A new analysis from NWEA, an assessment company, suggests that these children are experiencing learning disruptions even now. 

While kindergarten achievement levels in math and reading largely held steady during and since the pandemic, by first and second grade, students are performing below pre-pandemic averages, according to an of NWEA鈥檚 Map Growth assessment data from spring 2017 to spring 2025. In math, at least, first and second graders have shown slow, incremental progress. Gaps in reading achievement, however, seem stubbornly stalled. 

The performance dips in first and second grade are similar to those seen in older grades, said Megan Kuhfeld, director of growth modeling and data analytics at NWEA, who co-led the research. 

鈥淭he general pattern of stagnation and lack of recovery in reading is very similar in first and second grade as grades three to eight,鈥� Kuhfeld said, adding that a slow recovery in math is also observed in the later grades. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very parallel across, basically, all the grades except for kindergarten.鈥�

So what鈥檚 happening to students as they matriculate from kindergarten to first grade to cause a performance drop?

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the big mystery of the results,鈥� Kuhfeld said.

She was willing to speculate about the cause, leaning on anecdotal evidence from kindergarten teachers and elementary school leaders. 

Chronic absenteeism rates in kindergarten, which are often higher than in any other grade before high school, may mean some students aren鈥檛 getting adequate instructional time, Kuhfeld offered, ultimately standing in the way of them grasping the foundational reading and math skills typically acquired in kindergarten.

And many kindergarten teachers have reported that students are showing up with more nascent social and emotional skills than their peers in prior years. They have less experience with important life skills such as sharing, cooperating and self-regulating. 

鈥淭eachers are spending more time having to teach how to behave in a kindergarten classroom 鈥� that would normally be the purview of preschool teachers,鈥� Kuhfeld said. 鈥淭his time spent on behavioral management and behavioral regulation, cumulatively, could be affecting achievement.鈥�

At Western Hills Primary School in Fort Worth, Texas, where students鈥� MAP Growth assessment results generally align with what NWEA has found nationally, principal Andrea Johnson said both factors could be at play. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing kids who, if they don鈥檛 reach immediate success, we see them dysregulate,鈥� said Johnson, whose school serves students in pre-K through first grade. 鈥淭hey struggle.鈥�

At Western Hills Primary School in Texas, kindergarten and first grade performance in math and reading on NWEA鈥檚 Map Growth assessment generally mirror national trends. (Courtesy of Andrea Johnson)

She believes that may be a latent impact of the pandemic on these younger students. Many of them had extra time at home with parents and caregivers, when early care and education programs were closed. 

鈥淭hey鈥檙e used to someone being close and someone solving their problems for them,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淲e talk a lot about productive struggle. You鈥檝e gotta let them do it. Give them that mentality, where they鈥檝e gotta connect to that struggle.鈥�

She has definitely seen high rates of absenteeism among students in pre-K and kindergarten, she added. 

鈥淚 think they think, 鈥榩re-K and kinder, they don鈥檛 really matter that much,鈥欌�� Johnson said, adding that she often finds herself trying to communicate to families how crucial those years are for future learning and development.

Most measures of post-pandemic recovery have examined the impacts on students in later grades, making NWEA鈥檚 analysis a rare snapshot of students in grades K-2. 

Curriculum Associates, a curriculum and assessment provider, has also evaluated math and reading performance among students in the early grades, finding some similarities and key differences from NWEA鈥檚 results. 

NWEA鈥檚 Map Growth assessment and Curriculum Associates鈥� i-Ready Inform assessment are both widely used in U.S. schools, reaching a combined 19 million K-8 students. Both measure student achievement in math and reading, but they differ in approach.

Kristen Huff, head of measurement at Curriculum Associates, pointed out that these two assessments have distinct designs and methodologies 鈥� and that they are administered to different samples 鈥� which may account for variations in findings.

鈥淔rom the big picture, we鈥檙e seeing the same thing,鈥� Huff said. 鈥淪tudents today who were not in school 鈥� some were babies 鈥� when the pandemic hit are not performing at the same level as their pre-pandemic peers in either reading or math.鈥�

But in a published in July 2025, Curriculum Associates actually found that students in kindergarten are seeing achievement level drops in both math and reading, and that declining math performance in the early grades is 鈥渕ore drastic鈥� than in reading. 

At a high level, she said, both sets of findings send a similar message, which is that America鈥檚 children are not seeing the type of recovery needed to reach pre-pandemic achievement levels. 

鈥淚t opens up the question of what is happening,鈥� Huff said. 鈥淲e can no longer, in my opinion, say that that disrupted learning in 2020 and 2021 is the sole or primary cause of what we鈥檙e seeing. There is a larger, systemic issue 鈥� or issues 鈥� that are impacting this.鈥�

It turns out, of course, that I am far from alone. 

Participation in tutoring grew by five percentage points (from 19% to 24%) between 2024 and 2025, according to the newly released 2nd Edition of The State of Educational Opportunity in America: A Survey of 23,000 Parents, from 50CAN and Edge Research. In the notoriously slow-moving U.S. education system, this is a sea-change. In urban areas, the rates are still higher, with nearly one-third of parents reporting that their child attends tutoring. 

Tutoring has long been the primary academic response of wealthy families across the United States when their children need additional support. Yet, the survey found that this too is shifting. While tutoring among high-income families increased one point from 28% to 29%, among low-income families there was a  five-point increase, cutting the access gap between low- and high-income families substantially. Indeed, at this point, you鈥檇 be hard pressed to go into any school, public or private, and not find children who attend academic tutoring outside of school. Tutoring is becoming the go-to tool for parents at all income levels and across all demographic groups. 

What would it take to make tutoring truly universal? The main barrier is expense, with 30% of parents whose children are not in tutoring saying that it鈥檚 too expensive. Cost is likely also the reason that students in private school participate in tutoring at much higher rates than their peers in public schools. A second barrier to tutoring is access. For the students getting the worst grades, 26%of parents also said that tutoring is not available in their community. 

My daughter is fortunate: I have the means to pay for tutoring, and I live in a suburban community with numerous tutoring centers. Like me, D.C. Public Schools principal Katreena Shelby had turned to private math tutoring when her daughter needed help. After seeing how quickly her daughter got back on track, she started wondering if she could get this same kind of help for her public middle school students. 鈥淚 had the means to pay for my daughter to get tutoring,鈥� Shelby told me. 鈥淵et I wasn鈥檛 prioritizing the budget I had control over to get my students this same kind of support.鈥� Shelby is one of thousands of principals who, in the wake of the pandemic, embraced tutoring. 

Spending two years researching the emergence of this new wave of high-impact tutoring for my book The Future of Tutoring, I鈥檝e seen firsthand how students, teachers, school leaders and parents alike get excited when they are able to provide personalized support to struggling students. Tutoring is endlessly flexible; successful tutoring has taken place for early literacy in kindergarten, fourth-grade math skills, middle grades reading, ninth-grade Algebra I, required high school exit exams and more. Public schools have found ways to provide the very service that so many parents seek outside of school 鈥� a trusted adult who regularly meets with a small group of children, understands the progress they need to make and builds a relationship with them to not only help them learn but help them want to learn. 

While the initial groundswell of high-impact tutoring fueled by federal COVID dollars has dissipated, there are states and districts continuing to provide publicly-funded tutoring. Cities like Nashville and the District of Columbia are staying the course with tutoring programs that launched in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, while other cities like Philadelphia are trying to get new tutoring efforts off the ground now. 

Louisiana has led the way for states, with state budget investments of $30 million annually to support tutoring for students below grade-level that is now required by legislation. Massachusetts is in the first year of implementing for struggling students in grades K-3, funded by a $25 million annual state budget allocation. Ohio鈥檚 state Senate passed at the end of 2025, which, if enacted, will require high-impact tutoring for students performing below grade-level in math. 

The good news from the State of Educational Opportunity survey is that a majority of parents strongly favor public funding that provides access to free tutoring for K-12 students who fall below grade level. In fact, of the nine policy proposals that parents were asked about in the survey, public funding for tutoring ranked first with 86% of parents supporting the idea. 

Tutoring is equally popular on both sides of the aisle, the survey reveals, and that popularity holds in every single state across the country. From a low of 79% support in Vermont to a high of 92% support in D.C., it’s clear that parents across the country want every child who needs help to receive that help, paid for by public dollars. 

In a country that seems increasingly pitted against itself, tutoring is one of the last remaining policies that has a chance to pull us back together. Parents in rural, urban, red, blue, east and west America know their child鈥檚 future rests on a quality education. What we learn from this new survey is that more than three-quarters of parents in every state want this for every child, not only their own. It is time that policymakers take up this charge from their voters and make 2026 the year that tutoring becomes a permanent part of the American educational experience. 

LAUSD鈥檚 chief financial officer in an interview last week said declining enrollments and the end of pandemic relief funds have forced the district to take cost-cutting measures.  

Schools have already been notified of how much they will have to cut from their budgets. The cuts will go into effect starting in August. 

LAUSD officials in June had predicted a $1.6 billion deficit for the 2027-28 school year. But an updated version of the budget  last week eliminates the deficit by using reserve funds plus cost-cutting measures over the next two years. 

The planned cuts to school budgets will begin in the 2026-27 school year, with school consolidations and staffing reductions planned for the following school year, said LAUSD Chief Financial Officer Saman Bravo-Karimi. 

鈥淲e have fewer students each year, and in LAUSD that鈥檚 been the case for over two decades,鈥� Bravo-Karimi said. 鈥淭hat has a profound impact on our funding levels. Also, we had the expiration of those one-time COVID relief funds that were very substantial.鈥�  

The district recently contracted with the consulting firm Ernst and Young to create models for closing and consolidating schools. While school officials wouldn鈥檛 say which schools or how many would be closed, the district has clearly been shrinking. 

Enrollment last year fell to 408,083, from a peak of 746,831 in 2002. Nearly half of the district鈥檚 zoned elementary schools are half-full or less, and 56 have seen rosters fall by 70% or more. 

Bravo-Karimi said in the current school year the district will spend about $2 billion more than it took in from state, local and federal funding. The trend of overspending is expected to continue next year and the year after that, he said.

The district鈥檚 board in June approved a three-year budget plan that included a $18.8-billion budget for the current school year. The plan delayed layoffs until next year, and funded higher spending in part by reducing a fund for retirees鈥� health benefits. 

According to , the district will save:  

• $425 million by clawing back funds that went unused by schools each year聽
• $300 million by reducing staffing and budgets at central offices聽
• $299 million by cutting special funding for schools with high-needs students
• $120 million by cutting unfilled school staffing positions
• $30 million by consolidating schools聽聽
• $16 million by cutting student transportation聽

Bravo-Karimi said the district gets virtually all of its money through per-pupil funding from the state. Since enrollment in the district has fallen steadily for decades, and then sharply since the pandemic, funding is down significantly, he said.

Most zoned L.A. elementary schools are almost half empty, and many are operating at less than 25% capacity.聽Thirty-four schools have fewer than 200 students enrolled; a dozen of those schools once had enrollment over 400.聽聽聽聽聽

The drops have prompted LAUSD leaders to talk about closing or combining schools, a controversial step that other big U.S. cities  or considering. 

Bravo-Karimi said the district would assess the needs of communities and the conditions at local schools before it makes any decisions about school closings or consolidations. 

鈥淭hat process needs to play out before any decisions are made about potential consolidation of school facilities,鈥� he said.

Bravo-Karimi said other factors, including ongoing negotiations with labor unions, and changes to state funding, will further impact the district鈥檚 budget in the coming months. 

Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab and Research Professor at Georgetown University鈥檚 McCourt School of Public Policy, said the cuts planned for LAUSD are 鈥渞elatively mild鈥� compared to overall size of the district鈥檚 budget and cuts being considered at other  and the rest of the country. 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think the people in the schools are going to notice that there鈥檚 a shrinking of the central office or that they鈥檙e using reserves,鈥� said Roza. 鈥淯nless you鈥檙e one of the people who loses their transportation or if you鈥檙e in one of the schools that gets closed.鈥� 

But, Roza said, many of the cuts taken by LAUSD can only be made once, and the district still faces profound changes as enrollments continue to fall and downsizing becomes more and more necessary. 

鈥淭his really should be a signal to families,鈥� said Roza of the planned cuts in the district鈥檚 latest budget. 鈥淎fter several years of really being flush with cash, this is not the financial position that LA Unified is going to be in moving forward.鈥� 

LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz-Franklin, who represents LAUSD鈥檚 District Seven, which includes neighborhoods such as South L.A., Watts and San Pedro, said the district will work to shield kids from the impact of budget cuts. 

But, Ortiz-Franklin said, the district hired permanent staffers with one-time COVID funding, and now some of those staffers will have to be let go. 

Still, LA Unified聽has made strong gains聽since the pandemic, she said, and the district must聽work hard to preserve its upward trajectory despite financial headwinds.聽

鈥淲e would love to share good news, especially this time of year,鈥� said Ortiz-Franklin. 鈥淏ut the reality is, it is really tough.鈥� 

School leaders across LAUSD received preliminary budgets for the next year over the last few weeks, said Ortiz-Franklin. Some schools in her district are facing cuts of up to 15%, forcing them to make tough decisions on which staffers to keep and who to let go. 

Several hundred additional layoffs will be announced in February, she said, when the district makes another assessment of staffing needs. 

鈥淲e don鈥檛 know the total number yet, and we don鈥檛 know which positions yet,鈥� said Ortiz-Franklin.

But the Trump administration鈥檚 education budget for the current fiscal year and funding legislation in the Republican-led House of Representatives would gut the federal resources that many schools are using to keep their tutoring programs alive, threats compounded by administration efforts to shrink key Department of Education offices and move them elsewhere in the federal government.

Congressional leaders in both political parties have concern about the slow recovery of student achievement post-pandemic and have tutoring as an evidence-based solution. They should be heartened that a new of school leaders by RAND and the Partnership for Student Success found that 93% of schools offering tutoring in 2024-25 served the same or more students than during the previous school year. But rather than expanding the Department of Education that states and school districts are using to fund tutoring, the president and his congressional allies have them on the chopping block. If they don鈥檛 reverse course, students are going to pay a heavy price.

Take Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the major federal K-12 education law administered by the department. This year, the program is supplying $18.4 billion to schools that have significant portions of students living in high-poverty communities or low-income households. This is the largest source of federal funding for schools, and the most flexible federal funding for tutoring programs. The House appropriations bill voted out of committee in September would cut it by 26%, or $4.7 billion.

Title II of ESEA provides funds that can be used to train teachers or other staff to serve as effective tutors and provide stipends to educators who take on additional tutoring responsibilities. The president鈥檚 budget and the House bill propose eliminating Title II entirely, a roughly $2.2 billion cut. They would also end all $890 million in funding for Title III, which schools and districts can use to pay and train tutors providing supplemental assistance to English learners. 

Title IV, Parts A and B fund tutoring during and after school. The president鈥檚 budget would eliminate this $2.7 billion program, as well as $220 million that districts receive through the federal Rural Education Achievement Program, which can be used to hire tutors.

Proposed cuts in higher education programs would also undermine tutoring in the nation鈥檚 schools.

Colleges and universities can use federal funds to cover of the wages of students employed as reading or math tutors for school-aged children. But the president鈥檚 budget would cut the program by $980 million, or nearly 80%; the House bill would reduce it by $450 million.

Proposed and enacted cuts to the AmeriCorps program, the federal agency that supports national service and volunteerism across the country, are already impacting tutoring. Many affiliated programs have lost staff and are providing aid for students. The president鈥檚 budget cuts AmeriCorps by over $1 billion, or 91%, while the House would reduce it by $619 million.

The threats to federal support for tutoring go beyond funding cuts. Earlier this year, the Trump administration , which oversees Title III. During the recent government shutdown, it attempted to eradicate nearly all staff in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which manages Title I, Title II and the majority of federal K-12 funding. And, of course, the recent announcement that the department is transferring the administration of funds to the Department of Labor has only caused more confusion, as has the department鈥檚 messaging that staff would be switching departments even as it attempts to fire these same employees.  

