with disabilities are far more likely to be absent. Likewise for kindergartners and pre-kindergarteners entering the system, and high school kids.

鈥淚t鈥檚 our working-class families and low-income communities that are affected the most by attendance issues,鈥� said Ortiz. 鈥淎fter the pandemic, it’s as if those barriers [that prevent kids from getting to class] were just exacerbated.鈥�  

2. Showing up for class makes nine times the difference when it comes to LAUSD  academics 

Research has long shown chronic absenteeism is bad for academics. And showing up for class is good. But LAUSD has now quantified just how important this is, Carhvalho said at a press conference given at Venice High School on the first day of class. 

鈥淔or every one percent of daily attendance improvement, particularly for the most fragile students, we see a nine percent improvement in academic performance,鈥� Carvalho said. The calculations were made with principals from 100 schools that are fighting the problem, he said.  

3. Chronic absenteeism creates a financial problem in LA Unified, too  

Unlike many other large states that look more aggressively at enrollment, California uses attendance as a weighty measure to make decisions about school funding, said Carvalho. For every 1% of improved attendance in the district, that’s an additional $60 million in state funding it would receive, he said. So students who don鈥檛 go to class regularly 鈥渁ctually deflate the total potential revenue for all students in the district,鈥� he said. 

Like other districts, Los Angeles is under and is trying to avoid closing schools amid enrollment declines. Given those circumstances, Carvalho said, the money is more important than ever, even if the district managed to avoid layoffs this year.  

4. LA Unified鈥檚 novel toolbox to fight absenteeism includes 鈥渃oncierge鈥� bussing for kids who miss class

The complex causes of chronic absenteeism demand a complex response. So LAUSD is using an array of tools at the problem, including 鈥渃oncierge鈥� transportation that鈥檚 鈥渁lmost door-to-door,鈥� Carvalho said. Transportation is one of the most challenging obstacles in getting kids to class, so the district is rerouting its bus lines to pick up students as close to their homes as possible. 鈥淲e鈥檙e constantly rerouting,鈥� said the superintendent.

Customized bus routes are just part of the package. The district is continuing with home visits, attendance counselors at each school, and provides wraparound social services meant to boost attendance, such counseling, medical care, or even laundry. Other novel approaches include trying to make school fun, for example, and principals taking the time to talk to parents individually at pickup and dropoff.     

Montana State University doesn鈥檛 owe a student any refunds from tuition or fees when it shut down in-person education in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Montana Supreme Court said in an order this week.

MSU did have an 鈥渆xpress contract,鈥� one stated in words, with Anthony Cordero, who the Bozeman university alleging it should have paid him back when it transitioned to distance learning.

But the institution never promised a complete in-person education, and it didn鈥檛 promise to never shut down the campus if it had a good reason to do so, the justices said.

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Cordero had, 鈥渁t most, a presumption鈥� of in-person education, but MSU retained its right to respond to emergencies, the Supreme Court said.

Additionally, MSU is governed by the Board of Regents, which has full authority in the Montana Constitution to supervise all campuses.

鈥淲e cannot fathom upholding a prorated refund of tuition and fees for MSU being forced to close due to inclement weather that prohibits classes, which frequently occurs due to Montana winters,鈥� the order said. 鈥淗ere, Cordero was never deprived of classes, which were still conducted, albeit online.鈥�

The had found there was no express contract between Cordero and MSU 鈥� contrary to the findings of the Supreme Court 鈥� and also no 鈥渋mplied contract.鈥�

However, in a unanimous decision by a five-judge panel, the Supreme Court said the overall conclusion the lower court reached in favor of MSU was still correct because MSU didn鈥檛 breach 鈥渃ontractual duties with respect to tuition.鈥�

Adrian Miller, a lawyer at Sullivan Miller who represents Cordero, said MSU should have done better for students.

鈥淚t is disappointing that the Supreme Court does not believe MSU had an obligation to provide even a prorated refund for services and facilities that were unavailable during its COVID campus closure,鈥� Miller said in an email. 鈥淲e respect the Supreme Court鈥檚 decision, but students deserve better from the university.鈥�

MSU spokesperson Tracy Ellig, however, said the order affirms the university鈥檚 actions during the emergency.

鈥淭he court鈥檚 ruling speaks clearly,鈥� Ellig said in an email. 鈥淭his ruling vindicates the university against these unfounded claims and reinforces that the university did everything in its power to provide education to students fairly and effectively during the pandemic.鈥�

After Covid-19 hit the country in 2020 and many campuses closed, lawsuits popped up from students alleging various campuses owed them refunds. But courts came to .

鈥淏ecause this is a matter of first impression in Montana, we note other jurisdictions have considered nearly identical agreements between students and universities,鈥� the Montana justices said. 鈥淎cross the country, the precedent varies with some jurisdictions finding there to be enough evidence to maintain a claim for a contract, and others finding insufficient evidence to maintain a claim for a contract between student and university.鈥�

Cordero never disputed MSU had the right to halt in-person instruction. However, he alleged he shouldn鈥檛 have had to pay MSU the same amount, some $19,901 that semester, according to the order, including many fees, for online classes.

As part of his argument, Cordero pointed to numerous marketing materials from MSU that show students making friends in residence halls, working together in labs and the library, and engaging in other community activities.

He alleged those materials reflected a commitment from MSU that included in-person education, but the Supreme Court disagreed.

The materials he provided don鈥檛 create a contract, the justices said. Rather, the language 鈥渋nforms students they have access to opportunities on campus,鈥� which aren鈥檛 a promise in a contract, the order said.

鈥淎lthough he did not get the experience he expected to get during the final half of the Spring 2020 semester, Cordero still progressed in his academic program and was able to graduate,鈥� the order said.

The Supreme Court said Cordero doesn鈥檛 get any of his fees back either. It said even though the fitness center was temporarily closed, it was maintained, and even though the library was closed, its online services were available, for example.

鈥淢andatory fees are charged to everybody as a condition of enrollment, and they do not promise anything in return, ,鈥� the order said.

It said MSU may have encouraged students to go home, but it also made accommodations for students who decided to stay on campus, 鈥渋ncluding keeping its campus operational so that students could progress and complete their academic programs.鈥�

In its order, the Supreme Court also disagreed that MSU was 鈥渦njustly enriched鈥� by keeping tuition and fees from students without giving them their expected benefit. It said Montana law doesn鈥檛 allow recovery under 鈥渦njust enrichment鈥� if the parties have a written contract.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on and .

New state standardized test results show stagnant progress among Hoosier students in grades 3-8, signaling a continued struggle to reverse widespread learning loss following the COVID-19 pandemic.

New ILEARN scores show 41% of Indiana students who were tested earlier this spring were at or above proficiency standards in English and language arts (ELA), according to . That鈥檚 on par with the year prior, when 40.7% of students were proficient.

The percentage of students at or above proficiency standards in math, on the other hand, saw a slight decrease 鈥� from 40.9% in 2023 to 40.7% in the most recent school year.

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Data released by IDOE reported 30.8% of Hoosier students passed both the math and English sections of ILEARN. That鈥檚 slightly up from

Nearly 493,000 students sat for both exams this spring.

鈥淲hile many grades have seen increases in both ELA and math proficiency over the past three years, we must continue to keep our foot on the gas pedal to ensure all students have a solid academic foundation in order to maximize their future opportunities,鈥� Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said in a statement. 鈥淎 number of key tactics have been put in place to support educators, parents, families and students. It is essential that our local schools and parents/families continue to work together and stay laser-focused on improving student learning in ELA, as well as math.鈥�

Test results breakdowns

ILEARN scores continue to trail behind 2019 results, when 47.9% of Hoosiers in grades 3-8 earned passing scores on the English portion of the ILEARN, and 47.8% did so in math. That year, 37.1% of students were proficient in both sections.

But due to instruction changes spurred by COVID-19 and disruption of 2020 assessments, state officials use the 2021 ILEARN results to represent the current Indiana baseline.

When using that baseline, ELA proficiency has increased across most grade levels; third graders decreased 0.1%; fourth graders increased 2.2%; fifth graders increased 0.8%; sixth graders increased 1.2%; seventh graders increased 0.7%; and eighth graders increased 1.3%.

IDOE officials emphasized that many students who were in third grade in 2024 received instruction in either a fully or partially virtual setting during kindergarten due to the pandemic, which likely contributed to decreased student success.

The 2024 statewide ILEARN results show a slight increase in English proficiency across most grade levels compared to 2023.

The highest year-to-year increases were in grade four, up 1.5%, and grade seven, up 2.3%.  Proficiency in those grades is the highest since the pandemic, according to IDOE.

Since the 2021 baseline, math proficiency has additionally increased across all grade levels.

But compared to 2023, the latest ILEARN results in math proficiency decreased across the board 鈥� except in grade seven, which had a 1% increase in 2024.

ILEARN was first implemented in 2019 to replace the ISTEP exam for students from third to eighth grade. The exam measures proficiency in various subjects starting in third grade, but the main focus is on English/language arts and mathematics. All schools test in-person and electronically, unless an accommodation requires a paper assessment.

