Both individually and collectively, Americans have not yet accepted the scope of the tragedy and we’re taking it out on our schools. And indeed, the real pandemic unquestionably harmed U.S. students’ academic trajectories, even if they appear to have weathered it better than their peers in most other countries. Say it plain: There was no educational and public health playbook that could have wholly averted the pandemic’s impacts on kids. Researchers have known for years that it’s much tougher to shift students’ academic trajectories later in their careers. No one wants to accept how far it knocked us — and our children — off the trajectories we hoped we were following.

Source: New York Times March 11, 2024 17:32 UTC