The Trump administration and House Republican proposals have failed to leverage the potential of the federal government to help sustain the growth of high-quality tutoring in the nation鈥檚 public schools as they work to shrink the size of the federal government. Rather than promoting their frequently stated of helping states lead on education, their budget proposals would sabotage state and local efforts on a widely recognized driver of student achievement, making it harder for states to do right by their students. Congress should push back, protecting programs that fund tutoring and the staff that manage them.

Evidence-based supports exist that can address these challenges 鈥� and more than 400,000 additional adults have helped deliver them in the past three years, . The support includes high-dosage tutoring, which can accelerate learning. Success coaching, which combines academic and social-emotional support and problem solving, improves attendance and achievement. In-school mentoring builds interpersonal relationships that foster school connectedness.

Wraparound support, bringing in community organizations to help with such issues as health and housing, addresses obstacles to well-being. Postsecondary advising gives students clear pathways to adult success and helps them see why full engagement in school matters.    

The challenge schools face in delivering these evidence-based supports more broadly is three-fold. First, they must implement them in ways that align with what the evidence shows drives impact. Second, to be effective, all this must be delivered in the context of supportive, human relationships. This requires 鈥減eople power,鈥� often beyond what existing school staff can provide.

Finally, it takes significant organizational capacity to provide the full range of support to the large number of students who often need them. Schools therefore need strategies to reduce the number of students requiring additional help, along with systems that get the right supports to the right students at the right time.  

Results from a recent nationally representative survey of school principals provide encouraging news about the spread of evidence-based student support. Yet, the findings also offer a sobering reminder of the work that remains to reach all students who need help.  

鈥� a coalition of 250 nonprofits, 200 school districts, and 80 institutes of higher education working to expand evidence-based student supports for all K-12 students 鈥� has partnered with the RAND Corporation to survey the nation鈥檚 principals annually over the past three school years.  

Among the most encouraging findings: about half of the nation鈥檚 public school principals report that their school provides high-intensity tutoring. This grows to two-thirds of schools in high-poverty neighborhoods. These results are aligned with a administered by the U.S. Department of Education. Mentoring and wraparound support can also be found in about half the nation鈥檚 schools.

Nearly all high schools report providing postsecondary guidance. Slightly more than a quarter of schools have success coaches. Over the past three school years, principals report that over 400,000 additional adults have been engaged as tutors, mentors, postsecondary advisors or wraparound support coordinators in their schools.

Clearly, evidence-based student supports have expanded substantially since the pandemic. 

Moreover, half of principals report partnering with a local college or a nonprofit to provide some of these programs. Connections with community organizations that were frayed by the pandemic have been rebuilt and strengthened, bringing more adults into schools to provide critical support for students.

Finally, more principals report the use of student success systems to monitor student progress on key indicators, enabling more proactive and strategic action.  

Despite the positive news, the plurality of principals reports that only some to a few of their students who need help are receiving it. Only 20% to 30% of principals report that most or all students get the support they need. Principals do not see student needs decreasing, four years from the height of the pandemic: Less than 10% reported that fewer students needed support in 2024-25, than in prior years.

When asked what stands in the way of more students receiving support, principals report both supply and demand constraints. Half cited funding as an issue, and a similar share said staffing was a challenge. A third reported that finding enough time in the school schedule was a barrier. Smaller but significant numbers cited lack of student interest, parental reluctance and limited awareness of the support available. 

 A number of schools surveyed have overcome these challenges and scaled evidence-based approaches. About 20% of schools could be described as 鈥渇ull-student support schools,鈥� where principals report providing high-intensity tutoring, mentoring or success coaching, and wraparound support. Around one in five principals report providing high-intensity tutoring or mentoring to more than 30% of their students, at least three times as many as typically received this support pre-pandemic.

This shows that significant numbers of schools, including those who serve high-need student populations, have figured out how to solve the challenges associated with providing a wide range of help to large numbers of students.  

Some schools are trying new approaches, including using Federal Work-Study dollars to support eligible college students working in K-12 schools as tutors and mentors, as well as developing pathways from tutoring or success coaching into teaching careers.

Others are tapping one of the most underutilized and most affordable sources of people power: high school students themselves. Good models exist and in a forthcoming survey from TeenVoice the majority of high school students said they would use peer supports, if offered, and would also be interested in providing them. There are also ongoing efforts to identify how high-intensity tutoring, mentoring and postsecondary advising can be delivered both online and in person. Finally, efforts are underway to broadly expand student success systems.  

For the kids to be alright, we need to provide schools where they want to be, schools where they receive high-quality instruction, and schools where they receive the support they need to attend regularly, focus in class, complete their schoolwork and thrive. We are making progress but still need to scale what has been proven to work. 

A painter prepped the side of a classroom building at the school for a new mural 鈥� smiling dragons in caps and gowns, and the district slogan: 鈥淩eady for the World.鈥� On a patch of pavement sat a mini outdoor library featuring a small seating area, an umbrella for shade and a cart full of books.

She hopes the features prompt visitors to ask, 鈥淲ho鈥檚 the principal here?鈥� But the progress at 135th, part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, goes much deeper. Chronic absenteeism is down to 13%, from 17% in 2024. Over the past two years, the percentage of students meeting state standards in English language arts has climbed from 25% to 37%. In math, it grew from 26% to 34%.

The changes, along with the formation of a STEM lab and the addition of afterschool Boys and Girls Clubs, were enough to convince Daveyeon Shallowhorn, the school鈥檚 plant manager, to pull his two kids out of a nearby Catholic school and enroll them in 135th.

鈥淚 just see different things being offered that I don’t usually see,鈥� he said.  

Districtwide, leaders are celebrating the highest-ever performance on California鈥檚 state test. But the strong gains in math, reading and science, at every grade level, weren鈥檛 limited to wealthier, or high-performing magnets. They were evenly distributed across some of the district鈥檚 most challenging, high-poverty schools, like 135th.

Some say Superintendent Alberto Carvalho鈥檚 centralized approach to steering the nation鈥檚 second-largest district is lifting performance at schools that languished near the bottom for years. The seven-member school board, which hired him in 2021, reaffirmed their confidence in his leadership last month, to renew his contract for another four years. But others say there are likely multiple explanations for the boost. The question is whether the positive trends will continue in a city where the powerful has a history of resisting top-down programs.

鈥淚f Carvalho is seeing gains, that means our students are gaining,鈥� said Jose Luis Navarro, a former principal in the district who now coaches school leaders. For now, United Teachers Los Angeles is unhappy that a recently adopted budget didn鈥檛 include raises. Nevertheless, Navarro urged the union to embrace Carvalho鈥檚 agenda. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e already tried fighting every superintendent for the last 40 years. Just try working with one and see what happens.鈥�

The improvements came in spite of wildfires that wiped out part of the city, a crackdown on undocumented students and a federal government trying to on blue California. 

鈥淥ur kids, our students persevered,鈥� Carvalho, who declined to be interviewed, said at his back-to-school address in late July. 鈥淭hey, in fact, soared.鈥�

But while students from all racial groups improved, significant gaps remain. At least two-thirds of white and 74% of Asian third-graders met or exceeded expectations in reading, compared to 37% of Latino students and 31% of Black students. 

鈥淲e will redouble our efforts. We will redouble our commitment,鈥� he pledged at an Oct. 10 press conference at Maywood Elementary. 

鈥楽maller numbers鈥�

Experts say the recent achievement growth among the district鈥檚 neediest students is likely a cumulative effect of several initiatives, including a more uniform approach to instruction, extra help for kids who are the furthest behind and a concentrated focus on the most troubled schools. 

But Carvalho has 鈥済enerally good instincts about what works,鈥� said Morgan Polikoff, an education professor at the University of Southern California. The district adopted a research-based literacy curriculum, has over 10,000 teachers in the science of reading and has spread some of those to math instruction. 鈥淚t seems the district is investing in quality curriculum and supporting teachers to use it.鈥�

As scores go up, however, enrollment continues to dwindle. Over the past five years. LAUSD has lost .

But that factor could be working in the district鈥檚 favor. That鈥檚 because for now, LAUSD, unlike , has , leaving some schools with more staff per student.

鈥淵ou already have built-in small group instruction with smaller numbers,鈥� said Nery Paiz, principal of Glen Alta Elementary School, east of downtown. With an enrollment of about 100, his average class size is about 19 students, he said. 

shows that such 鈥減ronounced鈥� declines can sometimes lead to increases in test scores. found that enrollment loss doesn鈥檛 immediately translate into funding cuts, freeing up more resources for schools in the short term. LAUSD鈥檚 $18.8 billion budget, adopted in June, increases spending for majority-Black schools, arts programs and support for LGBTQ students.

鈥楴o secret sauce鈥�

Some in the district say the uptick in scores would have happened without Carvalho, whom they dismiss as a slick media personality.

鈥淲e’re far enough away from the lockdowns that teachers have been able to recover, and students have been able to recover,鈥� said Nicolle Fefferman, a veteran high school social studies teacher in the district. 鈥淭here is no secret sauce to teaching.鈥�

She helps lead an advocacy group, Parents Supporting Teachers, whose members are far less enamored with Carvalho than when he arrived in early 2022. The district鈥檚 failed experiment with a $6 million AI chatbot has drawn accusations of misspending. Officials discontinued use of the tool when the company went under. Others argue he to close schools during the fires, relying on guidelines that failed to account for multiple fires burning across the region and filling the air with . 

Some parents say students have in school and are unhappy with Carvalho鈥檚 move to roll out an online program called . To Fefferman, the digital lessons and assessments represent 鈥渙vertesting,鈥� which the teachers union has traditionally opposed. UTLA didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment, but Maria Nichols, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, the principals union, said i-Ready has created 鈥渇riction鈥� between school leaders and teachers who object to the program.

The increase in scores is worth celebrating, she said, but said it came 鈥渙n the backs of the [principals] who are working 60 hour weeks.鈥� Her union joined with UTLA and SEIU Local 99, which represents non-teaching employees, outside schools Sept. 16. All three are currently in negotiations with the district over salaries and working conditions. 

Board President Scott Schmerelson, who has the union鈥檚 support, said such concerns are to be expected. It鈥檚 a 鈥済eneral rule鈥� to complain about the superintendent 鈥渘o matter what he says, no matter what he does,鈥� he said. But he called the 鈥済rumbling鈥� minimal. 

He鈥檚 particularly enthusiastic about the district鈥檚 Black Student Achievement Plan, a $175 million initiative that provides schools serving Black students additional counselors, cultural activities and field trips. Former Superintendent Austin Beutner proposed the program in early 2021 to reduce achievement gaps. Under Carvalho, it continues to expand, in spite of challenges from who say it discriminates against students of other races. 

Since last year, students in Black Student Achievement Plan schools have seen slightly more growth in reading and math than the district as a whole. 

The additional resources have 鈥渉elped [Black students] a lot, not only academically but emotionally,鈥� Schmerelson said. 鈥淚 think they feel important. I think they feel respected.鈥�

鈥楴othing short of remarkable鈥�

With high expectations, the board voted unanimously to hire Carvalho in late 2021. At the time, Pedro Noguera, dean of education at the University of Southern California, likened the award-winning superintendent鈥檚 arrival to鈥淟eBron coming to the Lakers.鈥� The board trusted that Carvalho鈥檚 success leading the Miami-Dade schools for 14 years would follow him to the West Coast. 

But efforts to overcome COVID learning loss and rise above pre-pandemic performance began a year earlier, with schools still locked down. Most students wouldn鈥檛 set foot in classrooms for another year. 

Beutner used COVID relief funds to launch Primary Promise, a highly popular effort to target extra instruction to struggling readers, including English learners, students in foster care and others most likely to fall further behind because of school closures. 

In 2021, a Boston-based consulting group that designed the model 鈥渘othing short of remarkable.鈥� On average, students began the year reading five words correctly per minute. Some couldn鈥檛 read at all. After 10 weeks, they were close to reaching the goal of 21 words per minute.

Julie Navarro, who is married to Jose, worked on the program as a reading specialist at Panorama City Elementary in the San Fernando Valley, where she said teachers were eager to share materials and ideas with each other. 

鈥淚t was seriously the most positive collaboration I’ve ever been a part of,鈥� she said. Primary Promise teachers attended monthly training that she described as 鈥渨ell-planned, thorough and research-based.鈥� 

Then Carvalho , arguing that with relief funds drying up, it was unsustainable to keep paying instructional aides to staff the program. The renamed Literacy and Numeracy Intervention expanded services into higher grades, drawing criticism from who said the emphasis on the early grades was what made it effective. Beutner and Ray Cortines, also a former superintendent in the district, called the move .

鈥淚 had never seen teachers who were willing to die on the hill of an LAUSD program,鈥� Fefferman said. 鈥淎s a high school teacher, I was like 鈥榊es, please make sure they can read by third grade.鈥� 鈥� 

In Julie Navarro鈥檚 view, educators who lead the intervention work are sometimes 鈥減ulled in multiple directions鈥� and the program has 鈥渓ess integrity鈥� than the original. But Panorama, she said, is an example of staying true to the model of giving students small group instruction and consistently tracking their progress.

The school has seen double digit increases in reading and math since 2022 and was on this year鈥檚 list of . With many families facing financial hardship and newcomers navigating language and cultural barriers, Julie described the population as 鈥渢he most-challenged families I鈥檝e ever seen all at one school. In spite of their situation, they were growing.鈥�

鈥楰ids know their data鈥�

Close attention to student data was a hallmark of the Primary Promise program. Carvalho expects the same level of monitoring districtwide with i-Ready. The platform, Schmerelson said, helps teachers know whether to 鈥渟low down鈥� the pace of learning for students who are struggling or move kids ahead.  

On a bulletin board in a second grade classroom at 135th Elementary, students鈥� initials are clustered into four color-coded groups 鈥� from blue for exceeding standards in i-Ready down to red for being two grade levels behind. Some argue that 鈥渄ata walls鈥� if they鈥檙e not among the high-achievers. But Tanya Ortiz-Franklin, the school board member whose district includes the school, believes the practice motivates students to work hard. 

鈥淜ids know their data and teachers know their data,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey are using it to move instruction. That鈥檚 exactly what we’ve been trying to do for years.鈥� 

Her region encompasses 175 schools that stretch from the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro 鈥� the busiest container terminal in the U.S. 鈥� to the historic Black neighborhoods south of downtown. They include Maya Angelou Community High School, one of Carvalho鈥檚 121 鈥減riority schools,鈥� where he takes a more hands-on approach to tracking data and staffing schools with extra counselors and academic coaches. 

鈥淚 spend 90% of my time dealing with 10% of the schools,鈥� Carvalho said at a conference at  Harvard University in September. 鈥淭hey are accountable directly to me.鈥� 

The schools have some of the poorest achievement and attendance rates in the district, and in Maya Angelou鈥檚 case, a high rate of community violence. In 2019, the listed the high school among those with at least 50 homicides within a one-mile radius over a five-year period. In 2023, a stray bullet during a football game at the school.

鈥淏eing an inner-city school, it’s very easy to focus on the negative aspects that happen here. That’s the low hanging fruit,鈥� said Principal Jose Meza. That鈥檚 why he encourages staff and students to 鈥渇lood鈥� social media platforms with positive news, like a poetry night for newcomers, and the 13 students admitted to Berkeley and the University of California Los Angeles this year.

鈥淓mbracing our roots and honoring our heritage,鈥� the school posted on Instagram for Hispanic Heritage Month, with a reel of students dancing, sampling food and displaying artwork.

But in trying to make students feel welcome and safe inside the fence that surrounds the school, Meza has also tightened up the academic program. He reassigned counselors to students by grade level, rather than grouping them alphabetically. The change allows ninth graders to get extra support as they adjust to the demands of high school.

He gives students a double dose of Algebra I each day if they need it, and moved credit recovery courses to the regular school day instead of afterschool or on Saturdays when they鈥檙e less likely to come. His students have posted gains in state scores the past two years, but two-thirds of 11th graders still don鈥檛 meet expectations in language arts and over 80% are failing math.

鈥淗alf of our students are coming in below grade level,鈥� he said 鈥淭hat doesn’t mean we’re going to treat them as such. We’re going to have expectations that are aligned to the standards.鈥�

Carvalho aims to create more consistency in teaching across the district, but he鈥檚 choosing math and reading programs based on the experience of schools that tested programs and found them to be effective with high-need students, said Rick Miller, CEO of CORE Districts, a network of nine large systems in the state, including LAUSD.