With federal permission, the assessment was not given in 2020 due to pandemic-related school closures.

A look at certain student populations

Since 2023, Black students had the highest percentage point increase in English 鈥� 1.2% 鈥� and also saw an 8% increase in math proficiency. The 2024 results show 20.9% of Black students scored proficient on the ILEARN in English, and 17% in math. About 11.7% of Black students earned passing scores on both portions of the test in 2024, according to the latest numbers.

Compared to the 2021 baseline, Black students have seen a 3.5% increase in English proficiency and a 5.4% increase in math.

Jenner called the data 鈥渘otable,鈥� given that 鈥渋t鈥檚 not as common to see鈥� such continued improvements. Rather, she said, education officials expect to see more 鈥渦ps and downs鈥� year over year.

Even so, Scott Bess, head of the Purdue Polytechnic High School in Indianapolis and member of the state education board, cautioned that more rapid improvements are needed.

鈥淲hile it鈥檚 great that our Black students have shown progress, our English language learners have shown progress, the bar was really, really low, right?鈥� Bess said. 鈥淚f we keep on that trajectory, I鈥檓 going to be in a home before we get to any kind of acceptable results,鈥� Bess continued.

Among other student populations, proficiency in both English and math decreased slightly for Hispanic students.

Students in special education and students receiving free or reduced price meals, meanwhile, had slight gains in both English and math from 2023 to 2024.

English learners 鈥� who were identified in 2023 as needing continued targeted support in English 鈥� have since had a 0.8% increase. IDOE officials said additional targeted support is still needed in math, though, given a 0.3% decrease on that section of the ILEARN. Total English proficiency on the ILEARN among English learners this spring was recorded at 13.8%, and math proficiency at 17.6%.

Changes on the horizon

The new results come amid an ongoing undertaking to and allow an option for schools to divvy up portions of the exam across the academic year.

The assessment plan includes what state education officials call 鈥渇lexible checkpoints鈥� for schools to administer ILEARN preparation tests in English and math before the typical end-of-year summative tests. A dozen other states already have similar models.

The redesigned assessment will have three 鈥渃heckpoints鈥� and a shortened summative assessment at the end of the school year. Checkpoints will consist of 20 to 25 questions and hone in on four to six state standards. The exams are designed to be administered to students about every three months, but local schools and districts can speed up testing if they wish.

Checkpoints won鈥檛 be punitive; if a student does not master a particular standard, they鈥檒l receive additional intervention and instruction before having a retest option.

So far, 72% of schools across Indiana have opted-in to participate in a pilot of ILEARN checkpoints during the upcoming 2024-25 school year, according to IDOE. The overall system will take effect during the 2025-26 school year.

Jenner and other education officials reiterated on Wednesday that the new checkpoints will provide improved, real-time student data that can be used to better target supports for students throughout the year 鈥� rather than waiting until the end of the year for results, 鈥渨hen it may be too late鈥� for teachers to provide support.

Also upcoming are changes to the state鈥檚 IREAD tests, which gauges students鈥�  foundational reading skills.

Earlier this year, state lawmakers approved 鈥� a year earlier than current requirements. Local educators must direct new, targeted support to at-risk students and those struggling to pass the literacy exam.

But if, after three tries, a third grader can鈥檛 meet the IREAD standard, legislators want school districts to hold them back.

Those changes take effect in the upcoming 2024-25 school year.

Data from 2023 showed . Jenner said IREAD exam results from the most recent academic year are expected to be made public next month.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on and .

More licensed child care programs in North Carolina are closing their doors as the state approaches the expiration of pandemic-era stabilization funding.

According to provided by the NC Child Care Resource and Referral Council (CCR&R) in partnership with the NC Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE), the state has experienced a net loss of almost 5% of programs since February 2020.

Closures of licensed child care programs have been outpacing the opening of new programs since at least June 2023 鈥� and now the rate of that trend appears to be increasing.

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Between June and December 2023, the state had a net loss of 34 programs. But in just the first three months of 2024, the net loss was 41.

This pattern reflects what many experts 鈥� 鈥� have been anticipating since last year, when state lawmakers declined to provide additional funding that would continue stabilizing the precarious child care system beyond June 2024.

House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, has said addressing the child care crisis is a 鈥減riority鈥� during this year鈥檚 legislative session, but has not yet announced a plan for doing so.

Urban and suburban trends

Combining data from CCR&R, DCDEE, and the , EdNC analyzed the percentage change in the number of licensed child care programs across the state鈥檚 urban, suburban, and rural counties since February 2020.

Each of the state鈥檚 six urban counties has experienced a net loss of licensed child care programs. Durham and New Hanover had the greatest net losses of 14.3% and 13.2%, respectively. All of the urban counties combined had a net loss of 6.3%

The state鈥檚 16 suburban counties have fared somewhat better, with a net loss of 2.8%. Nine counties had a net loss, Gaston and Union had no change, and five counties had a net gain.

Buncombe is one of those suburban counties that had a net increase in the number of licensed child care programs since February 2020.

The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners established an in 2018 to 鈥渆nsure that every child in Buncombe County has an equal opportunity to thrive during their first 2,000 days.鈥� The county is also home to the , which was convened by the in 2021, and envisions every child age 5 and under having access to high-quality, affordable early care and education.

Such local initiatives might help explain why Buncombe has gained child care programs while most other urban and suburban counties have stayed the same or lost programs without additional investment from the state.

Rural trends

The vast majority of North Carolina鈥檚 counties (78 of 100) are designated as rural. Combined, these counties had a net loss of 4.3% of licensed child care programs since February 2020, closely matching the overall state trend of 4.7%.

Of our 78 rural counties, the majority (44) experienced a net loss. In some counties, the loss of a single licensed child care program can have an outsized impact.

For example, Camden and Graham had the largest negative percentage change from February 2020 through March 2024. Both came in at -25%. In each county, that鈥檚 the result of just one program closing its doors.

Among the 34 rural counties that did not have a net loss of child care programs, 17 were stable, and 17 had net gains.

Among rural counties, there鈥檚 wide geographic variability to whether a county has gained, stabilized, or lost licensed child care programs.

Rural counties with net gains range from Person in the north, to Robeson in the south.

Rural counties with the same number of licensed child care programs in the first quarter of 2024 as they had before the pandemic include Mitchell in the mountains, Rockingham in the Piedmont, and Hyde on the coast.

Rural counties with net losses include Caldwell and Cleveland to the west, and Carteret and Craven to the east.

The overall net loss of licensed child care programs statewide 鈥� whether urban, suburban, or rural 鈥� could jeopardize North Carolina鈥檚 economic future.

Studies show investment in early care and education for our youngest residents not only enables their parents to fully participate in the labor force, but also improves children鈥檚 health outcomes, reduces their likelihood of being incarcerated, and provides the foundation for their educational and economic futures.

We鈥檒l get a report on the second quarter in June 2024 鈥� right before the arrival of the funding cliff that experts predict will cause a continued wave of not only program closures, but classroom closures, without additional stabilization funding from the legislature.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

One day he was chatting with an 8th-grade student, who he described as a 鈥渟uperstar,鈥� and asked if she had studied for that day鈥檚 exam. He was shocked to hear she hadn鈥檛.

鈥淲ell Mr. Guskey,鈥� he remembers her saying, a quizzical look on her face, 鈥淚 worked it out. I only need a 50.2 to get an A [in the class]. I don鈥檛 need to study for a 50.2.鈥�

This was a moment of realization for him. 鈥淭his 8th grader had worked it out to the tenth decimal place what she needed to do to get an A in my class,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd she was surprised I didn鈥檛 get it. And I thought, 鈥榃ow. What have I done?鈥欌�� 

For this student 鈥� and so many others 鈥� school was not about learning. It was about getting a good grade. And with flawed traditional grading systems, those two outcomes didn鈥檛 always coincide.

Every time Guskey tells this story to other teachers, he said they shake their heads and share similar anecdotes of their own. Other experts in the field echo these sentiments, noting that schools have spent far too long grading students based on whether or not they turned in a pile of work or showed up to class on time, rather than focusing on if a student has learned academic content. This can ultimately lead to final grades that inaccurately reflect and communicate what kids actually know. 

Today, as schools combat post-pandemic learning gaps, it鈥檚 become even clearer that traditional grades are not precise communicators of learning. In some cases, this leads parents to believe their kids are performing at grade level, when in reality they鈥檙e falling behind. 

As educators push for more clarity and transparency, a number of schools and districts are turning to what’s known as standards-based grading, a system and communication tool that separates academic mastery from behavioral factors. When done correctly, it should more accurately reflect what students know and correct for both inflating 鈥� and deflating 鈥� grades. 

But a misunderstanding of standards-based grading’s true principles, a lack of proper training for educators and a rush to quickly adopt a complex new system often leads to messy implementation, various experts told 社区黑料. And, they warn, districts looking for support are turning to grading consultants, a number of whom aren鈥檛 qualified in the field.

