Students struggle to recover from COVID learning loss
Why it matters: No state showed improvements in both math and reading from 2019 to 2024, according to the Nation's Report Card — a national assessment of math and reading achievement.
High-income districts are four times more likely to have recovered, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard, which combines results from the Nation's Report Card assessment and state test scores.
The slide in test scores "masks a pernicious inequality: scores have declined far more in America's middle- and low-income communities than its wealthy ones," Sean Reardon, director of Stanford's Educational Opportunity Project, said in a statement.
By the numbers: 17% of students between third and eighth grade are in districts with average math achievement above 2019.
11% are in districts that have recovered in reading, and 6% are in districts that have recovered in both reading and math.
More than 100 districts performed above pre-pandemic levels in both math and reading.
Between the lines: Louisiana is the only state that showed slight improvements in both math and reading, according to the Education Recovery Scorecard report.
Zoom out: Chronic absenteeism, which worsened during the pandemic, has started to show improvements, per the report. But it slowed academic recovery, especially in high-poverty districts.
In 2019, the national rate was 15%. That nearly doubled to 29% in 2022 and dropped slightly to 26% in 2023.
In the 20 states with data through Spring 2024, chronic absenteeism fell by an additional two points.
"The full impact of the rise in absenteeism is not yet clear," the report said.
What's next: Researchers urged states and districts to redirect funding toward interventions, now that federal pandemic relief has dried up.
They also said mayors, employers and other leaders should help in addressing chronic absenteeism so that all of the burden doesn't fall on schools.
The bottom line:"The rescue phase is over," Tom Kane, director of Harvard's Center for Education Policy Research said in a statement.
"The federal relief dollars are gone. It is time to pivot from short-term recovery to longer term challenges such as reducing absenteeism and addressing the slide in literacy."
Editor's note: This story was updated to clarify that while the Nation's Report Card found no states improved in both math and reading, the Education Recovery Scorecard found one exception, Louisiana.
Go deeper: American students' reading skills drop to record lows
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Newsweek
2 hours ago
- Newsweek
America, the Smithsonian, and Slavery
Langston Hughes, my favorite writer, wrote a poem in 1926, when he was 25 years old. It declared, with a mix of substantial sadness and delicate defiance, "I, too, am America." Born in the long twilight of American slavery, Hughes produced this piece because he lived through lynchings of Black bodies, racial segregation, the destruction of Black communities in places like Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the erasure of Black history, Black culture, and the souls of Black folks, except as horrific stereotypes, in every aspect of American society. I am a direct beneficiary of the American civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s, and was able to attend schools and live in neighborhoods with individuals of various identities—something my mother, born during the same chapters of Jim Crow as Langston, could never have imagined. Even as a straight-A student from kindergarten through 12th grade, all I learned about our nation's past was war tales, explorations, and a few innovations. As for the enslavement of my African ancestors, who literally built the economic infrastructure of America with forced, free labor, from 1619 to 1865—246 years—this section of the American journey was reduced to mere paragraphs. Nor was it ever referred to as the grave, global miscarriage of justice that it was, but simply "the peculiar institution." I knew I wanted to be a writer since I was a child, because I had discovered Ernest Hemingway in a library my single mother made me visit, though she neither read nor owned any books herself, save the Bible. But I had no clue of Langston Hughes, of any Black writers, of any meaningful account of the American experiment that included Blacks, until a civil rights-era program, created by a wealthy White Republican state assemblyman named Tom Kean, made it possible for me to attend Rutgers University, despite being the heir to generations of poverty, dating back, yes, to slavery. PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - AUGUST 9: Exhibits discussing slavery and the Founding Fathers' owning slaves are seen at the President's House on August 9, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - AUGUST 9: Exhibits discussing slavery and the Founding Fathers' owning slaves are seen at the President's House on August 9, 2025 in Philadelphia, was at Rutgers, because of its Africana Studies Department, and later because of major cultural institutions, like the Schomburg in Harlem, like the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., that a different world was presented to me. I was finally able to see, feel, and hear myself, in that history. I would argue that that new education saved my life. And it is the reason I became a writer, like Langston. That is why I say, no, it is no shame to share the whole chronicle of America, inclusive of everyone, and each critical moment. Shame is when we claim to be a democracy, ignoring the truth of our shared history. The story of African Americans is not a perpetual sorrow song. It is the story of a miracle people, a hopeful people who, in spite of slavery and then another 100 years of legalized racism, managed to serve in every single war this country has fought, performed gallantly in multiple Olympics, and has gifted America everything from music to food to language to dance to sports to countless inventions to freedom marches for all. Notwithstanding our being the descendants of enslaved people. Because, in point of fact, my ancestors were stripped of their names, cultures, and languages; told they were ugly, inferior, and subhuman; and were subjected to a plethora of cruelties on those plantations, like rapes and mutilations, both in my mother's home state of South Carolina and my home state of New Jersey. That we survived; that I come from a mother with an eighth-grade education and a grandmother who could not read or write; that we are a people who inherited centuries of traumas, which still manifest today in how we even talk about ourselves, our hair, our skin color; says, plainly, how devastating slavery was to my people, to my nation. Because I, too, sing America. My wife and I first visited the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture a couple years back. We marveled at how the museum does not begin with slavery but instead ancient Africa, who we were before being stolen and brought to the Americas, be it what is now the United States, the West Indies, or Latin America. It is a study in resiliency, and how, regardless of what we've endured, we have rarely treated others as we have been treated. As a matter of fact, there are few Americans as patriotic and loyal as Black people on these shores, in spite of how we've been continually wounded, from slavery to Selma, from Emmett Till to Breonna Taylor. Attempting to minimize or eliminate conversations about slavery also minimizes the poetry, music, food, language, and customs of Black people in America. This comes as no surprise to those of us who are Black in this first quarter of the 21st century. We have seen bans on Black books, attacks on Black-elected officials, Black history sidelined at schools, and, yes, Black people like George Floyd scream for their mothers and breathe their final breath, only because of who they are. This is not just about displays in the Smithsonian. America will never move forward, nor heal, as a society of diverse people with diverse stories, if any of its people are being silenced, ignored, purely because some with power are hateful of whole truths. Kevin Powell is a Grammy-nominated poet, filmmaker, and author of 16 books. He previously wrote a Newsweek cover story on Spike Lee. Kevin lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. Follow him on all social media platforms: @poetkevinpowell. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Buzz Feed