Illustrative Math, now being phased in districtwide, is one example. Teachers at Jordan High School, in a densely populated neighborhood of housing projects and small homes, were among the first to use the program. 

On a Monday morning earlier this month, 10th graders in Luis Lopez鈥檚 geometry class opened their workbooks to a new lesson on congruent shapes. They chatted with classmates about the set of rectangles on the page before Lopez stepped in to remind them of vocabulary words like 鈥渧ertices鈥� and 鈥渃orresponding.鈥� The curriculum is structured so that students grapple with new concepts and work together on problems before teachers deliver a full lesson. 

鈥淲hen we were going to school, especially in math, it was 鈥業 will model. I’m the teacher and now 鈥� you’ll just do 100 problems,鈥� 鈥� said Principal Alex Kim. This curriculum, he said, flips that process while also ensuring the tasks focus on grade-level material.

The program has gained popularity in other districts. The New York City Public Schools saw a decline in scores after implementing the curriculum in hundreds of schools. But two , one in Missouri and one in Maryland, found that students using Illustrative Math outperformed those who didn鈥檛. At Jordan, a quarter of 11th graders met expectations in math, compared to less than 4% two years ago.

鈥楬istoric generational implications鈥�

To some former LAUSD parents, the improvements are too little, too late.

They are cynical about any post-pandemic rebound, saying that the district contributed to learning loss by staying closed almost until the end of the 2020鈥�21 school year. 

鈥淚 don’t think LAUSD should get credit for putting out a fire that it was responsible for lighting,鈥� said Ben Austin, a longtime Democratic political adviser and former member of the state school board. 鈥淢y daughters didn’t go to school for 18 months, along with all the other kids in LAUSD. That obviously had historic generational implications.鈥�

California鈥檚 sluggish reopening affected students statewide, but what angered some LAUSD parents the most was the teachers union鈥檚 influence over remote instructional time during school closures. In March 2021, 社区黑料 reported that the union negotiated a reduced, six-hour school day despite district officials saying they didn鈥檛 want to 鈥渟hortchange the students.鈥� The revelation came during a lawsuit, against the district and the union.

The agreement promises 45 hours per year of high-dosage tutoring to 100,000 students who are the furthest behind as well as summer school for up to 250,000 students in the district who were affected by the extended closures.

During the 2020-21 school year, Judith Larson said her daughter鈥檚 remote classes often 鈥渆nded well before they were supposed to鈥� or that teachers used the sessions to collect homework assignments rather than provide live instruction. Her daughter lost so much ground in math that last year, as a junior in high school, she scored at a sixth grade level. In English, she was two years behind and losing hope that she would be able to attend the University of California Los Angeles, her dream school. Now a senior, she鈥檚 made progress, but still struggles in math. 

鈥淪he is working hard to bridge the gap,鈥� her mother said. 鈥淚 am hoping that the high-dose tutoring 鈥� will help her get there.鈥�

As with schools nationwide, the pandemic worsened longstanding achievement gaps in LAUSD. There鈥檚 still a 30 percentage point difference between poor students and those from wealthier families in reading and math. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 a long way to go,鈥� and 鈥渨ith each year, progress gets harder,鈥� Miller said. But as a former state education official, he never expected LAUSD to outperform the state. 鈥淭hey were too big.鈥�

This year, LAUSD鈥檚 growth exceeded the state鈥檚 and California鈥檚 other large school districts. During the press event at Maywood Elementary, state Superintendent Tony Thurmond was on hand to mark the achievement. He organized a webinar so other districts in the state could 鈥渉ear some of the stories about what has created that success.鈥�

Speaker after speaker stepped to the podium to share in what one board member called a 鈥渨atershed moment鈥� for LAUSD. Drawing a few chuckles, Carvalho paused to note that Thurmond had to slip out early and 鈥済ive some love to other lower-performing districts.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.

More Ohio students are being homeschooled now than during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of Ohio students being homeschooled was trending upward pre-pandemic, spiked to about 51,500 students during the COVID-19 pandemic and dipped back down slightly.

But homeschooling recently saw another surge with about 53,000 homeschooled students during the 2023-24 school year, according to data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.

The number of homeschooled students in Ohio, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce:

• 2023-24: 53,051 students
• 2022-23: 47,468 students
• 2021-22: 47,491 students
• 2020-21: 51,502 students
• 2019-20: 33,328 students
• 2018-19: 32,887 students
• 2017-18: 30,923 students

There were about 3.1 million homeschooled students nationwide in 2021-22 鈥� quite the jump from 2.5 million in spring 2019, according to the.

鈥淗omeschooling was already on a slightly slower upward trajectory, and had been for a number of years,鈥� said Douglas J. Pietersma, research associate at National Home Education Research Institute. 鈥淲hat COVID did, from our perspective, is just infused it.鈥�

He expects the number of homeschooled students to keep growing.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not going to put public schools out of business or anything like that, but it鈥檚 going to be a slow growth that is certainly going to be measurable over time,鈥� Pietersma said.

Remote learning during the pandemic made parents become more aware of what was being taught in schools, said Melanie Elsey, Christian Home Educators of Ohio鈥檚 legislative liaison.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think that it was a mass exodus from the public or private schools into homeschooling, but for parents who felt like they could accomplish more with one-on-one attention to learning 鈥� You can tailor the education to meet the needs of their children,鈥� she said.

Not everyone who switched to homeschooling stayed after the pandemic, Elsey said.

鈥淪ome of them put their children back in because it was too much of a commitment,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o I think it was sort of a time period that parents felt comfortable trying something different to see if they could help their children learn more.鈥�

The modern home education movement sprung out of the 1970s and 鈥渟kyrocketed鈥� in the 1980s, Pietersma said.

鈥淧eople were either upset with the quality of education in general,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hen another group of people, it was more about the content of education.鈥�

Today there are many reasons why a family might opt for homeschooling.

鈥淥bviously, the quality of education is still one of the big issues,鈥� Pietersma said. 鈥淪afety issues are a huge thing. People who have had their children in schools where they鈥檝e been bullied or assaulted or had exposure to drugs 鈥� given the size of school, it may be not impossible to prevent some of those things.鈥�

The reason for homeschooling varies and it is not always because a family is not satisfied with their local school district, Elsey said.

She homeschooled her children, but did not originally think it was for her family. However, she changed her mind after she enjoyed being home with her children through their preschool years.

鈥淲e prayed about it and really felt like it was something that was worthwhile,鈥� Elsey said.

Jeannine Ramer has homeschooled her four children 鈥� two are now in college and two (ages 17 and 13) are currently being homeschooled.

鈥淗omeschooling has really strengthened our family relationships, my kids are very, very close and supportive of one another, and I think that鈥檚 all of the hours spent at home and just really learning together,鈥� said Ramer, who lives in Alliance.

They were not initially planning on homeschooling their children, but Ramer鈥檚 sister-in-law homeschooled her children and encouraged them to think about it as their oldest approached preschool age.

They decided to try it for a year or two, but found it worked well for their family.

鈥淲e loved it,鈥� Ramer said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had the ability to tailor each child鈥檚 education to that child.鈥�

A parent does not need to be a licensed teacher in order to homeschool their children, Elsey said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing how well families do because they have access to resources, really, all over the world, when you can get curriculum from anywhere that meets the needs of your students to learn to pursue their interests,鈥� she said.

Families who decide to homeschool their children enjoy the flexibility, Pietersma said.

鈥淭hey can tailor the education that they鈥檙e providing to their child in so many ways that an institutional school can鈥檛 just because of sheer numbers,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ne teacher in a classroom with 30 students can鈥檛 take the lesson plan and tailor it to each of the 30 students.鈥�

Ramer鈥檚 oldest child was interested in printing and design work as a teenager, so they were able to craft his high school education to those areas. Now he is studying industrial and innovative design in college.

鈥淚t just allowed us the ability to foster that,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here was much more flexibility.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com.

U.S. eighth graders are less prepared to be the scientists of tomorrow than they were before the pandemic. 

In the first nationwide test of students鈥� science knowledge since 2019, the percentage of students scoring at the proficient level fell to 29%, down from 33%, and the average score dropped back to levels last seen in 2009, when a new version of the test was introduced, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Students鈥� confidence in the subject area has also slipped, with 28% saying they 鈥渄efinitely can do various science-related activities,鈥� down from 34%. 

Performance fell across all three categories 鈥� physical, life, and earth and space sciences. Less than half of students can identify the major component of living cells, compared to 55% in 2019, and the percentage of students who can identify a characteristic of mammals declined from 72% to 68%. 

It鈥檚 not just the decline in skills that concerns science experts, it鈥檚 the dramatic decrease in their interest. The share of students saying they enjoy science activities plummeted from 52% to 42%. 

鈥淚f you’re not interested, it’s hard to learn,鈥� said Christine Cunningham, senior vice president of STEM learning at the Museum of Science in Boston and a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP. Students were also less likely than in 2019 to say they engage in tasks like designing research questions, debating scientific ideas and conducting experiments to explain why something happens. 鈥淎s someone who works a lot with students or with teachers who do that kind of inquiry, that’s why students get excited.鈥� 

COVID-era school closures derailed student learning in all areas, but science was hit especially hard as teachers tried to keep kids on track in reading and math. A from the Public Policy Institute of California showed that only about a quarter of districts emphasized science in their recovery efforts. Teachers were more likely to assign free online lessons and let students work at their own pace, compared with a typical school year. Widespread declines in reading performance have also hampered students鈥� ability to keep up in science at a time when technology is rapidly evolving. 

鈥淪cience is such a hands-on experience, and trying to find ways to bring that to different homes was challenging,鈥� said Autumn Rivera, a sixth grade science teacher in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, west of Denver. 鈥淓leven- and 12-year-olds really need a lot of activity.鈥�

She got families involved in 鈥渒itchen chemistry,鈥� asked students to and recorded videos of lessons to discuss with students on Zoom. One of their favorite experiments was studying the water cycle by hanging a plastic bag full of water in a sunny window. 

In the spring of 2021, , students had missed out on at least two months of science learning. By 2024, science achievement in third to fifth grade had returned to 2019 levels, but seventh and eighth graders, across all racial groups, saw the most significant declines and were still more than three months behind pre-pandemic performance.

One former education secretary warned against using COVID “as an excuse.” Margaret Spellings, who led the department during George W. Bush’s administration, noted that as with students’ achievement in other subject areas, performance in science did not improve between 2015 and 2019. Average scores for eighth and 12th graders were flat and declined for fourth graders.

A positive trend, Cunningham said, is that more elementary schools have added STEM as part of an elective rotation with art and music. Those classes can be highly engaging, but aren鈥檛 always focused on grade-level standards, she said. In addition, regular classroom teachers might scale back science lessons and focus more on reading and math. 

High and low performers

The declines in achievement were not confined to a few student groups. They affected students whether or not they live in the suburbs, come from wealthier homes or have parents who graduated from college. Students without disabilities and who speak English as a first language also scored lower than in 2019. 

But Matt Soldner, acting NCES commissioner, pointed out what he considers the one encouraging sign from the results  鈥� a 6-point increase in scores for English learners. 

鈥淣AEP describes the what, not the why,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut that’s an interesting subgroup finding.鈥�

As with other NAEP assessments, the science results show a widening gap between students scoring at the highest and lowest levels. Scores for students in the 90th percentile dropped from 196 to 194, but fell further, from 106 to 101, for students at the 10th percentile.  In fact, for students at both the 10th and 25th percentiles, scores are at 鈥渉istoric lows,鈥� said Soldner. 鈥淭hese results should galvanize all of us to take concerted focused action to accelerate student learning.鈥�

Julia Rafal-Baer, co-founder of ILO Group, an education consulting firm, and also a member of the governing board, said access to books likely contributes to the disparities in scores. If science wasn鈥檛 a high priority in some schools, 鈥渉ow is it that high-performing kids are still absorbing enough to be able to be high-performing?鈥� she asked.

Many students, Rivera said, lack the reading skills to interpret science texts. 

鈥淚鈥檓 having to take a step back and really focus on basic reading 鈥� which is not something  that I am technically trained in as a sixth grade teacher,鈥� she said. Like many teachers, she also sees families place less emphasis on consistent attendance and good work habits. 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing students missing work. We鈥檙e not really seeing 鈥� emphasis placed on school or on achievement.鈥�

Poor basic math skills are also hindering students鈥� progress in science, said Cunningham, who designs STEM curriculum materials for schools across the country.

鈥淭eachers are spending more time making sure that the kids are prepared to do some of the things that in the past they may have assumed kids would come equipped to do,鈥� she said. 鈥淐ould they make a table? Could they make a graph?鈥�

On NAEP, the percentage of students saying they frequently 鈥渦sed tables or graphs to identify relationships between variables鈥� fell from 43% to 39%. Less than a third 鈥渦sed math equations to explain or support scientific conclusions.鈥�

鈥楽tarving ourselves of knowledge鈥�

NAEP will assess students鈥� reading and math skills again in 2026, but the next won鈥檛 take place until 2028, again just for eighth grade. Students will take that includes a stronger emphasis on students applying their knowledge and will incorporate more technology and engineering topics. 

Because so many students 鈥� at least a third 鈥� score below basic, Cunningham added that the board felt it was important to expand the number of questions targeting students at that level.  

鈥淲e need to know more about what that population knows,鈥� she said. The questions, for example, might be simpler and require less reading.

Fourth graders were left out of the 2024 and 2028 science tests for budget reasons, Cunningham said. They鈥檙e scheduled to participate again in 2032. But one former governing board member said the absence of data from fourth graders is troubling.

鈥淚f there had to be a cut, I understand why we would, but it still raises the question of what we expect in science in early grades,鈥� said Andrew Ho, a testing expert and education professor at Harvard University. 鈥淲hy are we starving ourselves of knowledge about educational progress outside of [English language arts and math]?鈥�

Staff cuts to NCES of the results, which were expected earlier this summer. 

During a background call with reporters last week, a member of the governing board said the results were 鈥渁n opportunity for the field to see that these report cards are of the same quality that they have come to expect from the NAEP program.鈥� But an NCES official on the same call said that in light of Education Secretary Linda McMahon firing most of the center鈥檚 employees, the department will need 鈥渟ufficient staff and other resources in place鈥� to conduct the tests next year and plan for 2028.

McMahon reiterated her support for the NAEP program during a .

鈥淚f we have an objective measure across all states, like NAEP, then I think that’s the best way to go,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e will not get away from having NAEP scores and the research that we can all rely on to make sure that we’re doing the right things.鈥�  

鈥楢I-driven world鈥�

Beverly DeVore-Wedding, president of the National Science Teaching Association, still worries that the 鈥渃urrent political climate鈥� will diminish the program. 

鈥淚 am concerned about them changing the assessment picture and that NAEP could get reduced to only reading and mathematics,鈥� she said. 

The science results also have implications for other aspects of President Donald Trump鈥檚 agenda, such as incorporating artificial intelligence into learning. Last week, first lady Melania Trump hosted an event tied to the for students to use AI to address community challenges. 

鈥淚t’s not one of those things to be afraid of,鈥� McMahon said at the event. 鈥淟et’s embrace it. Let’s develop AI-based solutions to real-world problems.鈥�

Rafal-Baer said the rapid adoption of AI tools just reinforces the importance of science education.

鈥淎I is here and it鈥檚 already reshaping how we work, learn and solve problems,鈥� she said.聽 鈥淭he complexity is only going to accelerate, and we can鈥檛 afford to have a scientifically illiterate workforce trying to navigate an AI-driven world.鈥�

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated whether the 8th grade NAEP science exam gathers supplemental data on students鈥� home environments or reading habits.

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.

It鈥檚 鈥渢he amount of information that’s coming to you all at once,鈥� said Jeremy Vidito, chief financial officer for the Detroit schools. On a , he laid out a litany of hardships, including figuring out 鈥渨hat’s true, what’s not. Emergency orders. Budget cuts.鈥� 

Leaders felt similar uncertainty in the fall of 2020, when the pandemic forced them to scramble to educate, feed and transport students. But this time, as 47 million students return to school in the coming weeks, the source of the unease is the federal government. The Trump administration has already frozen and unfrozen education funds, and seeks to further reduce school spending. Vidito said he鈥檚 urging principals in his district to stay calm, but 鈥渁 lot of the stuff, we can’t control.鈥�

As Education Secretary Linda McMahon to schools across the country to spread her gospel of returning control to the states, leaders say they鈥檙e hoping for something simpler: a return to normalcy. 