鈥淪o many districts are getting into this and they鈥檙e failing miserably,鈥� said Guskey, the grading and assessment expert and professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky College of Education. 鈥淪chools are jumping into this without a clear notion of what they鈥檙e doing and what the prerequisites are to being standards based,鈥� he continued. 鈥淎nd then when problems arise, they have no recourse except to abandon [it] completely.鈥�

As schools look for an effective fix to learning gaps, 鈥渟tandards-based grading is one that seems like it can be a quickly adopted effort. But it could backfire and does backfire very easily,鈥� said Laura Link, associate professor of teaching and leadership at the University of North Dakota.

In a she and Guskey wrote, 鈥渁lthough many schools today are initiating SBG reforms, there鈥檚 little consensus on what 鈥榮tandards-based grading鈥� actually means. As a result, SBG implementation is widely inconsistent.鈥� This creates uncertainty, confusion, frustration 鈥� and resistance, which can ultimately lead to it being tossed aside, the authors said.

The many meanings of a 鈥淐鈥�

Standards-based grading is not new. While it鈥檚 challenging to pin down just how many schools are currently using it, post-pandemic interest in a system that鈥檚 seen as more accurate and equitable appears to be growing. 

Link is now working with the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania school district on implementation. It can also be found in at least one school district in the San Francisco Bay Area and is particularly prevalent in schools in Wyoming, New Hampshire, Maine and Wisconsin, with more cropping up in Connecticut, New Mexico, and Oregon, in November.

Another expert, Cathy Vatterott, who wrote Rethinking Grading: Meaningful Assessment for Standards-Based Learning and is professor emeritus of education at the University of Missouri鈥揝t. Louis, said: 鈥淎fter we got through COVID, all of a sudden I started getting offers to come and speak to people about standards-based grading.鈥� 

Regardless of what model teachers practice, they typically grade using three different criteria: what academic skills students have learned and are able to do, such as solving for 鈥渪鈥� in an algebraic equation; what behaviors they bring that enable learning, such as attendance and turning in work on time; and how much they鈥檝e grown and improved.

In traditional models, teachers combine these three, muddling them together and assigning a single mark for an assignment 鈥� often a letter grade or a percentage. At the end of a semester, these assignment scores get averaged into a final grade that goes onto a transcript or report card. Proponents of standards-based grading argue that this presents an unclear and inaccurate picture to parents, students and colleges. 

鈥淚t makes the grade impossible to interpret,鈥� according to Guskey. For example, a 鈥淐鈥� on a paper could mean the student really only understood the material at a 鈥淐鈥� level or it could mean they turned in an excellent paper but two weeks late. Further adding to the confusion: what goes into a grade is inconsistent from teacher to teacher and school to school.

Traditional grading not only presents accuracy concerns but also equity ones, according to Matt Townsley, assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of Northern Iowa. 鈥淔or example, if we award points for assignments that are completed on a daily basis 鈥� called homework 鈥� outside of class, you can imagine a scenario where some families are more privileged in their ability to do it,鈥� he said. 

Some students have access to a quiet place to work, tutors, parents who can help them with assignments, and other key resources, while others work after-school jobs or take care of younger siblings. When teachers grade homework, experts like Townsley argue, they are grading for these factors, rather than what students have actually learned. 

To combat this, standards-based grading does it differently. Rather than lumping together academic, behavioral and improvement grades, it separates them and reports them out individually in what Link calls a 鈥渄ashboard of information.鈥� 

Too often, she said, consultants and other self-proclaimed experts, who are not researchers, will push to throw away behavioral grades altogether. But she warned 鈥渢hat becomes problematic very, very quickly. We shouldn’t be using our gradebooks to punish and control. But those factors 鈥� those behavioral factors 鈥� are academic enablers, and we know that to be true as well.鈥�

Reporting it out separately makes students recognize that these other components still count and, in some ways, it makes them each count more because they can no longer be disguised by other factors, like extra credit, according to Guskey.

It鈥檚 important for schools to decide upfront what behaviors they want to prioritize 鈥� whether that鈥檚 attendance, work ethic, responsibility鈥� and then build a guide on how teachers will score for them. 鈥淏y giving these kinds of dashboards of information, it helps colleges, trade schools, etc. have a deeper understanding of what kind of students they鈥檙e accepting into the programs and what kind of support they will need in college,鈥� Link said. 

The academic grades should be based on grade-level standards and learning objectives, like the ability to find strong evidence to support a claim if a student is writing a paper or answering a test question.

A second key criteria is moving away from handing out percentage grades based on 100 to using a much smaller measurement scale, like 0 to 4. On each standard, students could also be graded as “exceeding,”, “meeting,” “almost” or “not yet.” Guskey noted that while this all may sound novel and unusual, other countries around the world, including Canada, have been using these practices for decades.

A third component 鈥� providing students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and mastery of a standard 鈥� is often where the greatest controversy crops up and things are most likely to go awry. Some educators argue that students should receive limitless opportunities to redo specific assignments. Researchers such as Link, though, argue that while students need multiple opportunities to demonstrate their understanding, that does not necessarily mean redoing the same assignment. 

鈥淭his is where a lot of non-academic proponents encourage that standards-based grading means you give as many retakes as it takes for mastery. Not true. Not true. That鈥檚 an assessment issue. That鈥檚 not a grading issue.鈥�

So, while a second chance at one assignment is perhaps the fair thing to do, it is not inherent to the ethos of standards-based grading. She emphasized that if schools do implement retake policies, the process needs to be purposeful: If a student doesn鈥檛 get it the first time, they need to get corrective feedback and instruction. But 鈥渋f they don鈥檛 get it on the second chance, you鈥檙e going to record their grade and move on,鈥� she said. 

There is no empirical evidence supporting the benefits of endless retakes and, she added, such practices can be a time-consuming and unrealistic ask of teachers. 

Because many of the people who write about and consult on testing don鈥檛 fully understand what鈥檚 behind assessing students more than once, Guskey said, their recommendations on how best to do it are often untested and can鈥檛 be supported in practice. Their inconsistent advice, he said, can lead teachers and administrators to forsake efforts to reform grading. 

While it鈥檚 important to understand what standards-based grading is, it鈥檚 also essential to debunk what it鈥檚 not. At its core, experts say, it鈥檚 purely a communication tool. It doesn鈥檛 tell educators how to create assessments, build curriculum or manage behavior. It can make space for teachers to provide more individualized feedback and for students to move through the skills and knowledge they need to master at their own pace. But these things aren鈥檛 inherently a part of it. 

鈥淏asically everything is just to pass.鈥�

When Kenny Rodrequez became superintendent of the Grandview school district a decade ago, he knew the grading system needed to change. He was concerned that as it stood, the traditional grading model they relied on wasn鈥檛 communicating students鈥� progress to their parents accurately. Leaders in the district, located just outside of Kansas City, ultimately decided to shift to standards-based grading for kindergarten through 6th grade. 

Now, in his eighth year as superintendent and ninth year overseeing the transition, he feels good about what they鈥檝e accomplished. One key factor of the successful implementation, he said, was 鈥渘ot trying to do it all at once.鈥� It can be tempting to 鈥渏ust say, 鈥楲et’s bite the bullet and let’s just roll it all out at the same time,鈥欌�� he added. It was important, though, to fight this urge and instead find a balance that allowed for deliberate policy shifts that still didn鈥檛 take an inordinate amount of time to implement.

Another key factor: making sure there was strong teacher and parent buy-in. The first year in particular, staff was nervous to explain this new system to parents before they even fully understood it themselves. Rodrequez said they created talking points for teachers and gave them the resources they needed. 

In the future, the district plans to bring standards-based grading to 7th-12th grade classrooms, but he anticipates at the high school level this will be trickier. 鈥淥ur challenge 鈥� is nationally we still have a system that’s still pretty based upon our letter grades. And that system鈥檚 been around for so long and never was designed to do what we’re trying to get it to do right now.鈥� Demands for GPAs and class rankings, in particular, are incongruous with the standards-based model but often necessary for college applications.

These very challenges have played out in one New York City high school, according to parent Talia Matz. When her stepson started 9th grade at Future High School in Manhattan, the school had orientation sessions to explain to parents how their standards-based grading system works. Still, she and her husband were skeptical. And over the past three years, they鈥檝e only become more concerned, she told 社区黑料. 

Some of the major assignments that the school uses instead of statewide Regents exams 鈥渁re a bit of a joke,鈥� she said, and students are not held accountable. 鈥淏asically everything is just to pass. It doesn’t matter how well you do,鈥� she said, adding, 鈥渋t doesn’t seem like there’s any love of learning. It’s just kind of to get it done.鈥� 

Contrary to best practices, on his report card there are no separated out comments or grades about behaviors. All standards are scored on a 0-4 scale, and parents and students can see grades on an online platform called JumpRope. But, the school then converts this scale into a traditional percentage grade, which is ultimately sent to colleges 鈥� another big no-no, according to experts. (According to the , schools may choose from a number of grading scales, including A-F, but it appears that regardless of what they select, all grades are ultimately converted into percentages.)

