As a third pandemic school year draws to a close, new research offers the clearest accounting yet of the pandemic's academic toll.
How did the pandemic disrupt learning for America's more than 50 million K-12 students?
Even students who spent the least amount of time learning remotely during the 2020-21 school year — just a month or less — missed the equivalent of seven to 10 weeks of math learning, says Thomas Kane of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University.Much of that missed learning, Kane says, was likely a hangover from spring 2020, when nearly all schools were remote and remote instruction was at its worst.
"It would mean so much for parents if somebody would acknowledge it. 'You know, we have learning loss,'"says Sheila Walker, a parent in Northern California."Like our board, they don't even use those words. We know we have learning loss, so how are we going to address it?"