鈥淲hat is the next freeze, or what is the next issue that the administration may have with some of the funding that school districts get?鈥� asked Mark Sullivan, superintendent of the Birmingham, Alabama, schools.

At a last month, McMahon offered 鈥渘o guarantees鈥� that she could prevent the kinds of 鈥渃ommunication gaps鈥� that led to previous dustups. Her comments came the same day that the Office for Management and Budget completed its unexpected review of several annual grant programs for schools. Officials said their initial inspection turned up expenditures at odds with Trump鈥檚 agenda 鈥� offering up, without elaboration, the use of school improvement funds on 鈥渁 seminar on 鈥榪ueer resistance in the arts.鈥� 鈥� 

But after seven months with Trump in office, some district leaders have grown cynical.

David Law, superintendent of the Minnetonka Public Schools in Minnesota, doubts there ever was a thorough analysis and suggested that the few examples cited were meant as a warning.

鈥淚 think the pause was intended to let people know, 鈥榃e don’t like these things, so if you’re doing them, you should be worried,鈥� 鈥� he said. As they try to prepare for additional shocks to their budget, leaders nationwide, he said, are adjusting to the pendulum swing over diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Under the Biden administration, 鈥渨e were trying to prove we were caring about kids enough,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ow we’re trying to prove that we’re not meeting the definition of indoctrination. It’s a bit of a wild ride.鈥�

鈥楽afe to speak鈥�

For now, Congress Trump鈥檚 proposed cuts to K-12 funding. But OMB has still floated of a that would claw back unspent education funds from the current budget before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30. Congress鈥� watchdog agency says that if the administration doesn鈥檛 give Congress ample time to approve or reject the cuts, the move would . 

In a , McMahon said funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act will flow with or without the Department of Education. 

But that the administration might cut some special education grants already awarded for research, technology, and teacher and parent training alarm district-level staff.

鈥淎 reduction in this funding will create challenges for districts and could lead to the need to re-evaluate essential programs that help to support students eligible for special education services,鈥� said Jessica Saum, a special education coordinator in the Cabot Public School District, outside Little Rock, Arkansas. 

President Donald Trump has said that ensuring schools teach children English is the federal government鈥檚 only education-related obligation. But Vidito in Detroit said he鈥檚 still bracing for the elimination of funding for English learners. 

Federal officials stating that districts must take 鈥渁ffirmative steps to ensure鈥� that English learners 鈥渃an meaningfully participate in their educational programs and services.鈥� The move expands on a from Attorney General Pam Bondi saying that despite the president鈥檚 executive order declaring English the official language, the government should 鈥渕inimize non-essential multilingual services鈥� and focus on assimilation.

The unpredictability of this moment has prompted Merica Clinkenbeard, who directs English learner programs for the Springfield, Missouri, district, to remind teachers that the federal money is supplemental: Teachers are responsible for ensuring students become proficient in English with or without it.

Due to the threat of federal funding cuts, she lost three members of her leadership team.

鈥淭hey felt like perhaps they would not have jobs in this field ever again,鈥� she said. Now she has two positions she can鈥檛 fill. 鈥淚 was telling my husband, 鈥楾his is just like COVID, like everything I’ve known is going away.鈥� 鈥� 

Districts serving large English learner and immigrant populations are more cautious than most as students return this fall, especially after Immigration Customs and Enforcement officials an 18-year-old Los Angeles student last week while he was walking his dog. Officials said he had overstayed his visa by two years.

The fear of ICE raids has prompted more parents to ask about remote learning, said Sharon Balmer Cartagena, an attorney with Public Counsel, a nonprofit public interest law firm. She鈥檚 been holding 鈥渇amily preparedness鈥� workshops for southern California districts, encouraging them to update emergency contact information in case a parent is deported. 

Los Angeles Unified is one district trying to by stationing volunteers, staff and campus police around school zones. But she expects enforcement actions to ramp up with the start of the school year. Even so, she encourages parents to send their children to school in person.

鈥淲e saw what happened during COVID with younger kids learning remotely,鈥� she said. Students in the early grades as they would have in a classroom and experienced both academic, social and behavioral setbacks, studies show. Now, many of those students are in middle and high school.

鈥淭o have that hit them again would be really detrimental,鈥� Cartagena said. 鈥淪ome of them are just starting to catch up.鈥� 

鈥楧oing it right鈥�

Not all education leaders are dreading the next announcement from Washington. Louisiana Superintendent Cade Brumley welcomed McMahon to Baton Rouge Aug. 11, where she celebrated the state鈥檚 rising performance in reading. On the last National Assessment of Educational Progress, the state scored above the national average after trailing the rest of the country for years. 

McMahon also hit Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida last week, three more states that embrace the Trump administration鈥檚 plans to reduce federal education oversight. Since her confirmation, she has limited most of her school visits to charter and private schools, to emphasize the administration鈥檚 focus on expanding choice. But this tour is giving her more exposure to traditional district schools. 

鈥淟ouisiana is doing it right 鈥� and they don鈥檛 need the federal bureaucracy to make it happen,鈥� McMahon after her visit to Jefferson Terrace Academy in East Baton Rouge. 

But the state did need federal money, specifically the COVID relief funds, Brumley said during the . 

鈥淲e were able to use those pandemic dollars around the academic efforts that we knew were best for students,鈥� he said. He agrees with McMahon鈥檚 position that fewer strings tied to education funding will lead to stronger results. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just really excited about 鈥� not having these excessive restrictions and bureaucratic needs surrounding dollars.鈥�

Educators want assurances that the funding their students count on is stable, said Saum, in the Cabot district. Some students with disabilities require significant hands-on help from staff members. 

鈥淧arents are following along,鈥� she said 鈥淭hey want to know 鈥業s my child going to get what they need to be safe and cared for at school?鈥� 鈥�

With the formal title of 鈥渋nclusion coordinator,鈥� Saum said she has to be clear about her role at a time when the administration is trying to ban DEI-related programs. 

鈥淚t can be so divisive when people don’t really understand we’re talking about children with disabilities,鈥� she said. Others with similar positions, she said, have changed their titles to emphasize 鈥渕eaningful access.鈥�

If anything, Law, from the Minnetonka district, said the administration鈥檚 鈥渃ritical lens鈥� on schools have forced leaders to be 鈥渃rystal clear鈥� about their work. During a recent visit to a nursing home, as part of his efforts to connect with members of the community, he said a resident told him, 鈥淵ou should be teaching all these kids English.鈥�

鈥� 鈥業 have great news. The only thing we’re teaching these kids is English,鈥� 鈥� Law said he told him. 鈥淭here will always be people that say you don’t need to kowtow to certain populations. I’m still going to say public education is all students getting free education.鈥� 

We analyzed four waves of Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study from the 2020-21 school year for 6,245 teens (mean age 13.2 years) nationwide. Forty-two percent of them attended school remotely, 27% attended at least partially in person, 24% moved from remote to in-person learning and 7% attended in some other pattern (moving into and out of in-person learning multiple times, for example). The racial/ethnic composition was similar to that of the United States teen population, with 53% white respondents, 14% Black, 24% Latino and 10% students with other backgrounds. The sample was approximately evenly split by gender, and about one-fourth of responding students came from households with total income under $50,000.

What did we find?

In line with the accepted wisdom, teens who attended school in person during the 2020-21 school year reported better than those who took online or hybrid classes. They reported being both happier and less stressed.

But when looking at the relationship between the type of school attended and mental health for teens of different races/ethnicities, family incomes and types of neighborhoods, we found disparate patterns.

Black and Latino teens, lower-income students and those from less-advantaged neighborhoods often reported being happier and less stressed when they attended school remotely that year than hybrid or in person. This is in contrast to the finding that, overall, teens in remote schooling reported being less happy. In some cases, the less-privileged teens reported being happier than their more privileged peers in remote schooling; in others, it meant that less-privileged teens reported similar mental health across all types of schooling, whereas their wealthier classmates reported worse mental health when attending remotely.

More privileged teens were happiest and least stressed when attending school in person.

These differences were sometimes quite large. For instance, white students attending school in person scored 2.7 points higher on our 36-point measure of happiness than those in fully remote classes. But for Black students, it was the opposite 鈥� those attending in person scored 0.5 points lower. Latino students also did not see nearly the large benefit of in-person attendance as white students did. Similarly, students whose families earned between $100,000 and $199,999 a year scored 2.7 points higher when attending in person versus remote. But those whose families earned less than $25,000 per year scored 1.2 points lower. Similar patterns were seen on our measures of stress levels.

The survey responses do not contain enough information to explain these widely disparate patterns. Maybe less-privileged teens, whose families were by the pandemic than their wealthier peers, were more concerned about contracting COVID and infecting loved ones. Perhaps their schools were more stressful than those attended by more privileged teens, so remote schooling was a welcome reprieve. Whatever the reason, the type of school predicted different mental health outcomes for different groups of students, complicating the story that school closures were bad for all kids.

This is not to say that kids with different backgrounds should be encouraged to attend school remotely versus in person in the name of mental health. At a baseline, that鈥檚 segregation, which is morally repugnant. On top of that, our analysis didn鈥檛 touch on the academic harms of remote schooling, which are 鈥� particularly for less-privileged students, who tend to suffer greater learning loss than their more privileged peers. When making a decision as important as whether to close schools, officials must consider multiple effects, including academics and mental and public health.

But it is critically important to get to the bottom of why students from varied backgrounds experienced different types of school so differently. If schools are to be places where all students can learn at their best and thrive, they must support the mental health and well-being of students from all backgrounds.

It is clear from our research that simplistic understandings about what happened in schools during COVID no longer suffice. Our results provide valuable new evidence that the closures were experienced differently by varied groups of students, so it shouldn鈥檛 be surprising if different student groups need different interventions and resources in recovering from the pandemic and its aftermath.

Unfortunately, the possibility of future pandemics and other disasters means spring 2020 may not be the last time U.S. schools need to close on a large scale. The next time schools shut and then reopen, less-privileged students may need help in transitioning back to in-person schooling, above and beyond the support all students will need to make up missed learning.

Research described in this article was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health,  Award Number R01HD108398 (PI: Hackman). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

McDonald predicted that even a few weeks of displacement from school for millions of kids could fundamentally change education. 

And while most kids would eventually return to school once the epidemic faded, she wrote, 鈥渟ome parents may discover that learning outside of schooling benefited their children and strengthened their family.鈥� They might begin to consider homeschooling or other alternatives as a longer-term option. 鈥淭hey may realize that education without schooling is not a crisis but an opportunity.鈥�

Five years later, it seems, something fundamental has changed: As many as 125,000 microschools now operate nationwide, according to the National Microschooling Center, and several states now support homeschooling and microschooling with public funds.

McDonald, a Massachusetts mother of four, frequent contributor to 社区黑料, host of the and the author of a about self-directed education and alternatives to traditional schooling, set out to capture what the movement looks like now in her new book, . It鈥檚 out Tuesday.

She charts an ideologically diverse group of parents and teachers who are striking out on their own to essentially start small education businesses. The common thread, she finds, is a 鈥渄esire to bring to education the level of personalization that we increasingly enjoy in all other parts of our lives.鈥�

McDonald talked to 社区黑料鈥檚 Greg Toppo recently about the book and the microschooling movement.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

社区黑料: I wanted to start with this quote in your book from a Kansas mom who launched a microschool. She says, 鈥淭he fringe is becoming the cloth.” That’s quite a statement, quite a realignment, if true. Do you agree that that’s what’s happening?

I’ve been covering unconventional education 鈥� homeschooling and microschooling 鈥� for over a decade now. This movement really began prior to 2020, and at the time I thought that we would continue to see slow but steady growth in homeschooling and alternative education more generally. But I always thought it would stay in the margins.

When COVID hit in 2020 and there was that massive educational upheaval, it enabled families to start to think more creatively about education options, to maybe look more openly at homeschooling and microschools and other ways of approaching teaching and learning. And many families liked what they saw. Some families even built these new alternatives. Since 2020, we’re really seeing a much more mainstream push towards alternative education.

I think it’s fair to call these folks disruptors. 

Peaceful disruptors. 

But I wonder if we’re getting ahead of ourselves to start calling it mainstream. I mean, there are still in public schools.

If you look at some of the data in Arizona, for example, so many families are of traditional district schools. Obviously, charter schools would be their primary alternative at the moment, but certainly with the expansion of school choice programs and universal programs in places like Arizona, you’re seeing more and more families realize that they have other options, and they’re able to find schools and spaces that are aligned with their values and viewpoints in ways that they haven’t before.

We have to give it a little bit of time, because we need to let these entrepreneurs do their work. As more and more entrepreneurship takes hold, we’ll see more options for families, and families will be able to find just what they’re looking for.

I want to define just who you write about in this book, because it’s a really specific kind of person. As you say, they’re people who “built what they couldn’t find.” You’ve got folks who start religious microschools, Montessori microschools …

LGBTQ+ microschools, Afrocentric microschools …

You talk to folks like , who opens this in Massachusetts, and it’s interesting that he’s in the mix because he blanches at the “coercive qualities” of traditional schooling, even the compulsion to attend at all. That’s a pretty broad coalition. And I wonder: What do these folks have in common?

It is a broad coalition. What’s so exciting about this current decentralized, entrepreneur-driven educational moment, is that it’s extremely diverse. There are founders of every demographic and ideological persuasion, and different motivations for creating programs, whether it’s that they can’t find what they’re looking for for their own children and they want to create something better, or they just think that there’s a different way of approaching education. 

I think about Tamara Becker, the founder of in Arizona. Her microschool, which now has 73 students across several locations 鈥� she didn’t build that for her children. She doesn’t have children, but was a long-time public school teacher and administrator, and just felt that COVID provided this moment to individualize education and move away from a one-size-fits-all learning model into something more relevant and personalized for the 21st century. That’s the common thread among these entrepreneurial parents and teachers, that desire to bring to education the level of personalization that we increasingly enjoy in all other parts of our lives.

The other common thread, and why the book is titled Joyful Learning, is that despite the tremendous diversity of these models 鈥� from secular, progressive microschools to conservative, faith-based, microschools, and different educational philosophies and approaches, from classical to Montessori to unschooling and everything in between 鈥� these programs are places where children are happy to be learning. I saw that as I crisscrossed the country and interviewed the founders and families on my podcast and interviews related to the book. That was a very apparent characteristic of all of these spaces: Children are happy to be there. They are often sad when snow days hit or when summer vacation approaches. 

As you were going through this list of different kinds of schools and all these founders, I wondered, “How did you find all these folks?” Obviously, you have this podcast. Were they coming to you? Were you going to them?

Great question. I’ve been in the alternative education movement for a long time. I wrote my 2019 book, Unschooled, which is where I first connected with people like Ken Danford. So I have, thankfully, a rich network of folks in the alternative education world and in homeschooling that crosses political and ideological lines. In many cases, folks have come to me. 

Then, of course, COVID hit, and there was more and more interest in alternative education. In early 2022 I decided to launch my LiberatED podcast, because I wanted a multimedia approach to storytelling beyond the articles I was writing, and was able to connect with many of these founders there. For the most part, founders have come to me. I’ve been able to visit many of these founders, either by reaching out to them because they’ve been on my podcast or featured in articles, or by them inviting me to come. I also have done a lot of collaboration with the [a group of entrepreneurs supporting alternative learning models] that’s now supporting over 4,000 of these innovative educators across the country.

My work now is just sort of an extension of the work that I’ve been doing in alternative education for over a decade.

As much as anything, this book is an instruction manual for future founders and, I guess, for policymakers as well.

And parents.

What are you hoping readers come away with in terms of real instruction?