Students have a number of opportunities to redo assignments and no clear consequences for late work, Matz said. Rather than getting grades on daily assignments, he gets a 鈥淲ork Habits/Independent Practice鈥� score, which his stepmom said never appears on a transcript. This, she said, provides no incentive to turn assignments in on time or get them right the first time.

School administrators did not respond to requests for comment. The school鈥檚 website contests this point: Their official policy states that the 鈥淲ork Habits/Independent Practice鈥� score becomes 10% of a student鈥檚 final grade. Never reporting the behavior grade or averaging it into a single final grade would both go against standards-based grading best practices. 

Matz fears all this lends itself to lowered standards, which will leave her son unprepared for college. In the fall, he鈥檒l enroll at SUNY Buffalo, 鈥渂ut we’re concerned because there’s going to be different expectations 鈥� You have to study on your own, you don’t necessarily get second or third chances.鈥�

As for its other mission 鈥� to work with state legislators to fix the problem 鈥� founder Rebecca Sibilia now admits that EdBuild did this 鈥渧ery, very poorly.鈥� In 2020, after just five years, the group closed up shop. 

Sibilia, who previously worked on school finance with Washington, D.C., schools and for the education reform group StudentsFirst, remembers that at the time she and others at the organization decided that while they鈥檇 done much to raise consciousness about the problem, they lacked the tools to move the issue forward.

As it turns out, the move coincided with the COVID pandemic, which threw school budgets into chaos nationwide. If anything, the need for clear, actionable information on funding now is greater than ever. 鈥淥ne of the biggest things that has come from the COVID era is that we have realized how much the data sucks,鈥� she said.

Policymakers 鈥渉ave been making guesses in the dark about how to fund our schools.鈥�

So four years later, Sibilia is debuting a new venture, EdFund, which goes live today. She spoke this week with 社区黑料鈥檚 Greg Toppo about the need for better funding research and dissemination 鈥� and a new model for collaborating not just with legislators and policymakers, but for underwriting researchers, journalists and others to help make sense of the data. Sibilia plans to issue EdFund鈥檚 first request for proposals shortly.

She expects to eventually have 鈥渕any more proposals than what we have money to fund.鈥� At the moment, the new organization has three main funders 鈥� the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and the Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation 鈥� providing about $1.5 million annually. 

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

社区黑料: Thinking about EdBuild, you focused so much on unequal funding. I wonder: What’s the evolution? What’s next?

Rebecca Sibilia: EdBuild was really constituted with two missions: The first was to raise national awareness around the problem, which we did pretty well. And the second was to work with legislatures to actually fix it, which we did very, very poorly. And so at the end of the five years, we were like, “I’m not sure there’s much else to tell. We’ve raised the collective consciousness on what the problem is with school funding in terms of local funds. But we certainly aren’t structured, we certainly don’t have the tools to move this forward. And so, we need to shut down.” That was why we shut down.  

Four years later, what鈥檚 your focus? 

We need much more policy-relevant research because for 60 years, we’ve been arguing about whether or not money matters, and it is the dumbest debate of all dumb questions that exist in the world. Because at the end of the day, states exist in a limited-resource environment. What we don’t need is an answer to an ethereal question about endless resources and what they’ll do for student achievement. What we need are answers to practical questions, like “Where should I put a marginal dollar when I have it?” Or, “What are the right tax policies that states should be setting around local dollars in order to create more equitable, but also adequately funded systems?”

This complete disconnect between research and policy has led us to a place where policymakers have been making guesses in the dark about how to fund our schools, and I frankly believe that’s one of the reasons why very few legislators actually understand their funding formula. There’s very little science behind it because we just haven’t provided that.

So who is your audience?

We’re trying to bridge the gap between research and policy. So we see our stakeholders as three groups, with two very different workstreams: the research community, advocates and journalists. I would love to be able to say that policymakers are the endgame on this, but really, advocates and journalists are the ones who are going to be able to interpret this work, and get the overall thrust of what is new and what it means for kids, into the hands of policymakers. I should also mention that we’re a 501(c)3 [nonprofit].

When you talked to 社区黑料 in 2020, you said the next step wouldn’t be through a 501(c)3. It sounds like you’ve changed your mind.

I have not. I’m just not the one to do it. There is an organization that you may have heard of that recently started up with some seed money from the Gates Foundation called . They are at the Southern Education Foundation and they’re shaping up a litigation strategy for school district borders and school funding and integration. So they’re kind of pulling on both of those strings. I’ve given up on legislators actually making a fundamental change to the system. I really think that that’s going to happen through the courts. But in the meantime, the research has to inform what we’ve got in place right now, because that endgame in the courts is in 10, 15, 20 years.

Your “exit interview” with us happened right as COVID hit. And I wondered: What have the past four years done to this issue?

One of the biggest things that has come from the COVID era is that we have realized how much the data sucks. School finance data sucks. It sucks, it sucks. And it’s one of the biggest restrictions to good research in this field, and certainly timely research that could inform better decisions. We had a focus group of about 40 or so graduate and Phd students, and we asked them if they were studying school finance. They said, “No.” We asked them, 鈥淲hich of these 10 factors would make you more likely to study school finance?鈥� And 80% of them said, “Better data.” 

The second thing is that we’re understanding a lot more that school districts tend to invest in the things that do matter for raising student achievement, and that’s human capital. Whether it’s teachers, tutors, guidance counselors, etc. It’s human capital. This question of whether putting an additional dollar into a school district will raise student achievement 鈥攚hat Kirabo Jackson will tell you is, “Yes, just the dollar will.” What EricHanushek will tell you is, “Well, it depends on how it’s spent.” And the answer that we’ve learned through ESSER funds is that it tends to be spent on the people in the school, which means that everyone’s right. So those are kind of the two things that have come out of COVID.

Let’s go back to the first issue: How can you make the data suck less? Is this what your RFP is about?

Yes, in part. Let me go through the four C’s of who we are: We’re going to curate a policy-relevant research agenda. So instead of letting funders determine what they’re going to fund and making researchers chase that money, we’re instead going to go to policymakers and say, 鈥淲hat are the questions you’re going to have to grapple with in the next five years,鈥� and then fund research to answer those questions. We’re going to curate a policy-relevant research agenda. That was the first thing we did. That’s why we’ve been quiet for the past six months.

The second thing we’re going to do is commission research against that policy agenda. That’s the RFP that we’re releasing this year. We hope to double the size of the investment next year and so on. And what you’ll see in the RFP is that we say: In some cases, we are flying so blind as it relates to school funding, that just putting together a data set will move the entire research field forward. So if students want to do this, if journalists want to do this, if policy organizations want to do this, in some cases collecting better data is just part of the solution. 

O.K. 

And then the third thing that we’re hoping to do is communicate the research that does exist and will come out of these RFPs in a way that it’s friendly for policy audiences 鈥� journalists and advocates primarily. We’re going to do so by white-labeling stuff. What we’re going to try to do is put together interactives and graphics and briefings and that sort of stuff, but it’ll all be available to advocates through an [an embeddable element on a website], and they can just stick it straight on their website. Or we’ll have podcasts that someone can send to a policymaker to listen to. We’re really trying for this to become an opportunity for advocates to learn what the research says, and a way for advocates to actually incorporate that into their everyday work so that everything is just more grounded in research. 

Then the fourth is connect. I got a call just the other day: There is a state that we happen to have been linked to in the past that happens to be moving school funding reform this year. And they were like, “We need somebody who can come down and talk about this one element of our funding formula.” So we sent one of our board members down, because he is an economist and has studied the issue. He can talk about that and educate policymakers on what his research says. We’re hoping to do more of that 鈥� just make those direct connections.

I was struck by something you said a couple years ago. You singled out California, New York and New Jersey, arguably three of the most progressive states in the country, that have “the most shameful set of borders around schools.” And it really made me think that if they can’t budge on this issue, what hope do you have for anybody solving it?

The states where all of the school finance reform mojo is happening are in the South! Tennessee their funding formula and went to a very progressive funding system. The Mississippi House , a very progressive funding system. The two co-chairs in Alabama have been talking about it 鈥� I wouldn’t be surprised to see them move in the next year or two.

It鈥檚 the southern states that are recognizing that the way they’re funding schools through these resource formulas just isn’t aligned with the science. This is one area where we actually can do some bootleg research and it can inform stuff. We used to say all the time at EdBuild that we need to move to a student-based funding formula for two reasons: One, different students have different needs. Two, when you think about how things work in the state capitol, you want advocates to be able to advocate for kids rather than themselves. And so in a resource-based formula, the people who are advocating in the capitol are the nurses association, the teachers association, the superintendents association, the principals. And the people in a weighted-student-formula environment who are lobbying in the capitol are special ed parents and English-language-learner communities and that sort of stuff. That’s really where you start to tilt the system in favor of kids instead of in favor of resources. 

It doesn鈥檛 sound like you’re abandoning the border fight. Taking a new approach maybe?

I’ve given up on borders changing through the legislature. The power dynamic just works against school districts that serve predominantly students of color.

I live in Maryland and we have county schools, which is not to say that they’re equal, but I live in a county that’s pretty diverse. I’d imagine somebody like you would say that’s a step in the right direction. Tell me where a place like Maryland sits in this discussion.

