Math and reading scores for America’s 13-year-olds dropped to their lowest levels in decades, with math proficiency sinking by the largest margin ever recorded, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal test considered to be the nation’s report card. All of this in the wake of COVID-related disruptions which attenuated classroom learning and replaced it with hybrid education or at home instruction. While it may be too soon to tell what the long-term impacts are of this disruption, alarm bells are going off in schools around the country as policymakers and administrators struggle to figure out how to help children catch up to previous levels. Already recognizing an achievement gap between students from wealthier and poorer environments, that circumstance has been exacerbated in the wake of the pandemic. Schools across the country are trying a multitude of things like longer school days, shorter summer recesses and tutoring and other special interventions. It’s a complicated moment for our schools. To discuss this topic with us is Josh Bleiberg, an assistant professor in the School of Education, at the University of Pittsburgh.

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