The book is primarily geared towards founders and families. Obviously, I鈥檇 love it if policymakers read it as well, and members of the media like yourself who are curious about this movement. But it’s primarily a book for parents and founders of programs. And there’s often a lot of overlap between those two groups. A lot of the founders that I talked to had no intention of becoming education entrepreneurs, or opening a school or a microschool or learning pod, and either because of COVID and the disruption caused by that, or just being unable to find exactly what they were looking for for their own children, ended up making that leap into entrepreneurship. In most cases, they found the experience to be incredibly rewarding. 

The majority of the founders are former public school teachers who were disillusioned with the standardization and test-driven learning environment that they found in conventional schools. Many of these teachers found their own creativity and autonomy stifled within a conventional classroom and wanted somewhere where they could be free to educate the way they felt was most effective and beneficial to the students they’re serving.

There’s got to be a very steep learning curve for the parents who are not trained teachers, and I wonder if you saw that in your reporting. Did you see parents struggling to make school come alive?

Most of the founders in the book are former teachers. Some of them became homeschooling moms after being public school teachers and then opened homeschooling collaboratives. I think about Alicia Wright in Richmond, Va., who runs . She was a longtime public school teacher-turned-homeschooling-mom-turned-founder. So there’s also that trajectory. A lot of these founders who are parents and who launch programs are highly successful in their own right.

I think about Sharon Massinelli, who runs in Georgia, a physician associate as well as a long-time homeschooling mom who has balanced work and homeschooling for years. She was really attracted to a hybrid homeschool model that enables part-time enrollment off-site with trained educators working through a curriculum for half the week, and then the other half students are at home working through that same curriculum with their parents. That has been a model that’s been around since the 1990s and continues to gain popularity, especially over the last five years. She was able to create her own hybrid school after her children had been attending another hybrid school program that was far away and not quite what she wanted. She was able to use that model and create something new. 

That’s what we see with many of the entrepreneurial parents who may not have a background in education but are incredibly successful in their own professions. Now, they have so many resources to help them launch and grow their programs, largely because of the network effects from more and more of these programs existing. You have these microschool startup programs like or that really work with these everyday entrepreneurs to create successful, sustainable programs.

I want to be sure to address this issue, which a lot of people coming to your book might be wondering about: This idea that the choice movement itself is not as simple as just joy and entrepreneurialism. There are a lot of people who feel like it’s a play to undermine public schools, and I wonder how you approach that.

What we’re seeing now is the expansion of choice, variety and abundance in education that we enjoy in so many other parts of our lives, but that we haven’t had much of in education because it’s been largely dominated by traditional public schools. It’s a good thing that we see more options for families, more ways of approaching education beyond a conventional classroom. It’s no surprise that more families are gravitating to and and outdoor learning environments, because they want something that’s much more play-based, that’s much more learner-centered, and that’s much less restrictive and standardized than a conventional classroom. That’s a key piece of this: We see so much innovation in the 21st century in so many other segments of society, while K-12 education has largely been standardized and stagnant.

For folks who might not know about you, it’s fair to say you lived this. During the pandemic, your oldest set off on her own to do distance learning, and you enrolled your younger three in the private . Talk a little bit about your experience 鈥� right in the middle, by the way, of doing the reporting for all this.

My kids were unschooled, homeschooled since birth 鈥� never attended a conventional classroom. They were attending a microschool a couple of days a week when COVID hit and the microschool shut down. All of the classes that they were taking throughout the city were shut down for months in many cases, more than a year in some.

I write in Joyful Learning about how at one point I realized that all of this education disruption that I was documenting among other families was hitting my family as well, and we were making education changes as a result, including, as you say, my older daughter, Molly, who had always been homeschooled. She began taking online classes and then ended up enrolling in a full suite of high school online classes through while remaining legally a homeschooler in Massachusetts. She’s since graduated and is off to college. Next Saturday she moves in. And then the younger three enrolled in the Sudbury Valley School, which I had written about extensively in my Unschooled book and always really adored, but it’s far away from us, and also is a state-recognized private school. We were comfortable with homeschooling, but changes among our education ecosystem during that time of disruption led us to pursue other options, and they were thrilled to join Sudbury Valley.

Do you envision us ever going back to the way things were before COVID? And how do you think this movement is going to change the system itself?

Do I think we’re going to go back to the way it was before COVID? No, and my answer is related to your second question. What we’re seeing is a much greater focus around decentralized, choice-enabled, entrepreneur-driven education that’s responsive to the needs and wants of parents in local communities. One of the things I talk about in the book is the contrast between the education disruption and reform that happened in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which, of course, we’re coming up to the 20th anniversary later this month and what we’ve seen in terms of education reform and change in the wake of COVID. 

After Hurricane Katrina, the change largely came from the top. It was the state of Louisiana that took over the New Orleans Public School district to orchestrate change from the top, albeit with the goal of eventually returning New Orleans schools to local control, which would take more than a decade to accomplish. By contrast, the educational change that we’ve seen since COVID is the opposite. It’s an entirely bottom-up, decentralized movement of entrepreneurial parents and teachers creating the kinds of schools and spaces that enable young people to flourish and be happy. 

For nearly 20 years, academic strategies, support and policies focused on closing long-standing achievement gaps in STEM between boys and girls. These efforts paid off, and by 2019, girls鈥� achievement in  and  equaled or exceeded boys鈥�. Then the pandemic hit, and the gaps that took two decades to close were back.

My colleagues and I at NWEA, an education assessment and research company, recently released examining how the pandemic impacted achievement for boys and girls in math and science. We looked at scores from three large national assessments (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, the National Assessment of Educational Progress and NWEA鈥檚 MAP Growth). The data highlighted two main trends:

•  The achievement gap in math and science reemerged during the pandemic, once again favoring boys. However, an achievement gap did not resurface in reading, where girls continue to outperform boys.
• Looking at high-achieving students, boys showed significantly higher scores across assessments than girls in both math and science. For low-achieving students, however, boys鈥� scores were lower than girls鈥�.

These trends are not limited to the U.S. Other English-speaking countries show similar gaps, pointing to a broader issue. A similar trend is seen more locally.  On the NAEP assessments, which provide California-specific data for eighth grade math, the results mirror the nation. In  had an average math score that was not . By 2024, however, boys had an average score that was  than girls鈥� in math.

Our research also looked at enrollment by boys and girls in eighth grade algebra across 1,300 U.S. schools. Enrollment in this math course is often used as a predictor of future enrollment in higher-level math in high school, as well as a predictor of participation in college and career opportunities in STEM fields. In 2019, girls enrolled at higher levels than boys in eighth grade algebra (26% vs 24%). By 2022, enrollment had declined for both groups, with the drop-off for girls being slightly sharper than for boys. While the decline was experienced by both, enrollment for boys in algebra had bounced back to pre-pandemic levels by 2024.

Taken together, the results of this research signal that the effects of the pandemic were not felt evenly by boys and girls. More significantly, this data does not provide the 鈥渨hy鈥� for these setbacks and the reemergence of achievement gaps. One area to spotlight is the trend of girls reporting more emotional challenges, like depression and anxiety, during and after the pandemic that may have impacted their learning. Notably, the widening gender gap emerged after students returned to in-person school, pointing to factors in the school environment as potential contributors, like the  among boys, leading teachers to pay more attention to them in class.

While many of the  in the last few years about gender differences in school have focused on the ways that boys are  than girls, our research has illustrated an overlooked area where girls could use more support. As schools continue to focus on academic recovery and approaches that drive academic outcomes for all students, it鈥檚 crucial that those efforts are measured and evaluated effectively to ensure new inequities don鈥檛 arise or old ones don鈥檛 take permanent root. We have three primary recommendations to address these gaps:

1.    Monitoring participation in STEM milestones by boys and girls, over time, and not just within a single year to gain a better view of trends. For example, eighth grade algebra enrollment in 2024 appears to be balanced by gender, but it overlooks a critical trend that boys鈥� enrollment has returned to pre-pandemic levels while girls鈥� enrollment is still below 2019 levels. Analyzing longitudinal trends within each group is key to uncovering and addressing setbacks that may be hidden by a single-point-in-time snapshot.

2.    Providing specific academic and emotional support to students. Girls reported feeling more stress, anxiety and depression than boys, and noted it as an obstacle to their learning during the pandemic. Addressing both the academic needs and emotional needs of students may be critical in closing these emerging gaps in STEM skills.

3.    Evaluating classroom dynamics and instructional practices. If shifts in behavior and teacher attention during the pandemic disproportionately benefited boys in STEM subjects, understanding these shifts may help address the re-emerged achievement gap. Targeted professional learning that promotes equitable participation and inclusive teaching practices in STEM can help ensure all students have equal opportunities to succeed.

As our schools continue to navigate this long path toward academic recovery, it鈥檚 important that those efforts don鈥檛 unintentionally grow existing inequities or create new ones. More and more evidence is emerging that the pandemic was not an equal opportunity hitter, and its disruptions affected students differently. For girls in math and science, moving forward will require renewed attention to addressing achievement gaps, targeted support and careful monitoring of progress. Reclosing STEM gaps will take time, but with the right focus, it is possible to not only recover, but to build a more equitable STEM education system that ensures both boys and girls have immense opportunities to succeed.

This was originally published on .

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.

A new analysis of data from three states 鈥� North Carolina, Texas and Virginia 鈥� shows that prior to COVID, 17% of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year. By 2023, long after schools had to cope with new variants and hybrid schedules, that figure hit 37%.

鈥淎bsences are both more common for everybody, but they are also more extreme,鈥� said Jacob Kirksey, an associate professor of education policy at Texas Tech University.

Additional new research shows that while post-pandemic chronic absenteeism lingers across the board, rates were substantially higher for low-income students. In North Carolina, for example, the chronic absenteeism rate for students in poverty before the pandemic was 9.2 percentage points higher than for non-poor students. By 2023, the gap increased to 14.6 percentage points.

鈥淭he income gap really was the main driver that showed up over and over again,鈥� said Morgan Polikoff, an education researcher at the University of Southern California. But it鈥檚 hard for schools to make a dent in the problem, he said, if they aren鈥檛 investigating the reasons for chronic absenteeism. 鈥淭here’s a big difference between the kid [who] has an illness and is chronically sick versus the kid [who] is super disengaged.鈥�

Kirksey and Polikoff were among several researchers who Friday at an American Enterprise Institute event focused on facing what Kirksey called the 鈥渦nder-the-hood dynamics鈥� of chronic absenteeism in the post-COVID era. Since 2022, when the national average peaked at 28%, the rate has dropped to 23% 鈥� still much higher than the pre-COVID level of about 15%, according to the conservative think tank鈥檚 . 

鈥淚 have a question that keeps me up at night. That question is 鈥榃hat’s the new normal going to be?鈥� 鈥� said Nat Malkus, the deputy director of education policy at AEI. 鈥淲e see this rising tide, but I think that it’s incumbent on us to say that chronic absenteeism still affects disadvantaged students more.鈥�

The research project began in September with the goal of offering guidance to districts in time for students鈥� return to school this fall. The researchers stressed that those most likely to be chronically absent this school year 鈥� low-income, highly mobile and homeless students 鈥� are the same ones who will frequently miss school next year.

鈥淎bsenteeism should seldom come as a surprise,鈥� said Sam Hollon, an education data analyst at AEI. 鈥淚t’s hard to justify delaying interventions until absences have accumulated.鈥� 

Teacher absenteeism

One new finding revealed Friday contradicts a theory that gained traction following the pandemic 鈥� that students were more likely to be absent if their teachers were also out. As with students, teacher absenteeism increased during the pandemic and hasn鈥檛 returned to pre-COVID levels. 

The relationship between teacher absences and student absences, however, is 鈥減retty negligible,鈥� said Arya Ansari, an associate professor of human development and family science at The Ohio State University. 

鈥淭hese absences among teachers don’t actually contribute to the post-COVID bump that we’ve seen in student absences,鈥� he said. 鈥淭argeting teacher absences isn’t going to move the needle.鈥�

The researchers discussed how even some well-intentioned responses to the COVID emergency have allowed chronic absenteeism to persist. States, Malkus said, made it easier to graduate despite frequent absences and missing school doesn鈥檛 necessarily prevent students from turning in their work.

鈥淚n my day, you had to get a packet and do the work at home鈥� if you were absent, Polikoff said. In interviews with 40 families after the pandemic, 39 said it was easy to make up work because of Google Classroom and other online platforms. 鈥淗ow many said, 鈥楲et鈥檚 make it harder鈥�? Zero.鈥�

In another presentation, Ethan Hutt, an associate education professor at the University of North Carolina, estimated that chronic absenteeism accounts for about 7.5% of overall pandemic learning loss and about 9.2% for Black and low-income students 鈥� a 鈥渘ontrivial, but modest鈥� impact. 

He stressed that missing school also affects student engagement and relationships with teachers. While technology has made it easier for students to keep up, 鈥渢here may be other harms that we want to think about and grapple with,鈥� he said. 

From one to 49

The new research comes as states are mounting new efforts to more closely track chronic absenteeism data and share it with the public. In 2010, only one state 鈥� Maryland 鈥� published absenteeism data on its state education agency website. Now, 49 states 鈥� all but New Hampshire 鈥� report rates on an annual, monthly or even daily basis, according to a released Tuesday by Attendance Works, an advocacy and research organization.聽

The systems allow educators and the public to more quickly identify which students are most affected and when spikes occur. Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Washington D.C. post rates even before the end of the school year. Rhode Island offers real-time data, while Connecticut publishes monthly reports.

The New Hampshire Department of Education doesn鈥檛 monitor chronic absenteeism, but has a statewide 92.7% attendance rate, a spokesperson said. 

The report highlights states that have taken action to reduce chronic absenteeism. In Virginia, bus drivers ensure their routes include students who might be more likely to struggle with transportation. With state funds, , west of Washington, D.C., opened a center for students on short-term suspension to minimize the when a student is removed from the classroom. 

Overall chronic absenteeism in the state declined from 19.3% in 2022-23 to 15.7% in 2023-24. To Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, such improvement proves 鈥渨e can still get things done in our country and in education, despite all of the culture wars and binary thinking.鈥�

鈥楶riced out鈥�

Some district and school leaders have looked to their peers for ideas on how to get kids back in school. After participating in a six-month program with 16 other districts across the country organized by the nonprofit Digital Promise, Mark Brenneman, an elementary principal in New York鈥檚 Hudson City Schools, started interviewing families about their challenges. 

He learned that Hispanic parents often keep their children home when it rains because they鈥檙e worried they鈥檙e going to catch a cold. Several had transportation challenges. His school, Smith Elementary, even contributed to the problem, he said, by holding concerts, award ceremonies or other family events in the morning. Parents would come to celebrate their children鈥檚 accomplishments, then take them out for lunch and not return.

Hudson, about 40 miles south of Albany, has undergone significant change since the pandemic, added Superintendent Juliette Pennyman. Some families leaving New York City have settled in Hudson, driving up the cost of housing. 

鈥淥ur families are being priced out of the community,鈥� she said. 鈥淗ousing insecurity was 鈥� affecting families鈥� and students鈥� ability to focus on school.鈥�

As a result of the intense focus on the issue, Smith, which had a 29% chronic absenteeism rate last year, has seen an about a 15% increase in the number of students with good attendance. 

鈥淚t’s not like we’re down to like 10% chronically absent,鈥� Brenneman said. 鈥淏ut we’ve hammered away.鈥� 

A by the testing company NWEA shows a gender gap in eighth grade STEM achievement has returned following the pandemic.

Historically, boys have tested better than girls in math and science in middle school, said Megan Kuhfield, one of the NWEA report鈥檚 authors. But the gender gap disappeared in 2019, according to results from (TIMSS), an assessment administered across dozens of countries every four years. For the first time since 1995, girls outperformed boys in eighth grade math and science that year.

But TIMSS scores released in December 2024 showed that girls’ performance substantially declined more than boys’ in eighth grade science and math. The study showed the same trend was found in two national tests: assessment and the (NAEP). 

Across all three tests, gender gaps in math and science went from almost nonexistent in 2019 to favoring boys starting in 2022. The MAP Growth assessment 鈥� which is administered annually 鈥� shows that the gaps widened mainly between 2021 and 2024, when students returned to classrooms.

Kuhfield said the research is concerning because decades of progress in for STEM achievement was wiped out in four years. 