New Jersey has just over a million students, and they have over 600 school districts. Maryland has 850,000 kids, and they’ve got 24. That’s where Maryland fits in the conversation. So here’s the deal: What Maryland can do is they can take these enormous inequities in local funds and pool them because they’re sharing them across a much larger geography. The state has to do less to equalize because it’s equalizing at the local level first.

In New Jersey, the state has an enormous burden to equalize because they have to fix things for the 550 school districts that aren’t the bastions of wealth in the state. We can either move to systems that look like Maryland 鈥� and I believe that has to happen through the courts 鈥� or, short of that, we can change funding formulas to make much more sense as it relates to the way that we’re funding schools. And that’s what we can do through legislatures, policymakers, researchers all talking.

O.K. This is becoming clear to me now.

You can headline it as, “Rebecca Sibilia has given up hope.” [Laughs.]

I’m going to assume that you’re going to be done in five years, because that’s the way you do everything. What would you consider success in 2029? 

You know , right? He’s my ex-husband. And we’re still very good friends. We got engaged trying to change Tennessee’s funding formula 10 years ago. And we got it done last year. We started in 2016 to try to change Mississippi’s funding formula. And this year the House passed something. It takes a decade from the point that you start to educate the legislature and advocates and journalists about how their formula works and what research says for that to translate into policy. I believe that an organization can exist for five years and have a 15-year impact. We are seeing that bear out from the EdBuild time. 

One of the reasons we have these four distinct workstreams is because I think that several can be absorbed in different places. So maybe EdFund continues to run just as a funders’ collaborative. It just takes in money from foundations and puts it out for research, but the people who are curating the research agenda are the National Conference of State Legislatures. And the people who are communicating are at a specialized shop in the Urban Institute. And we’ve already created the bridges. Everyone’s talking and singing “Kumbaya,” so we don’t need to do the connecting anymore.

When you think about the construct of what EdFund could be, it could continue to exist past me. I could peace out and EdFund could continue to exist as it is, or we can start thinking about whether or not it makes more sense for these activities, once they have worked well together for a few years, to be absorbed in different places. Frankly, many other organizations out there in the education space could also afford to think about their work in the same respect.

I couldn’t let you go without asking you about this tweet from you at South by Southwest. Somebody took a picture of you talking to the Education Writers Association and you tweeted, “A bunch of journalists just created a better school funding formula than any current state model. How about them apples? Want more equitable funding? Elect your local reporter.” Thank you, by the way. We won’t take credit for that, but I wonder: Conceptually, is it a simple thing that we are just mucking up, or is it truly a complicated matter? 

There’s a part of every school funding formula called an . If you boil it all down, the state decides how much every school district needs to operate. They subtract out how much they think each community should raise, and then they give the rest. That’s what happens in every state. On the allocation side, people tend to understand how their state allocates: There’s a base amount and then there’s a weight for different kids, etc. That’s a policy that’s kind of easy to understand.

Ohio’s expected local contribution, I’m not kidding, goes for four pages, 12-point font, just in the mathematical equation alone. So if you’re a legislator and you’re looking at your state code and it’s 16 pages worth of, “Divide by, add two, regress four,” you’re just going to be like, “I give up.” But if you boil it down to, “Ohio uses a matrix that starts with the property wealth of every school district and gives a deduction for districts that have lower median household incomes,” I get that. What’s happened in school funding is that we’ve gotten so scared of the way it’s written because the code looks so scary.

It is scary, but we haven’t conveyed the concepts. Why haven’t we conveyed the concepts? Because research is what conveys concepts. And we haven’t had research to do it.

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provide financial support to EdBuild and 社区黑料.

At the time, Susan Enfield was superintendent of the Highline Public Schools outside Seattle, close to the site of the first U.S. outbreak. Like her counterparts in neighboring districts, she was still in disbelief that sending students home was even an option. 

鈥淚’m not sure, at the end of the day, that that was the right decision,鈥� said Enfield, who recently shared her reflections with 社区黑料. 鈥淚 don’t think we’ll know for a long time how that really impacted all of us.鈥� 

As the debate over reopening that fall intensified, Enfield was outspoken about the no-win situation leaders were in as they struggled to balance the needs of students with the demands and fears of parents and employees. To her, the predicament felt like having 鈥渁n enormous square peg that I鈥檓 trying to squeeze into a microscopic round hole.鈥�

Like many families and educators over the months and years that followed, Enfield relocated, leaving Highline in 2022 for the larger Washoe County Public Schools in Nevada, which includes Reno. She described the move then as hitting the 鈥渟uperintendent lottery,鈥� but ultimately, stayed just a year and a half. She to return to the Seattle area.

鈥淚’m really happy to be home,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 taking this moment to breathe and figure out how I can contribute from a different vantage point.鈥�

In an interview, she reflected on the past 48 months and how the pandemic has 鈥� and has not 鈥� transformed the nation鈥檚 education system.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

社区黑料: The Northshore School District, not far from Highline, was the first in the nation to close because of COVID. What comes to mind now as you recall those frantic early days of the pandemic?

Susan Enfield: I’m really in awe of what educators across the country were able to do under really trying circumstances. I’m proud of how we responded. If memory serves, we deployed over 13,000 devices within the first couple weeks of having to close schools. There鈥檚 a real sense of pride in how people came together in a time of serious uncertainty and stress and did what they could to take care of our kids.

For those of us that stayed closed for so long, I don’t know if that was the right thing to do. Thousands of kids were out of school for so long, and we know that’s had an impact on them.

Moving from Highline to Washoe, what differences did you see in how the districts approached the closures?

How districts approached it was tied to local politics. The Puget Sound area is the bluest of the blue, whereas Washoe is really purple, politically. Washoe kids came back a year before Highline kids. That was probably the right thing to do.

What Highline was able to do that Washoe wasn’t was device distribution. We had under 20,000 kids, but Washoe had over 60,000, so there’s a magnitude issue. Washoe is a vast geographical area, so it was a challenge for them to distribute devices. Those differences speak to how every district responded as best they could based on their local political context and just the sheer makeup of their district.

Was there anything you would have done differently?

We would all go back and probably do some things differently, but I also had to recognize what was within my control. Our governor mandated schools be closed. I didn’t know at the time that keeping schools closed would be so detrimental. But there was so much fear and uncertainty around the virus, especially for a district like Highline. We have a lot of multifamily, multigenerational homes. The fears people had were very real, very legitimate.

How did the last four years change you personally as a leader? 

It fortified my values as a leader. I’ve always been a big proponent of health and family first, but that was really amplified 鈥� not just preaching it, but modeling it. I had to make sure that I was taking care of my people. 

We have a saying out here when it鈥檚 a beautiful clear day: 鈥淢ountain鈥檚 out.鈥� I remember one Saturday. I just tweeted out a beautiful photo of Mount Rainier and said, 鈥淭he mountain鈥檚 out and it’ll be out again tomorrow.鈥� For those of us in leadership roles, we really had to dig into who we were as people, what our values were. The pandemic had an impact, not just on our children, but our teachers and staff as well. They had to re-learn how to be in community with other people after being in isolation for so long.

What are the biggest lessons we鈥檝e learned from the past four years?

During the pandemic, there was so much talk of 鈥淲e’re not going back to normal鈥� and I was like, 鈥淲ell, I don’t want to be the voice of doom and gloom, but the muscle memory of a bureaucracy as large as the public education system in the United States is very strong.鈥� I predicted that we would by and large go back to what we knew. 

We learned some things and continue to do some things differently, like the option for virtual meetings. Family participation in [special education] meetings is up because now parents don’t have to take time off work. On the flip side, we still have a digital divide. We still have too many kids that don’t have access to the internet. There’s been some backsliding there.

One of the key lessons is that we can’t focus on instruction without focusing on the overall well-being of our children. We have to make sure that our kids, and staff frankly, get the resources they need to be physically, emotionally and psychologically healthy. For all of the opportunities that technology brought, being in person matters 鈥� seeing that face, being hugged, having someone look you in the eye and sit down with you. 

There are various predictions about the chances of another pandemic in our lifetime. If that bears out, how do you think the system would respond? 

We’ve got some playbooks now. We are better prepared because we actually have some blueprints on the logistical part of it. I don’t think it will be the scramble that it was before. And since many of us blessedly lived through the last one, I’m hoping maybe there won’t be the same level of fear and uncertainty that existed before.

I remember doing virtual happy hours with my family in California and a lot of them were literally wiping down their groceries and they weren’t going anywhere. Those of us in school districts couldn’t do that. I don’t think I ever felt that same level of panic and fear because I just couldn’t afford to. I had to help hand out meals.

Do you think schools would close again? 

That’s a really good question. As much as I think closing schools for the length of time we did wasn’t the right thing to do, I know that officials in Washington state have pointed to the very that we had. I don’t know what the perfect answer is.

I was pretty critical of a lot of our elected leaders during that time, but in hindsight, I have more empathy and compassion. I do believe everyone was doing the best they could with what they knew.

After years of cash windfalls, California schools are bracing for a stretch of austerity that could jeopardize students鈥� already precarious recovery from the pandemic.

An end to billions of dollars in federal COVID relief funds, declining enrollment, staff raises, hiring binges and stagnant state funding should combine over the next few months to create steep budget shortfalls, with low-income districts affected the most. 

鈥淭he fiscal cliff is going to vary,鈥� said Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. 鈥淭he districts that got the most COVID relief dollars, those that have the most low-income students, are going to face the biggest losses.鈥� 

In his , Gov. Gavin Newsom largely spared schools, keeping intact popular initiatives like transitional kindergarten, universal school meals, community schools and after-school programs. He proposed dipping into reserves and delaying some expenses to make up a projected  shortfall.

But the exact numbers are shifting. The Legislative Analyst鈥檚 Office predicted that the  than Newsom calculated and cuts will be unavoidable. Newsom will release a revised budget in May, and the Legislature has until June 15 to pass a final budget.

Meanwhile, federal COVID relief funding for schools will end in September. In a series of grants known as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, the federal government gave California schools $23.4 billion to pay for everything from air purifiers to after-school tutoring. 

That funding was distributed based on the number of low-income students districts have. Districts with lots of low-income students got more money, which means they鈥檒l lose the most when the funding ends. 

In the beginning of the pandemic, schools tended to spend the money on one-time expenses, like tablets and Wi-Fi hotspots for students attending school remotely. But as schools reopened, they started spending money on ongoing programs intended to help students catch up academically and recover from the mental health hardships of remote learning. That could include tutors, longer school days or summer and after-school programs.

San Bernardino City Unified used $8 million of its $230 million in COVID relief funds to beef up its after-school program. Thanks to the extra funding, the district has been able to offer free after-school activities, tutoring, transportation and mental health support at every school. 

Keeping the 鈥榮parkle in kids鈥� eyes鈥�

Mia Cooper, a parent with three children in San Bernardino City Unified, said her childrens鈥� after-school program has been a life-saver. In fact, it鈥檚 the main reason they want to go to school, she said.

They not only benefit from tutoring, but they get to enjoy ballet and acting lessons, field trips to science museums and Disneyland, robotics classes, performances by folkl贸rico dance troupes and other fun activities. 

During the pandemic, one of Cooper鈥檚 daughters was withdrawn and depressed, but the after-school program helped her reconnect with friends and fall in love with school again. Keeping the program intact should be a priority, Cooper said.

鈥淭he kids were exposed to so many different activities and cultural things,鈥�  she said. 鈥淚f a program is working for kids and we鈥檙e seeing good outcomes, I think it鈥檚 something we need to keep. 鈥� We shouldn鈥檛 lose that sparkle in kids鈥� eyes.鈥�

A budget reckoning for some districts

But some district鈥檚 use of COVID relief funds could worsen their budget prospects, Roza said. Districts that invested one-time funds in ongoing expenses, such as new staff, raises and bonuses, might be headed for a reckoning. Nationwide, school staff increased 2% since the pandemic while enrollment decreased 2%, according to Georgetown鈥檚 Edunomics Lab.

Salaries for existing teachers have risen, too. Districts in , ,  and  鈥� all of which have declining enrollment 鈥� agreed to hefty teacher raises and bonuses in the past year.  

Still, the fiscal outlook is not as dire as it was during the 2008 recession, said Julien Lafortune, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.  has risen dramatically since then, lifting California from the bottom half of states in school funding to . In addition, the state鈥檚 shift to  a decade ago has provided more money for students with higher needs, although inequities persist. 

But that doesn鈥檛 mean these cuts won鈥檛 hurt, Lafortune said, especially for students who were most affected by the pandemic. Low-income, Black and Latino students disproportionately bore the brunt of school closures, , because they were more likely to suffer economically from the pandemic, less likely to have adequate technology at home, and less likely to have a parent available to help them with distance learning.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not like the Great Recession, but I think the challenges are greater now,鈥� Lafortune said. 鈥淎 lot of the academic progress we made was erased by the pandemic.鈥� 

Roza worries that arguments over potential cuts in the next year will eclipse concern over learning loss. Potential school closures and teacher layoffs will inevitably elicit loud protests, but school boards should stay focused on services that directly help students, such as math tutoring and literacy, she said.

鈥淪ome districts will be focusing on staff retention instead of kids鈥� needs,鈥� Roza said. 

These decisions may be so divisive that Roza predicts a high rate of turnover among school administrators and board members unwilling to make unpopular decisions. She also expects to see some districts refuse to make sufficient cuts and risk insolvency or state takeover.

Planning pays off in Fresno

Fresno Unified is among the districts facing a double whammy of declining enrollment and a large loss of relief funds. The 70,000-student district received more than $787 million in state and federal relief money, one of the largest allotments in California.

But the district was careful to build reserves, rely on state grants when possible and not overly invest in ongoing staff salaries. Instead, it used most of its money to train teachers in math and literacy, extend the school day and provide a high-quality summer program. It also brought in social workers, restorative justice counselors, attendance specialists and other staff to boost students鈥� mental health.

The investments have apparently paid off. The number of students meeting California鈥檚 math benchmark rose almost 3 percentage points last year, even as the state average remained unchanged. And chronic absenteeism fell significantly, from 51% in 2022 to 35% last year.

Still, the district expects to make some cuts, probably affecting the district office but not schools directly 鈥� at least at first, said the district鈥檚 chief financial officer, Patrick Jensen.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like we鈥檙e in a boat and we can see a storm coming,鈥� Jensen said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to be dashed against the rocks but we still need to find a safe harbor.鈥�.

San Bernardino City Unified, among California鈥檚 lowest-income districts, also received a high  relief funding payout: $230 million for 46,000 students. But the district isn鈥檛 anticipating a financial disaster once the funding expires. It plans to shift some of its state block grant money to pay for programs funded with relief money, where necessary, and has been conservative with planning. It鈥檚 also closely monitoring the state budget and economic outlook, said Associate Superintendent Terry Comnick.

But there鈥檚 still likely to be some cuts, and the district will have to look closely at what programs have been effective and which didn鈥檛 live up to expectations. In addition to the after-school program, a 鈥渞esident guest teacher鈥� program had positive results, Comnick said. The district hired substitute teachers to work one-on-one or in small groups with students who were the furthest behind. The $4.5 million program, which was at every school, resulted in higher test scores among the highest-needs students.

So far, it looks like the district will be able to keep both programs, at least for the next few years, Comnick said.

鈥淧eople call it a (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) cliff because the money just ends,鈥� Comnick said. 鈥淏ut for us it will hopefully be a gentle slope.鈥�

Student absenteeism is one of the biggest problems facing South Dakota public education, said state Secretary of Education Joseph Graves.

Chronic absenteeism among South Dakota students jumped from 14% during the 2018-2019 school year to 21% during the 2022-2023 school year. That increase is more pronounced among Native American students, whose chronic absenteeism rates jumped from 31% to 54% in the same timeframe.

Chronic absenteeism is when a student misses 10% or more days of school within the school year.

Attendance and academic performance are directly correlated.

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鈥淪chool is how we bring kids to understand their role in the world. You can鈥檛 educate kids who aren鈥檛 there,鈥� Graves told South Dakota Searchlight. 鈥淭he key to the American Dream is a great education. If you get a great education, you can go anywhere in life.鈥�

The state Department of Education is handing out millions of dollars in grants to school districts over the next three years to address student absenteeism through research-based programs.

鈥楧oesn鈥檛 feel right鈥�: Some schools with significant Native American representation miss out on grants

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated absenteeism in school districts across South Dakota.

鈥淭he pandemic put education as a lower priority over other issues,鈥� Graves said. 鈥淭hat sunk in with a lot of people, and we saw a definite decline in attendance rates of students.鈥�

Recovery is taking longer than expected 鈥� both in South Dakota and nationally, Graves said. Some demographic groups are faring worse than others 鈥� including Native American children, Hispanic or Latino children, and economically disadvantaged children.

Sioux Falls will be awarded $1.5 million over the next three years to address absenteeism. The district was one of nine to receive awards, including Pierre, Wilmot, Waubay, Sisseton, Watertown, Mitchell, Leola and Spearfish 鈥� all at varying amounts.

Out of the school districts selected, Sisseton has the highest representation of Native American students at 54% of its student body, according to . Waubay and Wilmot鈥檚 student bodies are 34% and 22% Native American. All of the other schools receiving grants have Native American student populations lower than 20%. School districts that serve majority Native American student bodies, such as Oglala Lakota County, Todd County and White River, were not awarded the grants.聽

Superintendent Roberta Bizardie of the Todd County School District said the district applied and was surprised when it was not awarded a grant. Native American students make up 94% of the student body, and the school district has a chronic absenteeism rate of 40%.

鈥淚 just didn鈥檛 feel right,鈥� Bizardie said when she saw which schools were awarded grants.

There are three social workers serving the school district鈥檚 2,000 children 鈥� many of whom are economically disadvantaged. The application planned to use money to hire more social workers and attendance liaisons dedicated to absenteeism issues.