鈥淚t’s really hard to say definitively what’s happening here,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the million-dollar question 鈥� why did we see these gaps close by 2019 and then reopen during the last five years?鈥�

Researchers discovered that girls suffered more during COVID-19, but Kuhfield said if that was the main cause, reading test scores would have followed a similar pattern. Girls still outperformed boys in literacy on the latest NWEA and NAEP assessments, according to the study.

鈥淭hat kind of led me to two other theories that are going on kind of in my head,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ne being: Maybe there’s something about how teachers are interacting with students in the classroom 鈥� reinforcing old stereotypes of pushing boys [more] towards advanced math. We don’t have evidence of this.鈥�

Kuhfield said her other theory is that there鈥檚 been a shift in education to focus on boys鈥� academic achievement as researchers have found they are .

The NWEA study includes recommendations for schools to improve the equity in STEM education. Researchers suggest examining classroom dynamics and instructional practices to ensure boys aren鈥檛 receiving more teacher attention, and providing academic and emotional support 鈥� particularly to girls 鈥� to improve math and science skills.

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�

When the Covid-19 pandemic shuttered schools in 2020, students were suddenly thrust into a world of online classes at home. That wasn鈥檛 an easy switch, even for affluent students with their own computers and internet service at home. 

But in high-poverty cities like Cleveland and Detroit, it was a full blown crisis with thousands of students lacking computers and any internet access.

Nearly half of families in the two cities had no broadband internet service 鈥�  strong connections to home devices such as computers, not just on mobile phones 鈥� making them the worst-connected cities in the U.S. in one ranking. Other high-poverty cities, including Baltimore, Memphis and Newark, were close behind.

Today, a little more than five years since the pandemic shut schools down, the crisis isn鈥檛 as immediate 鈥� schools are open after all 鈥� but structural issues remain. Connectivity rates have improved nationally from about 71% of homes having broadband service in 2019 to more than 76% in 2023, still far from everyone.

鈥漈he pandemic highlighted for federal and state government that we have an issue,鈥� said Charlotte Bewersdorff, vice president of community engagement of the a partnership between Michigan鈥檚 universities that has worked to improve internet access even before Covid hit. 鈥淎 lot of our work prior to that was trying to convince people that there was an issue. The pandemic made it undeniable.鈥�

Gains were greater in the cities that had the greatest need. Cleveland and Detroit each went from having nearly half of homes without broadband down to a third, according to U.S. Census data.

But now those gains are threatened.  

Most connectivity improvements were made in 2020 and 2021 鈥� at the height of the pandemic 鈥�  but have since stalled. A key federal emergency effort to help families be online by paying part of their monthly bill has ended. Some long-term improvements using Covid relief money are planned but have been slow to start. 

The programs are now in limbo as Congress has changed its focus and President Donald Trump ordered a pause in January on many infrastructure investments, including internet efforts with funding set aside in pandemic relief bills but hadn鈥檛 started work yet. There鈥檚 also which would benefit Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the Starlink satellite company and close advisor of Trump.

 鈥淭he initial agility and efforts to help everybody get connected lost steam as other programs and other problems emerged,鈥� said Johannes Bauer, the chief economist of the Federal Communications Commission in 2023 and 2024. 鈥淭here’s a risk that the gains that were made very early on are actually diminishing over time, and new programs haven’t yet filled that gap.鈥�

Providing internet access for all has long been a goal of digital equity advocates, though it has never been easy to achieve. There鈥檚 an infrastructure challenge: Homes need a service to connect to, which isn鈥檛 always the case. Families need to be able to afford it. They need computers to use it. And they need to know how,

All of these were hurdles when the pandemic hit, particularly for low-income areas.

Schools and nonprofits scrambled to hand out laptops and mobile hotspots. Some parked buses with wifi service in neighborhoods. Learning pods sprouted at churches, community centers or clubs like the Y.M.C.A. or Boys and Girls Clubs, where plexiglass dividers separated properly-spaced desks for students to take classes on just-acquired laptops.Club staff came to work every day while school staff stayed home.

Suddenly, 鈥渄igital equity鈥� was a focus of legislators and the federal government, which soon offered billions in grants to help families pay internet bills and to add fiber optic lines and other internet infrastructure to disconnected areas.

block by block to help target aid. All 50 states created digital equity plans to compete for grants and help connect and educate underserved groups. Many states have also submitted plans and won early approval for plans to connect rural areas.

But there are worries. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), created by Congress during the pandemic, gave a peak of 23 million homes $30 a month to reduce their internet bills, but Congress let the funding expire in 2024. And billions set aside for both rural and urban 

infrastructure and for internet education is also uncertain while the Trump administration picks new leaders to oversee grants and Republicans in Congress seek to change rules guiding them.

Beyond just pausing infrastructure projects overall, Trump鈥檚 orders to half spending on 鈥淒iversity, Equity and Inclusion鈥� in all parts of government threatens efforts to connect and train families under the Digital Equity Act, another pandemic response.

Cleveland and Detroit highlight the mixed impact of the pandemic on connectivity. The two cities remain the worst-connected cities in the U.S., but they have also seen the greatest improvements in connectivity rates the last few years, according to census data

Those cities each slashed the percentage of families with no broadband service in half –  from around 46% in each city in 2019 to about 23% today, according to Connect Your Community and 2023 data from the census. 

鈥淚t has gotten completely better,鈥� said Gloria Jones, director of the Boys and Girls Club near the King Kennedy public housing apartments in Cleveland. The club鈥檚 pandemic learning pod once drew  more than 30 students every day to do online lessons.

 鈥淲hen we first started out, there were kids that didn’t have any access,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat’s why we had to set up. Or their internet was running slow. If you鈥檝e got three kids in the house and y’all are trying to get on the same internet, it slows it down.鈥�

Today, students mostly use the club WiFi only for an online tutoring program the club provides. She said families seem to have found low-cost service, even if not at ideal bandwidth, often from cell phone companies.

The landscape has changed so much in Cleveland that the Cleveland Municipal School District, which had to scramble to buy its 35,000 students laptops and digital hotspots for the 2020-21 school year, has cut its hotspot program way back. The district gave hotspots to 12,000 students 鈥� about a third of the district鈥檚 enrollment 鈥� in 2023, but cut that in half to 6,000 by last spring because students weren鈥檛 using them for months at a time.

鈥淲e turned them off,鈥�  Curtis Timmons, the district鈥檚 Chief Information Officer, said as budget cuts were announced last spring. 鈥淚f you don’t use a hotspot that tells us something – that’s a waste of our money.鈥�

The need for hotspots will reduce further with the district now offering students free internet service from DigitalC, a unique non-profit the district has partnered with since 2020 that aims to provide low-cost broadband using wireless technology. It鈥檚 a plan that has caught the attention of connectivity experts, who could not point to another new, public鈥攑rivate partnership like it.

Using private donations and federal pandemic relief dollars from the city, DigitalC has nearly finished building a network across the city so it can offer 100 mbs service for $18 a month.

The school district, city and county housing authority all allowed the company to put transmission towers on school buildings to keep costs down. About 1,300 families with students in the district now use it for free internet.

Nichelle Montoney, guardian of two boys, 13 and 10, in the Cleveland school district said free service from DigitalC makes a big difference for her. She kept her internet service after ACP ended, but her $50 monthly bill from the cable company was hard to pay.

鈥淚 didn’t have a choice,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat bill barely got paid鈥hen you have to choose between paying the gas bill and the light bill. You pay just under the minimum requirement to put it towards the cable bill, so you can try to get just another 30 days and hope that it stays on. It was a struggle.鈥�

Other residents are still slow to sign on. The service has about 3,600 subscribers, out of about 90,000 households in its service area. DigitalC still aims to eventually have 22,500 homes subscribed, nearly half of those without internet service now.

Detroit also had major efforts to connect people. A partnership with the city, United Way and the Rocket Mortgage company, which is based in Detroit, rallied as 鈥淐onnect 313鈥� 鈥� named after the city鈥檚 area code 鈥� to provide training and low cost laptops and hotspots to people. The city also used pandemic relief money to 鈥� in libraries, community centers and non-profits around the city that remain open today for residents to access the internet.

It is also trying to add fiber optic cable to one neighborhood to improve connectivity there as a pilot project, but the .

And it boosted its connectivity numbers with a major drive with television and radio commercials in late 2023 to sign up more residents for ACP internet benefits. , but many more eligible families never took advantage.

鈥淚t was kind of like a last chance effort to show them (federal officials) this is a really big need, in the community,鈥� said Jenninfer Onwenu, a senior advisor in Detroit鈥檚 Digital Equity and Inclusion office. 鈥淭his is something that people were not aware of that they could be benefiting from. Imagine how many lives we could change by keeping this program in place. Unfortunately, that did not work out.鈥�

Republicans opposed extending ACP as a 鈥渨asteful鈥� part of a Democratic 鈥渟pending spree鈥�  because it was costing billions and some estimates showed that only about 20 percent of recipients added internet service because of ACP,while most just enjoyed a discount on service they already paid for.

Digital equity advocates worry, though, that new census data available this fall will show that families had to drop their service without ACP鈥檚 help. Some loss is likely, with major communications companies reporting subscriber losses last year they attribute to ACP鈥檚 end. Comcast, the nation’s largest internet provider, reported losing 87,000 subscribers in one quarter last year mainly because ACP expired.

John Horrigan of the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, a Chicago-area non-profit, and that ACP bill reductions kept 8.8 percent of households nationally online.

鈥淭he digital divide is not about being 鈥榦n鈥� or 鈥榦ff鈥� the network,鈥� Horrigan said. That framing makes it seem as if once a household is on, it has permanently hurdled the barrier that separates disconnection from connection…There is more uncertainty and churn in broadband at the low-income end of the market than some may appreciate.鈥�

At-risk families like these are who DigitalC in Cleveland is hoping to connect, though Detroit and other cities don鈥檛 have a similar backstop.

“Their safety net is being cut,鈥� said DigitalC CEO Joshua Edmonds. 鈥淚n the absence of that funding, locally, we have an answer.鈥�

Republicans in Congress are also opposing grants to states and communities under the pandemic-passed Digital Equity Act and the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) for their focus on serving ethnic and racial minorities, both in who the projects will serve and who is hired to work on them. Such a race-based program is unconstitutional, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has charged.

U.S. House members have also raised concerns about the BEAD infrastructure program, which has states with plans ready to begin, but are now on hold. A House subcommittee blasted that program in a

鈥漈he Biden-Harris Administration saddled the BEAD program with regulations unrelated to broadband to appease left-wing interest groups,鈥� said Rep. Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican, the sub committee’s chairman. 鈥淭hese included technology preferences, burdensome labor rules, and climate change requirements, to name a few. 

He and others want to ditch BEAD鈥檚 old preference for fiber optic lines for a 鈥渢echnology-neutral鈥� approach that would allow the allotted $42 billion to also cover satellite projects.

Democrat Doris Matui of California immediately objected to what she called 鈥渟abotage鈥� of projects ready to begin.

鈥淩epublicans claim they’re just being technology neutral,鈥� the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee said. 鈥淏ut can we trust this when the Trump administration has given Elon Musk nearly unfettered authority to further his business interests by taking over government contracts and dismantling agencies regulating his companies?鈥�

Throw parents in jail. 

Chronic absenteeism nearly doubled 鈥� to about 30% 鈥� the year after the pandemic shuttered classrooms, and of more than 1 million Americans. Student attendance rates have improved by just a few percentage points since the federal public health emergency expired nearly two years ago, a reality that鈥檚 been dubbed 鈥淓ducation鈥檚 long COVID.鈥� 

But Johnson, a Republican district attorney representing three counties , said the persistent absences have nothing to do with the pandemic and instead are because 鈥渨e鈥檙e going too easy on kids鈥� and parents have been given 鈥渁n excuse not to be accountable.鈥� 

Since Johnson was elected in 2022 on a campaign promise to enforce Oklahoma鈥檚 , he’s forced dozens of students and parents into hasty court appearances and, on several occasions, put parents behind bars in the hope it will compel their children to show up for class.

Lawmakers nationwide have taken a similar approach, including in Indiana, Iowa and West Virginia, where new laws leverage the legal system to crack down on student absences. 

鈥淲e prosecute everything from murders to rape to financial crimes, but in my view, the ones that cause the most societal harm is when people do harm to children, either child neglect, child physical abuse, child sexual abuse, domestic violence in homes, and then you can add truancy to the list,鈥� Johnson said. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 not as bad, in my opinion, as beating a child, but it’s on the spectrum because you鈥檙e not putting that child in a position to be successful,鈥� continued Johnson, who has dubbed 2025 the 鈥�

Since the pandemic, policymakers have taken on a heightened role in addressing persistent student absences, and lawmakers nationwide have proposed dozens of bills this year to combat chronic absenteeism, typically defined as missing 10% of school days in an academic year for any reason. Such efforts have fallen broadly into two camps: incentives and accountability. have taken a similar approach to Johnson鈥檚, imposing fines and jail stints for missed seat time. Other efforts have focused on addressing the root causes of chronic absenteeism, like homelessness, and have sought to draw kids to campuses with rewards. 

In Hawaii, for example, pending legislation seeks to entice student attendance with the promise of . In Detroit, where 75% of students were chronically absent last year, the district employs both the carrot and the stick: handing out $200 gift cards to 5,000 students with perfect attendance while warning those with an extremely high number of absences that they can be held back a grade in K-8 or made to repeat classes in high school.

In Oklahoma, where parents can be jailed for up to five days and fined $50 each day their child is absent from school without an excuse, proposed legislation would let schools off the hook. 

For years, Oklahoma schools have received poor grades for chronic absenteeism, one metric the state uses to gauge school performance. If approved, would strike chronic absenteeism from the state accountability system, a change officials said is necessary because it鈥檚 the responsibility of parents 鈥� not principals and teachers 鈥� to get kids to class. 

Schools in Oklahoma 鈥渉ave very little control over whether or not a kid gets to school,鈥� Rep. Ronny Johns, a Republican from Ada, told 社区黑料. Ada, the county seat of Pontotoc County, is ground zero for Johnson鈥檚 truancy initiative, an effort that Johns, a former school principal, said should be replicated statewide.聽

鈥淲e can encourage them to get their kids to school and everything,鈥� Johns said. 鈥淏ut in the end, parents have got to get their kid up and get them to school.鈥�

鈥楢 shared responsibility鈥�

The , collected by the U.S. Department of Education for the 2022-23 school year, found that some 13.4 million students 鈥� nearly 28% 鈥� missed 10% or more of the academic year. In a majority of states, chronic absenteeism has shown marginal improvements since its peak. Nationally, chronic absenteeism reached an all-time high in the 2021-22 school year of nearly 30%. Pre-pandemic, the national rate was about 15%. 

Some states like Colorado and Connecticut have seen substantial improvements in absenteeism, the data show. In others, including Oklahoma, since 2021-22. In 2023, nearly a quarter of Oklahoma students were chronically absent, according to the federal data. 

among Native American, Pacific Islander, Black and Hispanic students, as well as those who are English learners, in special education or live in low-income households. 

Hedy Chang, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Attendance Works, said the key to solving chronic absenteeism is to address the underlying problems that make kids absent in the first place. The California-based nonprofit focused solely on improving student attendance identifies a range of , including student disengagement, boredom and unwelcoming school climates. Caregivers鈥� negative education experiences are a factor, according to the nonprofit. So, too, is homelessness and community violence.

Last year, lawmakers in 28 states focused on identifying, preventing and addressing chronic absenteeism, according to analyses by the nonprofit FutureEd. This year, legislators in 20 states are weighing focused on chronic absences, including efforts to improve data collection and create early interventions. 

The Oklahoma legislation seeks to replace chronic absenteeism in its school accountability system with an alternative, such as a climate survey, a softer measure that would gauge students鈥�, parents鈥� and educators鈥� opinions about their schools. The move would require approval from the U.S. Department of Education. 

States have been required to collect chronic absenteeism rates since the passage of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015. Since then, chronic absenteeism has been included as one of six school performance indicators on Oklahoma鈥檚 annual A-F report cards from the state education department. Currently, 38 states use chronic absenteeism to grade school performance, Chang said. 