Since the district was not awarded a grant, Bizardie plans to work with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe鈥檚 truancy department to reach out to families. They鈥檒l continue using their social workers, sending daily calls to parents when their child isn鈥檛 in school, creating more family engagement events and encouraging attendance with incentives for students.

A representative from the Department of Education told the district that the reason it did not receive a grant was because some of the line-item expenses listed in the budget weren鈥檛 鈥渃learly listed in our narrative,鈥� Bizardie said.

While Native American students, on average, have higher chronic absenteeism rates and lower academic achievement rates than other demographic groups, it goes hand in hand with socioeconomic status, Graves said.

Out of the demographic groups, low socioeconomic status is the most important to address, he added.

Graves said Native American education is seeing a 鈥渟mall renaissance鈥� through private programming closely connected with culture and language. He plans to keep an eye on those programs.

鈥淲hat I think public schools need to do, and what I鈥檓 hoping they鈥檒l do, is that they鈥檒l watch that renaissance of private education and think about what we can do to adapt and serve students who attend public education,鈥� Graves said.

Districts spend grants on transportation, mentoring & engagement

The student absenteeism grant effort is funded through the federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022. The schools will report on progress at the end of each school year until the grant is finished.

The awarded districts are addressing absenteeism differently, though all will spend some of the money on transportation, mentoring or engagement activities to entice students to attend school.

Sioux Falls will target elementary and middle schools with predominantly economically disadvantaged students. Working with younger children will 鈥渃atch them at an early age鈥� before a student loses too much ground or incentive to attend school, said Assistant Superintendent James Nold.

鈥淎 significant way out of poverty is through education,鈥� Nold said. 鈥淲e can encourage attendance, have staff and programs in place all to give a meaningful education and pull children out of poverty. Education hits on so many fronts; it鈥檚 so important to have a child in school on a daily basis.鈥�

Attendance liaisons focus on relationships, mentoring

The most popular use of the grant funds is hiring an attendance liaison or advocate to build connections with students and families who struggle with attendance.

In Sisseton, the school district hired Michelle Greseth to implement the national intervention program 鈥淐heck and Connect,鈥� which focuses on relationship building between a mentor and a student. During the 2021-2022 school year, 26% of Sisseton high school students were chronically absent. So far during the 2023-2024 school year 鈥� after implementing the program and an attendance awareness campaign for students and families 鈥� 11% of high school students are chronically absent.

Greseth or other trained staff plan to work with students and families for a minimum of two years, reviewing data and educational progress, behaviors, attendance and intervention efforts.

Greseth said she鈥檚 already seeing progress in the nearly dozen middle school and high school students she began meeting weekly during the fall semester.

鈥淚f you don鈥檛 have the relationship then the data isn鈥檛 that meaningful because they鈥檙e not willing to buy in 鈥� you really want to know the kid and what drives them and motivates them,鈥� Greseth said. 鈥淭hey won鈥檛 care about how much you know until they know how much you care.鈥�

Sioux Falls hired six liaisons committed to student attendance and one recovery teacher to help middle school students who have fallen behind in their academics. Wilmot School District Superintendent Larry Hulscher said about 10% of its students are chronically absent.

Hiring just one attendance advocate for the small school district will help alleviate the burden on already overworked staff, Hulscher said. Principals, teachers and school resource officers across the state have attempted to build those attendance relationships in years past.

鈥淨uite honestly, we haven鈥檛 been able to dedicate much time to that as the other responsibilities that come with those jobs,鈥� Hulscher said. 鈥淭his person can dedicate all of their time to this.鈥�

Watertown plans to hire three family support specialists. Watertown鈥檚 chronic absenteeism rate has hovered around 20% over the last three years, said Superintendent Jeff Danielsen.

鈥淭he principal represents authority and the SRO represents authority,鈥� Danielsen said, using the abbreviation for 鈥渟chool resource officers,鈥� the law enforcement officers present in some schools. 鈥淭his position is for someone who won鈥檛 have those titles; someone who can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.鈥�

Enhancing extracurricular activities

Getting students involved in at least one extracurricular activity they鈥檙e passionate about 鈥� sports, theater, debate, student government 鈥� will help carry them through school and to graduation, Graves said.

鈥淎lmost nobody liked every subject in school, but almost everybody got through it even though they didn鈥檛 like them,鈥� Graves said. 鈥淟ike a student who isn鈥檛 fond of English but has to pass the class because he loves football and can鈥檛 play otherwise. That engagement is huge. If you鈥檙e not engaging kids, you鈥檙e missing a large part of the boat.鈥�

Graves served as the Mitchell superintendent before joining Gov. Kristi Noem鈥檚 administration.

The Mitchell School District plans to hire an attendance liaison and social worker like other awarded schools, but Superintendent Joe Childs also plans to build a 鈥渞obust offering鈥� of extracurriculars in the district鈥檚 鈥淜ernel Club,鈥� which is an after-school program for children transitioning from elementary school to middle school. The school district has an 18% chronic absenteeism rate.

Kernel Club activities are currently limited to two sports: volleyball and basketball. Childs plans to expand offerings to cover more sports, performing arts and visual arts opportunities.

Graves hopes school districts across the state will continue to invest in Career and Technical Education and Jobs for America鈥檚 Graduates programs, which have also led to higher attendance rates and student participation rates.

The goal, Graves said, is to course-correct and bring statewide chronic absenteeism and general absenteeism rates back down to pre-pandemic numbers.

The hope for Sioux Falls, Nold said, is that the programs implemented by the district are 鈥渟o effective that we can鈥檛 do without them in three years.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com. Follow South Dakota Searchlight on and .

Each day after his shift as a machine operator, Eliberto Ortega used to walk through the front door of his east Houston home, take off his steel-toed work boots and call out, 鈥溌縌ui茅n es la princesa de Pap谩?鈥� meaning, 鈥淲ho鈥檚 Papa鈥檚 princess?鈥�

His daughter would holler back her own name, bolting into his arms. Ortega would scoop up his little girl and, after the hug, she would ask to carry his lunchbox into the kitchen.

It鈥檚 been over two years since Ortega鈥檚 daughter, now 8 and a third-grader at Houston ISD鈥檚 J.R. Harris Elementary School, has felt her father鈥檚 embrace.

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Ortega died of cardiac arrest while sick with the coronavirus in July 2021. Since then, there鈥檚 been a father-sized hole in the lives of Ortega鈥檚 daughter and her younger brother, who is 7. His daughter still struggles at times to sleep at night, as swirling memories of her dad occupy her thoughts. His son has become more reserved, listening to music about loss and longing.

鈥淲e still have an invisible string to him all the way up to heaven,鈥� said Ortega鈥檚 daughter, whose name is being withheld by the Houston Landing due to the sensitive nature of discussing her mental health. 鈥淗e鈥檚 with you. It鈥檚 connected with you but you cannot see the string.鈥�

In Harris County, thousands of students continue to grapple with the long shadow of grief cast by the deaths of parents and caregivers from COVID-19. Yet today, with federal stimulus funding for schools drawing to an end and state lawmakers dedicating virtually no additional money for public schools during the 2023 legislative session, education leaders are starting to make tough choices about whether to maintain mental health support for children like the Ortegas.

Their decisions will have lifelong effects for students quietly struggling with their anguish. Researchers have found the sudden loss of a parent when it comes to impact on academic performance.

鈥溾�嬧�婽hose kids who don’t want to think about or talk about what happened tend to struggle longer,鈥� said Julie Kaplow, executive director of the Trauma and Grief Center at the Texas-based Hackett Center for Mental Health. Professionals trained in trauma-informed care 鈥� including those placed at schools 鈥� can help children process their grief in a healthy way, she said.

No government agency has tallied the number of pandemic-bereaved children in the Houston area, but the number might reach about 5,000. An estimated 41,000 Texas children lost a caregiver to the virus, according to a maintained by the Imperial College of London, and about 12 percent of the state鈥檚 coronavirus deaths occurred in Harris County, Texas Health and Human Services show.

A 5,000-person estimate could understate the magnitude of the losses because parent deaths due to reasons other than infection, such as drug overdoses and other health issues, also increased nationwide during the pandemic.

A family man

In the Ortega family, before the virus that changed everything, Sundays meant time with Dad.

It was the one free day in Eliberto鈥檚 six-day work week, said Laura Ortega, his widow. After going to Mass in the morning, the afternoon would become an adventure of his design. Many weeks, the family would enjoy a bite to eat, then head to a flea market. The four would peruse the multicolored stalls and his daughter would ask to go on rides that her younger brother was still scared of. Eliberto, relishing the chance to spoil his daughter a little, would always say yes, Laura said.

The husband and wife met at a Houston nightclub when Laura was 19, him coaxing her onto the dance floor. After that, the couple dated for several years, at first only meeting up at parks to swing on the swing sets, then later watching Eliberto鈥檚 favorite Spanish telenovelas and dancing together to m煤sica norte帽a. Eventually, they married.

Both dreamed of becoming parents, but Laura struggled to get pregnant. Several years later, when her belly started to swell, it felt like a miracle. A second child followed a year afterward. It felt like everything was falling into place.

But one evening in 2021 shattered the future Laura had pictured. Eliberto, who had tested positive for the coronavirus earlier that day, took a rapid turn for the worse. As his children slept in the same room, his breathing became raspy, his lungs closing in on themselves. His eyes rolled back into his head as he slumped in his chair. A trickle of blood slid down from his nose.

Desperately, Laura tried speaking to him. She got no response.

鈥淚 literally felt at that moment like he took his last breath in my face,鈥� Laura said. 鈥淏ecause after that, I didn鈥檛 feel his heartbeat. I didn鈥檛 feel nothing.鈥�

Emergency medical staff arrived at the home to perform CPR and transport Eliberto to the hospital. But hours later, doctors pronounced Eliberto dead.

The next day, the kids arose to an alternate universe. As the news sunk in, the brother and sister spent the following days alternating between bewildered silences and hysterics.

It was late July, just a few weeks before the first day of school. The return to classes would inevitably mean classmates and teachers asking her kids how their summers had gone. Laura decided she had to get them help from a counselor.

Mental health needs mount

Across Texas, schools saw a surge of demand for the sort of services Laura was seeking.

The Texas Education Agency鈥檚 School Mental Health Task Force found a 鈥渟taggering increase鈥� in the rates of students experiencing depression, anxiety and other mental health concerns since the pandemic, according to its 2023 report. About half of roughly 750 school districts surveyed by the task force reported rising rates of 鈥渄istress related to trauma and grief.鈥�

Sean Ricks, senior manager of HISD鈥檚 crisis intervention team, said he saw a surge in student psychological challenges during and after lockdown. The district launched a 24/7 crisis hotline that fielded about 600 calls, according to HISD.

鈥淚f I can just use the Richter scale 鈥� we were used to tremors of 2.5 or 3,鈥� Ricks said. 鈥淎t the return of the students to school, I would say it was probably a 5.5 or 6.鈥�

A shortage of psychological support for students has long plagued Texas public schools. For nearly a decade, zero districts in the state had all the recommended ratios of counselors, nurses, psychologists and social workers, a .

But facing never-before-seen levels of psychological distress among students amid the pandemic, and simultaneously flush with cash thanks to the passage of a federal stimulus package that sent billions to Texas campuses, districts began investing in mental health.

As of 2022, Texas schools had spent $64 million in pandemic relief grants on student mental health needs, according to data the TEA provided to the Landing. All told, districts planned to devote over $300 million to the issue, according to a , the most recent available. The vast majority of the spending went to bringing on new staff, the TEA data show.

The investments spurred tangible, though modest, increases in the number of adults that students struggling with their mental health could turn to.

Statewide, schools added about 820 school counselors and 230 social workers from 2019-20 to 2022-23, according to the Landing鈥檚 analysis of TEA data. The change nudged the number of students per counselor or social worker statewide from 389 down to 363. Although school counselors in Texas are required to have training in mental health support, their jobs typically also involve helping with scheduling and making plans for after graduation.

In HISD, which lags behind statewide averages in mental health resources per child, the shifts were more extreme. Over the same period, the student-to-counselor-and-social-worker ratio decreased from 793-to-1 to 547-to-1. HISD also brought on more staffers known as 鈥渨raparound specialists鈥� meant to address students鈥� non-academic needs and this year that offer free psychological services.

Families like the Ortegas would finally have better access to the services they were looking for, it seemed.

鈥楾hey never call back鈥�

That鈥檚 not exactly how the situation played out for Laura.

Before the 2021-22 year began, just weeks after the death of her husband, she spoke with leaders at her children鈥檚 elementary school. She explained what her kids had experienced and asked what counseling services might be available. To her astonishment, she learned the school did not have a counselor.

J.R. Harris Elementary, facing a tight budget, had no guidance counselor to start the 2021-22 school year, Principal Jessica Rivero confirmed during an early September community event attended by the Landing.

In the meantime, without options at her children鈥檚 campus, Laura looked for psychology practices after she enrolled in Medicaid following Eliberto鈥檚 death. Medicaid had suggested several providers, so she went down the list calling every number. It yielded nothing.

鈥淭hey will just say, 鈥榃ell, you can call this place, and you can call this place, and you can call this place,鈥欌�� Laura said. 鈥淎nd you call them, but they never call back.鈥�

The lag time without access to counseling meant Laura鈥檚 children spent roughly six months going to school every day, attempting to maintain a semblance of normal life, with no outlet to process their loss other than with family members who were also grieving.

That unmet need can be dangerous to children, said Bradley Smith, director of the University of Houston’s school psychology doctorate program. Young people often need therapy catered to dealing with traumatic experiences in order to process them in a healthy way, he said.

鈥淭he saying, 鈥楾ime heals all wounds,鈥� that doesn’t really apply to trauma,鈥� Smith said. 鈥淛ust the passage of time doesn’t automatically take care of things. And so I think we have a lot of kids walking around that are still experiencing negative effects of the pandemic that haven’t been worked out.鈥�

J.R. Harris Elementary ultimately added a school counselor midway through the 2021-22 school year. While the counselor was not a child psychologist, she agreed to meet regularly with Laura鈥檚 children throughout the spring semester. The school later added a second counselor.

Talking about the loss of their dad in one-on-one meetings over the course of months helped Laura鈥檚 children begin to heal, she said. Then, in mid-2023, Laura finally found a therapy practice that would accept her insurance. Her kids now attend sessions regularly.

Still, it can be hard for Laura to gauge how her children are processing their grief.

This past summer, she received a troubling report from a staffer at her son鈥檚 YMCA camp who said she saw him cutting himself with scissors on two occasions. The second time, the staffer said she asked Laura鈥檚 son what he was doing, and he said he wanted to be with his father.

The episode triggered her own memories of childhood trauma for Laura, who cut herself when she was young while struggling to find an outlet to process difficult experiences.

鈥淚 want to make sure he doesn’t go through the same thing I went through, that it was hard to get somebody to help, or to listen, to hear me out,鈥� Laura said.

A fiscal cliff

Some of the mental health resources that Texas schools invested into supporting students鈥� mental health may now be in jeopardy.

The federal stimulus money that helped fund many positions will end in the fall of 2024, meaning districts will soon have to make tough choices about whether to keep or cut any recently added roles.

And state lawmakers, despite a nearly $33 billion surplus, ended their legislative sessions in 2023 without dedicating any new mental health funds to Texas public schools. One promised $100,000 or more per district for students鈥� psychological needs, but it died early in the legislative process. Barring an unexpected call for a special session, schools will not see significantly more funding until 2025 at the earliest.

That means school leaders likely will have to decide whether to pull money from other sources, such as teacher salaries, to pay for keeping recently added mental health services.  Those decisions will play into student learning, said Brian Woods, deputy executive director of advocacy for the Texas Association of School Administrators.

鈥淎 student with mental health needs, just like a student who’s hungry or can’t see well, is going to really struggle academically,鈥� Woods said.

In HISD, district leaders hired seven 鈥渋ntensive mental health specialists鈥� for positions that will not extend beyond the deadline to spend federal funds this year, spokesperson Joseph Sam said.

Nearby Fort Bend and Conroe independent school districts added six and 10 new mental health-related roles, respectively, thanks to stimulus funds. The positions will remain indefinitely, district officials said.

And Katy Independent School District said it has yet to decide the fate of 20 roles funded by the stimulus package, which totaled $4 million and included counselors and social workers.

Districts that decide against retaining pandemic-era mental health support fit into a troubling trend, said Kaplow, the Hackett Center grief specialist. People are eager to forget about COVID-19 and its lasting effects, she said.

鈥淚 do think it is in the rear-view mirror of most individuals,鈥� Kaplow said. 鈥淚 think that the silence around it is making it even more difficult for the children and families who are grieving.鈥�

鈥楬e鈥檚 watching them鈥�

Laura does her best to erase the silence and show her children that it鈥檚 OK to talk about their father. She frequently sports the cowboy boots her husband bought for her last birthday before he died. She keeps a locket around her neck that, when the light hits it right, reveals an image of the couple stealing a kiss.

She and her kids still sleep in the same room where her husband died because there鈥檚 no extra space in the house they share with their cousins. On the wall, she hung a framed picture of her children鈥檚 father wearing a white cowboy hat and tan blazer, hands stuffed into pockets, eyes shadowed by the brim, but gaze strong and directly into the camera. A teddy bear named Eric, Eliberto鈥檚 nickname, sits on the bed.

Laura鈥檚 son said he often brings his father鈥檚 voice to mind. If he needs help staying calm, like if someone is annoying him at school, he remembers Eliberto.

鈥淚n my head, I don鈥檛 forget him,鈥� Laura鈥檚 son said. 鈥淚 know, if I forget him, I鈥檓 never going to know him anymore.鈥�

Now, in lieu of the old rituals the family had, they have created new ones. Every Sunday after church, Laura and her children visit Eliberto鈥檚 gravesite. Most of the time, the kids race through the headstones in a game of tag or soccer.

Meanwhile, Laura sits by the stone marker, enjoying the fact her children can, once again, play in the presence of their father.

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