For schools in Oklahoma, the measurement has proven to be a hurdle. In 2022-23, the state鈥檚 schools received an F grade in chronic absenteeism. Last year, the state grade ticked up slightly 鈥� to a D. 

Removing chronic absenteeism from the state accountability system, Johns, the state lawmaker, said, could allow schools across Oklahoma to receive better grades. Meanwhile, he supports initiatives to handle student absences through the courts, arguing that 鈥減arents need to have some skin in the game.鈥� 

鈥淐hronic absenteeism is driving our report card down,鈥� Johns said. 鈥淲ithout the chronic absenteeism [measurement], our report card is not going to look as bad as it is because our public schools are doing some really good things, so why shouldn鈥檛 the report card be a reflection of that?鈥�

Chang argued the move is misguided. She pointed to a growing body of research that has found schools can combat absenteeism if they form meaningful relationships with parents and partner with social services agencies that to attendance, like food insecurity. 

There鈥檚 little research to suggest that fines and other forms of punishment improve attendance. Even as some states ramp up truancy rules, others have scaled them back as studies report that punitive measures can backfire. In South Carolina schools, for example, students placed on probation for truancy wound up with even worse school attendance than they had before the courts got involved, by the nonprofit Council of State Governments Justice Center. 

In , the Oklahoma State Department of Education highlighted school districts that have made 鈥渋mpressive strides in reducing鈥� chronic absenteeism and that 鈥渙ffer valuable lessons on how schools can re-engage students.鈥� Among them is a 24% drop in absenteeism at Dahlonegah Public Schools, which hired a school-based police officer to visit the homes of students who failed to attend school. The district also credited improvements to 鈥渁 welcoming and engaging school environment.鈥� 

The state education department didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment. 

鈥淔amilies have to be involved and they have to be partners and they have to take responsibility for getting kids to school, but it鈥檚 not solely about what families do or don鈥檛 do,鈥� Chang said. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a mistake to assume it鈥檚 only one group鈥檚 responsibility. This is a shared responsibility.鈥�

鈥楤roken families, no economic opportunity, no education鈥�

Johnson, the district attorney, said his office has stepped up to address a problem that state education leaders have failed to solve. He took particular aim at the state鈥檚 high-profile education secretary, Ryan Walters, who has become an outspoken champion of conservative education causes. 

Yet, as far as chronic absenteeism goes, Johnson said the state schools chief 鈥渉as no interest in talking about鈥� the topic except 鈥渨hen he could get a soundbite on Fox News.鈥� The state education department did not respond to Johnson鈥檚 comments.

The 51-year-old father of four also pinned persistent chronic absenteeism on parents 鈥� those living in poverty, in particular. Children in his district who most often miss school, he said, are 鈥渒ind of feral.鈥� 

鈥淢y friends generally don鈥檛 have children that are in crisis because, just economically speaking, they鈥檙e on the higher end of the spectrum,鈥� Johnson told 社区黑料. 

Johnson said there are about 7,500 K-12 children in the counties that make up his district and estimated that at least 30% contend with 鈥渆conomic poverty, multi-generational drug abuse, domestic abuse in the home, broken families, no economic opportunity, no education.鈥�

鈥淚f you live in a school district where there is a real high poverty level and a real high incarceration rate, then a lot of times you鈥檙e going to get kids that have been raised in those environments,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淪o you鈥檙e going to have a lot more challenges with that group than you would if every person had a four-wheel drive vehicle and in their driveway and everybody has a good industrial job and is making a good living and providing for their families.鈥�

Johnson said schools should play a role in encouraging students to go to school, but when that doesn鈥檛 work, threats of jail are needed. In Pontotoc County, just two truancy charges were filed against parents in 2023, according to data provided to 社区黑料 by Johnson鈥檚 office. That number jumped to 20 last year and, so far this year, there have already been eight. 

David Blatt, the director of research and strategic impact at the nonprofit Oklahoma Appleseed, questioned the accuracy of the data and said it could be an undercount. He said he attended a truancy court case in Ada last year where as many as 30 parents and students made appearances before a judge that lasted just 60 to 90 seconds each. 

In , Blatt found that truancy laws were enforced inconsistently across the state and urged policymakers to adopt interventions and supports for families to address chronic absenteeism rather than criminalize them. Blatt backs the legislation to remove chronic absenteeism as a school accountability measure, acknowledging that certain attendance barriers are outside of educators鈥� direct control. But he said Johnson鈥檚 characterization of the problem is 鈥渞ather harsh and one-sided.鈥� 

Rather than being apathetic toward their children鈥檚 education, he said many parents struggle with work responsibilities and transportation while children wrestle with in-school factors that can discourage attendance, such as persistent bullying. 

鈥淭here may be cases where being called before a judge will help convince them of the seriousness of things, but for other cases, it鈥檚 just going to compound their problems,鈥� Blatt said. 鈥淎dding court appearances and fees and fines doesn鈥檛 solve their problems. It just adds to them.鈥� 

Yet for Johnson, the issue stems from a lack of repercussions. By enforcing truancy cases, he said schools have 鈥渁 little bit of a weapon鈥� against parents whose children are missing school and can threaten them with jail time. Most of the time, he said, threats alone improve student attendance and in many cases the charges wind up getting dismissed.

In fewer than a dozen instances, he said, his truancy crackdown has led to parents serving time behind bars. 

鈥淕enerally, they鈥檒l go in for about four hours,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l give them the taste of it.鈥� 

As , the department told 41 states and the District of Columbia they had another year to spend down the rest of the $122 billion for schools awarded in the 2021 American Rescue Plan. Among the biggest potential losers from McMahon鈥檚 move are Texas and Pennsylvania, which have well over $200 million in unspent funds, according to a department spreadsheet shared by a source close to the department. The source asked not to be named to protect former staff members from retaliation. Several more states, including Ohio, New York and Tennessee, have over $100 million left over.

In a letter to state chiefs, Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it 鈥渦nreasonable鈥� for them to rely on those earlier decisions. She said she might reconsider if states can make a stronger case for how their projects continue to address COVID鈥檚 impact.

鈥淲e’ve seen a lot of receipts and reimbursement requests coming in that just aren’t aligned with what students need in this moment,鈥� a senior department official told 社区黑料. The official asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about the department鈥檚 decision. The administration wants to 鈥渕ake sure that funds are still being spent to fix student learning loss.鈥�

The official cited a $1 million window replacement and an order of 鈥済low balls鈥� as examples, but declined to name the district that ordered the balls and offered no additional information on their price or how schools planned to use them. 

The department, however, will pay any invoices that were submitted before Friday at 5 p.m. Most of those are tied to extensions from the second COVID relief package, which included $58 billion in education spending, the official said. The deadline to spend those funds was Monday. 

In total, Congress approved about $200 billion in school relief funds. While states and districts spent the vast majority 鈥� 鈥� by the end of January, they asked for more time to deal with supply chain delays, labor shortages and the fact that student performance has largely not recovered from the pandemic. McMahon鈥檚 action, some experts say, should not have come as a complete shock given by many Republicans that districts failed to make the most of the unprecedented infusion of money. 

But the action leaves states and districts in the lurch, having spent millions of dollars of their own funds and signed contracts with vendors tied to the promise of reimbursement from the education department. 

Some leaders are pleading with McMahon to reconsider.

鈥淭his abrupt change in course will slow efforts and, in many cases, grind them to a halt,鈥� Maryland state Superintendent Carey Wright said in a statement. Her state risks losing over $400 million in funding for K-12 schools. The funds, she said, are paying for science of reading materials, teacher training and a variety of facility upgrades. 鈥淪tate and local budgets will be impacted. Maryland students deserve for the federal government to uphold its agreements.鈥� 

McMahon said the extensions offered by both the Biden and Trump administrations were merely 鈥渁 matter of administrative grace,鈥� and that the department has the authority to hold states to the original spending deadline in the law 鈥� Jan. 28. But as with other decisions the department has made to cut off funding Congress already approved, Friday鈥檚 announcement is likely to spark legal challenges.

鈥淲e are exploring all legal options at this time given the severity of this action,鈥� Joshua Michael, president of the Maryland State Board of Education, told reporters Monday. The funding, he said, is supporting ongoing tutoring programs. 鈥淭hat tutor will probably not be there next week.鈥�

鈥楿npaid invoices鈥�

Other states say the department鈥檚 decision will have an immediate impact on students. Illinois, for example, is using its remaining relief funds on transportation to school for homeless students, afterschool tutoring and technology for students with disabilities, said Jackie Matthews, spokeswoman for the Illinois State Board of Education. 

Last week, the state was still waiting on a $720,000 reimbursement from the department and had yet to submit another $8 million in expenses. 

鈥淭he unpaid invoices continue to stack up,鈥� she said.

In Tennessee, education officials received an extension for nearly $131 million for expenditures like tutoring, nursing services and computers, according to state education department spokesman Brian Blackley. Staff members, he said, were preparing to submit a reimbursement request. 

The American Rescue Plan 鈥� the third and largest round of funding 鈥� also included $800 million earmarked for homeless students. Extensions on those funds are paying for summer learning programs, mental health services and 鈥溾�� who help homeless families with housing, food and transportation needs, said Barbara Duffield, executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, which advocates for homeless students. 

An released just before former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona left office showed the program was effective at helping districts identify homeless students and reduce chronic absenteeism.

Canceling the extension, Duffield said, 鈥減ulls the rug out from underneath school district efforts to stabilize and support homeless children and youth.鈥�

David DeSchryver, senior vice president at Whiteboard Advisors, a consulting firm, said states should not have been caught off guard by the department鈥檚 latest move, but emphasized that the 鈥渄oor is still open鈥� for further extensions. 

鈥淭his is another invitation for state and local leaders to tell better stories about the impact of federal funding on their schools and communities,鈥� he said. 

鈥楾he people鈥檚 bank account鈥�

Districts began asking the department for extensions back in 2022 when supply chain delays and escalating construction costs prohibited them from finishing projects on time.

To get reimbursed, the department required to submit funding requests describing how the expenditures related to the pandemic. The department didn鈥檛 ask for purchase orders or contracts, but told states to keep those on hand if needed later. 

The department tightened the process in February, states to submit detailed receipts for every purchase in order to get reimbursed. Then on March 11, McMahon fired all 16 staff members in the office responsible for processing payments.

By that point, state education leaders had grown impatient. On March 15, a Pennsylvania official emailed the department, saying 鈥淚鈥檓 reaching out again to find out the status of these approvals,鈥� according to a copy of the message shared with 社区黑料.

鈥淚t makes me incredibly angry,鈥� said Laura Jimenez, a Biden administration appointee who led the relief payment office until January. 鈥淲e very carefully administered $200 billion, and they鈥檙e completely destroying that with the last couple of billion.鈥�

In a statement Friday, department spokeswoman Madi Biedermann said it was 鈥減ast time for the money to be returned to the people’s bank account鈥� and referred to 鈥渘umerous documented examples of misuse鈥� of relief funds. She declined to offer examples.

The GOP has consistently criticized how districts used the money, focusing on expenditures that appeared removed from helping students recover lost learning, like . They argue that sharp declines in achievement and spending on what they dismiss as like LGBTQ-inclusive efforts and social-emotional learning offer evidence of misspent funds.聽

Georgetown University school finance expert pointed to 鈥渆yebrow-raising spending decisions,鈥� like contracts to family members, in a teachers lounge in Montana and six-figure salaries for district leaders in Stockton, California. 

But compared to other COVID aid, like the Paycheck Protection Program 鈥� which from theft 鈥� there鈥檚 been little evidence of actual fraud in school relief funds, Roza said. The department took steps to prevent it. In 2023, the found that the agency had taken 鈥渟ignificant actions鈥� to improve monitoring of the funds.聽

Even so, researchers largely agree that despite many bright spots, districts missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to prioritize academic recovery in the aftermath of the COVID emergency. Tutoring is one example. While most districts offered it 鈥� and still are 鈥� they didn鈥檛 always use methods backed by research, experts say.

Some districts initially demonstrated a lack of urgency and were slow to spend the money, according to Roza created to follow relief funds. Then they had to pick up the pace as deadlines approached. Many went on a hiring spree, quickly adding classroom aides, counselors and other support staff, but showed that those positions weren鈥檛 always targeted to schools that needed them most.

鈥淵ou don’t want to force school systems to spend money more quickly than they are wanting to,鈥� said Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research.

shows that while the money contributed to significant recovery in math, students continue to lose ground in reading. But as a one-time school board member, he sympathizes with districts that pushed to spread funds out as long as possible. 

鈥淭hat rush to get a lot of money out the door,鈥� he said, 鈥渕ay have led to some of it not being spent very well.鈥�

Lea esta historia en

Some of California鈥檚 most acclaimed schools right now aren鈥檛 in elite suburbs or wealthy urban enclaves. They鈥檙e in a small city in the San Joaquin Valley, an outpost on Highway 99 surrounded by almond trees and orange groves.

Delano, a city of 50,000 at the northern edge of Kern County, is celebrating academic triumphs at its elementary school district and at one of its high schools this spring. C茅sar E. Ch谩vez High School was selected by the California Department of Education as a ,鈥� and last month researchers recognized Delano Union Elementary School District as one of at least 100 districts nationwide with math and reading scores that .

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鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 believe it when I heard,鈥� said Superintendent Rosalina Rivera. 鈥淏ut I’m extremely proud of our district. It’s an honor to be recognized for our hard work.鈥�

Unlike most schools that earn national recognition, Delano鈥檚 16 schools aren鈥檛 wealthy or backed by powerful parent groups. There are no country club fundraisers. Most of the city鈥檚 8,450 K-12 students don鈥檛 fit the usual profile of those who win national honors; they鈥檙e nearly all low-income, Latino or Filipino. At some schools, half are English learners. Their parents pick grapes or pack oranges for a living. Many have never been beyond Bakersfield, 40 miles away.

Yet Delano students have reached heights far beyond their peers at comparable schools. In recent years, Ch谩vez students have gone on to UC Berkeley, Stanford and the Ivy League. Several have won highly competitive . They鈥檝e become college professors, engineers and entrepreneurs.

Administrators credit a slew of reforms, such as teacher collaboration and the use of data to track individual students鈥� progress. Schools also offer plenty of support, such as tutoring and counseling, and they hold teachers accountable if students aren鈥檛 learning at the level they should be.

鈥淭he founders of the school (in 2003) wanted to hit it out of the park,鈥� said Chavez principal Justin Derrick. 鈥淭hey wanted to create a culture where students and staff believe in each other. They didn鈥檛 want excuses. They just wanted students to understand their value and know what they could achieve. We still have that culture today.鈥�

High morale, high expectations

Since the pandemic, students nationwide have struggled in a multitude of ways: , , high discipline rates. Many students fell behind during remote learning and never caught up. Others suffered from they stopped going to school. , superintendents burned out, parents grew frustrated.

Delano schools experienced the same challenges as schools elsewhere, with plunging test scores and high absenteeism, but have managed to rebound quicker 鈥� in some cases even surpassing their pre-pandemic achievement levels. At Delano elementary schools, for example, 43% of students met or exceeded the state鈥檚 English language arts standard on the Smarter Balanced test before the pandemic, but last year more than 47% did. In math, sixth grade scores climbed from 27% meeting or exceeding the standard pre-pandemic to 33% last year.

Many students at Delano Union Elementary, a K-8 district with 12 elementary and middle schools, are still reading and doing math below grade level. But the district鈥檚 test scores are rising, and the rate of chronic absenteeism is .

That progress caught the attention of researchers from Stanford and Harvard, who have been studying schools鈥� recovery from the pandemic through the . In their latest report, researchers listed Delano Union as one of 100 districts nationwide where those from 2019.

At Ch谩vez High, the graduation rate, attendance rate, and the percentage of students meeting the course requirements for admission to the University of California and California State University all exceed the state average. The school from the National Association of Elementary and Secondary Education Act State Program Administrators, a group of education officials who oversee federal school programs. The recognition was for schools where at least 35% of students are low-income and academic achievement is high.

For Samantha Valdez, a senior at Ch谩vez High, it鈥檚 the campus atmosphere that has made the difference. She appreciates the array of Advanced Placement classes and career training courses, but it鈥檚 the 鈥渞espectful, welcoming, friendly鈥� mood on campus that makes her want to go to school every day, she said.

A straight-A student, Valdez starts her days before dawn to help out on her family鈥檚 30-acre farm, feeding chickens, sheep, dogs and more than 70 cows. After school, she practices the violin and plays on the school tennis team. She鈥檚 often up past midnight studying.

But she鈥檚 never considered slowing down. She wants to be a dentist and believes that C茅sar Ch谩vez High will help her get there.

鈥淭he administrators always go to our tennis matches. It doesn鈥檛 sound like much, but stuff like that means a lot,鈥� Valdez said. 鈥淵ou know they care about you.鈥�

Music, art and sports

A big reason for the high morale on campus is a slew of extracurricular activities and electives, including 15 sports teams and a music program that encompasses everything from percussion to choir to an award-winning marching band. There鈥檚 a Filipino dance club, an ecology club, a folklorico dance club and almost a dozen language classes for the 23% of students who are English learners.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an absolute honor to be principal here,鈥� said Derrick, who鈥檚 in his fourth year at the helm. 鈥淏ut I鈥檒l be honest, it was intimidating at first. It was like, put up or shut up. You better be successful, because the expectation is there.鈥�

Ch谩vez High is on the edge of town, with almond orchards on two sides and the Wonderful Halo citrus storage facility 鈥� shaped like a 鈥� a few miles away. Clean and modern, the school is situated around a central quad, where students socialize and hang out between classes.

Steven Barker, the school鈥檚 learning director, enrolled at Ch谩vez High not long after it opened in 2003 to serve the area鈥檚 expanding population. Barker grew up in nearby Richgrove, where his mother had worked in the nearby fields and his father had owned a sporting goods store.

His parents were skeptical at first because it was a new school without much of a track record. But those doubts were dispelled almost immediately, he said.

鈥淚 never remember a day when teachers didn鈥檛 demand success,鈥� he said. 鈥淗igh expectations were the norm.鈥�

Barker went on to Cal State Bakersfield where he double-majored in math and English literature and was set to pursue a high-level career beyond Kern County when he had a change of heart.

鈥淚 realized that in high school, a lot of teachers had invested in my wellbeing, and I had an opportunity to do the same thing,鈥� Barker said. 鈥淚 knew there was loads of academic talent in Delano, brilliant students, and maybe I could help get them to levels they didn鈥檛 even think was possible.鈥�

Barker now oversees academic programs at the 1,300-student school.

鈥淚鈥檇 never work anywhere else,鈥� Barker said. 鈥淭he staff here is dedicated to education in a way I can only describe as urgent.鈥�

Civil rights history

Long before its schools made headlines, Delano was the birthplace of the farmworkers鈥� movement. Labor leader C茅sar Ch谩vez, a one-time resident of Delano, cofounded one of the first unions for agricultural workers in the early 1960s. The United Farm Workers has since moved its headquarters closer to Bakersfield, but Delano remains a landmark in civil rights history.

Delano still centers on agriculture, but it鈥檚 also home to two state prisons. The prisons are on the western side of town, amid a flat expanse of empty land and surrounded by razor wire. Stark and foreboding, they stand in contrast to the lush fruit and nut groves nearby and the majestic, snow-covered southern Sierra mountains towering in the east.

At the Delano Union Elementary District, administrators have a hunch about why their students have done so well since the pandemic: 鈥淲e went all in with remote learning. We went big,鈥� said Jose Maldonado, the district鈥檚 director of data analysis.

As soon as COVID forced the closure of schools in March 2020, Delano administrators launched a comprehensive remote learning program 鈥� not waiting for further guidance from the state. They immediately delivered tablets and hotspots to students and researched the best ways that students learn online.

For academics, teachers kept it simple. They focused on basic concepts and limited lessons to short periods of time, so students wouldn鈥檛 get bored or discouraged. And they mixed in plenty of fun: dance breaks, games, social-emotional 鈥渃heck-ins.鈥�

They also planned 鈥渧irtual field trips,鈥� where students explored faraway locations online. One such trip was to France. Staff stayed up late putting together hundreds of kits that contained everything an elementary student would need for a sojourn to Paris: a beret, a baguette, a travel journal and art supplies for a visit to the Louvre.

鈥淓ven though we were in the middle of a pandemic, we wanted to make sure the students could still experience the joy of learning,鈥� Rivera said. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 want them to lose that spark.鈥�

Algebra for sixth graders

To help students catch up in math, the district opened math labs at several campuses. At Pioneer Elementary, the new math lab is outfitted with cheerful posters and floor mats showing measurements, multiplication tables and positive and negative numbers. Closets are full of games and brightly colored blocks and tiles for students to get a tactile understanding of numbers and dimensions.

During a recent after-school program, about a dozen sixth graders, many of them English learners, recited algebraic formulas with the teacher and answered questions about x and y equations.

鈥淚 love multiplying and adding things,鈥� said student Alexander Ayon, adding that he likes school because 鈥渢hey have a lot of activities for us and they take care of us.鈥�

For April Gregerson, assistant superintendent, the 12-hour days during COVID were worth it. She had a top-notch elementary education, she said, and feels like all students deserve the same advantages.

鈥淪ometimes we don鈥檛 even know what鈥檚 possible 鈥� like a trip to the Eiffel Tower 鈥� unless someone shows us,鈥� Gregerson said. 鈥淥ur commitment is to make sure that our students know that anything is possible for them.鈥�

This article was and was republished under the license.

During the pandemic, Chalkbeat published dozens of essays that spoke to the tumult of COVID-era teaching. Lindsay Klemas wrote about Canwen Xu recounted what it was like to be at the height of COVID. Walt Stallings wrote about the particular during school closures, and George Farmer discussed the challenge of building .

In one memorable Chalkbeat essay, Katie Kraushaar, now Katie Hicks, wrote that the pandemic revealed that When educators returned to classrooms after lockdowns, many of them struggled, Hicks said. 鈥淪chools are relying on the mental well-being of teachers,鈥� she wrote, 鈥渁nd there鈥檚 not enough to go around.鈥�

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Two months later, Hicks 鈥� then a middle school English teacher in St. Louis 鈥� announced on Twitter, now X, that she had reached a tipping point. Her exit after 12 years in the field was part of a broader following COVID school closures. Several states experienced , and some schools reported unprecedented .

Hicks said while she still loved her students and her colleagues, she hated what school had become. 鈥淚 could blame the pandemic, politics, parents or some other word that starts with the letter P,鈥� she wrote on Twitter. 鈥淏ut it doesn鈥檛 really matter. I needed to break up with teaching.鈥�

These days, Hicks lives in Florida and works in health care advocacy. Despite her career change, 鈥渨ho I am as an educator shows up every single day: in how I am raising my son, in my current profession outside of education, in how I treat and interact with other people,鈥� she told Chalkbeat. In an interview coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the COVID school closures, Hicks reflected on what communities have come to expect from teachers, how educators showed up for each other during pandemic schooling, and what school leaders can do to support teachers who are facing burnout.

Why did you become a teacher, and what kept you in the classroom for 12 years?

When I was in high school, I took an advanced literature course. A lot of my classmates came to me for help understanding some of the pieces we read, as well as feedback on their writing. I realized I really enjoyed breaking apart literature and explaining it in ways that people understood, so I decided to pursue education as my major.

Love kept me in the classroom for a dozen years. I loved my subject 鈥� English Language Arts 鈥� and I loved working with middle schoolers. I also loved the unpredictability and everythingness of teaching: No two days were the same. Teaching allowed me to reinvent myself and try new things, as well as the freedom to put my own personal spin on how I taught standard information. It was an avenue of self-expression for me.

How did COVID change what was expected of teachers?

Teachers have always had to wear many different hats: graphic designer, therapist, childhood development expert, etc. COVID increased those hats tenfold. I was responsible for checking on children who had ghosted and hadn鈥檛 logged in for weeks to our virtual classes, and I was left to worry whether their absence was due to simply not wanting to attend or if something more traumatic had happened to them or their family.

I had to quickly learn how to make online learning engaging 鈥� and it鈥檚 very different from in-person teaching. I couldn鈥檛 rely on body language, movement, or any other shared experiences to capture my students鈥� attention. I had to use memes and videos and pray that my persona translated across Zoom. When the 2020-2021 school year started, I had never met my students in person. They only knew me as a two-dimensional video of a person surrounded by the tiny Zoom box. Building rapport required a whole new playbook, but true relationships felt impossible.

How did those changing expectations affect your daily reality?

At the beginning of the pivot to virtual school, teachers showed up. We鈥檙e scrappy by nature, innovators who can make a lesson plan out of a few pieces of paper, glue, and a little magic. The pandemic was a challenge: How can we make school feel like a safe space? How can we create community without being together physically?

At first, I, like most of my fellow educators, rose to the challenge. When I realized that independent reading goals were all but moot for students who didn鈥檛 have access to fresh, engaging books, I organized a fundraiser to buy a book for each child in my English classroom. I worked with a local bookstore and surveyed my students so that I could efficiently play book matchmaker.

When our school hosted a drive-thru school supplies pick-up, I was able to meet some of my students in real life. I remember lowering my mask briefly to flash a smile as I handed their specially chosen book to them. The smiles I received back were definitely a high point. Things felt manageable then.

But it didn鈥檛 last. As we transitioned back to in-person learning, my morale 鈥� along with many of my colleagues 鈥� began to deteriorate. Our immense efforts during virtual school were quickly forgotten by the public, replaced with scathing criticism. We weren鈥檛 being stringent enough on the mask mandates. Or we were reprimanding them for not wearing their masks. We were juggling how to make in-person learning with social distancing rules work while simultaneously preparing engaging lessons for our students who chose to stay virtual for the duration of the 2020-2021 school year.

Every day, I got home from school and lay in my bed to rest my eyes and try to turn my brain off. But the laundry list of what I felt like I should be doing kept growing longer and longer, and the media鈥檚 portrayal of teachers didn鈥檛 help.

In 2022, you wrote in Chalkbeat that 鈥渟chools are relying on the mental well-being of teachers, and there鈥檚 not enough to go around.鈥� Why do you think the COVID era was so detrimental to teachers鈥� mental health?

I think COVID showed the cracks in our educational system in a big way.

There was a lot of surface-level support for teachers at the beginning of the pandemic 鈥� lots of social media graphics shouting their love for educators and discounts from fast food chains. Very similar to the 鈥渘ormal times鈥� Teacher Appreciation Week, which is typically a lackluster affair for teachers where we鈥檙e reminded that we鈥檙e about as valuable as a coupon for an ice cream cone.

The best way I can put it: Imagine putting on a performance every single day for a room that is supposedly full of people, but you can鈥檛 see them at all. They鈥檙e shadowed. You can鈥檛 hear their reactions. You have no idea if what you鈥檙e saying makes any sense or resonates. That鈥檚 what teaching felt like during the pandemic, performing for a black sea of Zoom boxes with their cameras turned off. And it still felt that way when we were back in person: No one was truly 鈥渢urning their camera on.鈥�

How did teachers show up for each other during this time?

We took turns bearing the load for each other. We shared our snazzy slide decks with each other. When we found a new online tool that worked with virtual teaching, we didn鈥檛 gatekeep and instead shared our logins. Though it was easy to forget that teachers also were navigating the impacts of COVID on their personal lives, we recognized the struggle in each other and worked to take things off of the plate of someone who had to quarantine for 14 days due to a family member testing positive. We reminded each other to take breaks, take deep breaths, and take our time trying to figure it all out.

Was there a moment when you realized that it was time to break up with teaching? What emotions came with that decision?

When I first became a teacher, I swore up and down I would not be one of those tired, burned-out teachers who popped in a movie, kicked back, and checked out. I鈥檓 proud to say I never got even close to that point, but post-pandemic, there were moments when I understood how and why teachers ended up there. And it wasn鈥檛 because they were bad teachers. They were tired.

It felt wiser and better to me to leave before I became truly jaded and disconnected from my why, the reason I stayed in teaching so long. I believed that I made a difference. I believed that what I was doing mattered.

The last day before I left my school for good, my students and fellow teachers threw me a goodbye luau. I wore a silk lei, a grass skirt, and a silly hat. I took pictures with my students and hugged them goodbye. They wished me luck 鈥渙n the island.鈥� (I was moving to the U.S. Virgin Islands at the time.) I felt that glimmer of making a difference in that last moment before I hung up my teaching hat, and for a second, I wondered if I was making a mistake.

What advice would you give to school leaders who want to support the stretched-thin teachers in their schools?

My best advice is to think big. Look at the systemic issues and seek systemic change, not band-aid fixes that temporarily buoy teachers.

Know that this is much, much harder than putting chocolate on our desks or hiring a massage therapist to sit in the staff room for a day. Self-care is not the answer. I would argue that championing ways for teachers to practice self-care puts the onus back on us to fix a broken system by reducing the real, systemic issues down to simply needing to take a few deep breaths.

We need leaders who are committed to change, even when it鈥檚 hard and unpopular. And we need leaders who have been teachers and who understand the unique challenges associated with standing in front of a classroom.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Before COVID-19, snow days like these were routine, not even worth mentioning. But with the switch to virtual schooling came because of weather would soon be . There would be no reason to cancel classes if they could just go remote. An from November 2020 even reported that % of principals and school district officials had converted or were considering converting snow days to remote learning days. 

But a 74 survey of policies around the country finds that while some districts have made the shift  鈥� or tried to 鈥� others have gone back to that time-honored tradition.

Seattle Public Schools into its academic calendar but ended the practice after the pandemic. While a traditional snow day isn鈥檛 completely off the table, the district usually implements remote learning when schools close due to emergencies, said Tyler Hamilton, Seattle鈥檚 director of school operations.

鈥淎re we getting the same level of quality instruction at the end of the school year? Is having some type of instruction remotely going to be more meaningful than having paused completely and then doing some type of makeup day?鈥� Hamilton said. 鈥淚t really is more of 鈥� looking to provide as much consistency as possible for kids.鈥�

When the entire district had to switch to virtual classes on Feb. 5 and 6 because of a snowstorm, some students remembered the routine, while younger children who weren鈥檛 yet in school at the beginning of the pandemic struggled, Hamilton said. High school and middle school teachers were expected to host classes like normal, while elementary teachers had a less structured schedule.

鈥淪econd graders [were] showing off their bedroom to their friends and being excited as like a show and tell opportunity, which was similar to a lot of our earlier days of COVID,鈥� Hamilton said. 鈥淚f my [high school] class was normally a 55-minute class with my algebra teacher, I’m going to have that same time of day with that algebra teacher.鈥�

Attendance policies were the same as for in-person classes 鈥� but students weren鈥檛 counted as being late if they didn鈥檛 join the class on time. Hamilton said the district is still analyzing attendance data from the two snow days.

For some schools, attendance routinely lags during remote learning on snow days. Last year, attendance rates in Pittsburgh-area schools on virtual days ranged from 99% to as low as 66%, according to the .

New York City Public Schools tried to implement remote learning on a snow day in February 2024 for the first time since its no-snow day policy was introduced two years earlier. School officials after students were unable to sign in. The district and for future snow days. 

Challenges like access to the internet or computers at home have made some schools rethink their remote learning plans.

One said his district of 2,300 students will continue traditional snow days because some kids can鈥檛 access online learning.

鈥淣ot every family can be linked in,鈥� Superintendent Christian Elkington told the Sun Journal. 鈥淣ot every family has the same supports and services.鈥�

Other districts have to implement traditional snow days because state regulations leave them no choice.

In New Jersey, to count toward the 180 school days required each year unless schools are closed for three consecutive days because of a state-declared emergency. Virtual classes were permitted during the pandemic because of an executive order. Last year, lawmakers to allow remote instruction during snow days, but it failed to advance.

also have to use traditional snow days after the state鈥檚 education commissioner told superintendents in December that remote learning shouldn鈥檛 count as school days because it doesn鈥檛 鈥渁dequately meet students鈥� needs.鈥� 

In Seattle, Hamilton said administrators are still assessing how the two days of remote learning went. Some parents reported technical or logistical difficulties.

鈥淎s a whole, the day went much smoother than some of our initial implementations,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e’re going through our data right now looking at how many students and staff members were online [and] how long they were online.鈥