3 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
Professors Share The 30 Wildest Student Excuses
With September just around the corner, it got me thinking about school. I come from a family of educators, and let me tell you — they're doing actual god's work. It's not just the long school hours; it's the grading, planning, writing, editing, and everything they take home after. Teaching already demands so much time, energy, and focus — and that's before you factor in the babysitting, hand-holding, and listening to wild excuses from grown-ass adults who didn't turn in their assignments. It's truly a full-time job plus a side hustle. It's never-ending, and they all deserve triple their salary. So when I saw professors on Reddit sharing the most unhinged excuses they've ever heard from students, I grabbed a pencil and started taking notes — mostly to compare horror stories with my professor father. Spoiler: These are brutal. So go ahead, take your seat, and please hold all questions till the gonna want to focus. We're starting with a hefty one — but it's to the very last sentence. So here we go... "I had a student, whom we'll call Sally. After only attending one week of my class, Sally stopped showing up. When I followed up via email, Sally said she was in the hospital with ovarian cancer. She then divulged that her mother died last year on her birthday — also from ovarian cancer — so she also gets really depressed around 'this time of year.' It was September, and according to her records, Sally's birthday was in June. That was the first weird thing..." "I had a student say his grandmother 'died.' This isn't an unusual excuse, but he provided an obituary. He was a white American guy. His 'grandmother' died in Brazil in 1930. The cause of death was old age, and she did not have any surviving family." "They said they couldn't come to class because a snake fell through their ceiling. It was followed by a picture of a massive python in their house." "He sent me an email that read: edibles too strong." "I got a message: 'My client has asked me to contact you regarding the possibility of continued progress in your course. They are unable to attend as they are currently detained, awaiting trial.' This was real. The trail was for the student arranging to meet up with another student, who turned out to be an FBI agent posing as a minor. I confirmed it when the student showed up in a news article — those charges do not stay private for long." "They said they missed the exam because their apartment was on fire. When I asked for more details, they said it was a potholder that caught flame, and they had to go to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy a new one." "I had a student who didn't come to class for about three weeks because he 'had pimples and couldn't let other people see him like that.'" "I had a student email me the morning of a final to say they couldn't attend the exam because they were out of town. The class was online." "I had a student 'get deployed' very suddenly and conveniently right before a major paper. Not unusual for my program — except this student worked in food service and was not on active duty. They were suddenly back from war three days later, after I requested documentation." "When I spoke to a student about being chronically late, she said that being on time was not part of her frame of life." "I heard a good one this week: I'm not coming to class because I ate too much at lunch." "Their email read: 'I missed lab because I was getting dick all morning.' Notice how close D and S are on your phone keyboard?" "I also once had two students sending the exact same email that they couldn't attend any lectures or obligatory seminars, because they were undergoing IVF. Twist: they were both men and had no idea what IVF was." "They said they couldn't make it to the lab because their emotional support dog was stressed out." "A student emailed me to say they accidentally locked themselves in the bathroom and wouldn't be able to attend class. Later, they said after screaming for two hours, they used raw strength to break down the door." "They said, 'My girlfriend and I got a little extra frisky over the weekend, and I ended up with testicular torsion.' Then he proceeded to pull down his pants to try to show me." "They said they had stomach issues, with a picture of a bottle of yellow mustard attached to the email — whatever that meant." "He said he got a concussion when he passed out and hit his head on the toilet, breaking the tank into three pieces. Yes, he sent photos as proof. And honestly, I'm astounded he survived — the toilet certainly didn't." "They said they had an STI and were in too much pain to sit." "They said, 'You can't expect me to do homework on Thirsty Thursday!' What?" "They said they stayed up all night watching an important sports game and were taking the time to sleep for the sake of self-care." "They said, 'My stomach was torn up,' along with a photo of their diarrhea-filled toilet." "A student had five grandmothers pass away over a few classes." "I had a student who missed class often, and when he did show up, he reeked of weed, had red eyes, and would have his head down on the desk most of the class. Unsurprisingly, he failed. After final grades were released, I received an email from his mom with a doctor's note that clearly had the date whited out and written over. The note claimed he had toxoplasmosis, which caused him to fail. I informed 'the mom' that I could only discuss the matter with the student, at which point the student suddenly began sending quite professional-sounding emails to me. The university's administrator asked me to give the student a makeup exam and credit work, but he never contacted me again. Turns out her was just a bad student." "Someone emailed me to say they would be late as they were at a 'slow gas pump.' They were not late after all, but a no-show." "I currently have a student out for A WEEK because their dog needed to be euthanized and the family needs A WEEK to grieve together." "My favourite was from a student who couldn't submit his homework assignment. The student came to class and said, 'Professor, I really wanted to turn in my homework, but the FBI took my laptop.' They he showed me the evidence receipt the FBI gave him." "They said, 'The vibes are off.'" "This semester, I got a 'I have a court date and I need to break up with my girlfriend.' The first part was a completely sufficient reason to miss class — not sure why they included the second." "I once had a student justify cheating by telling me they were trying to be respectful by giving me the answer I was looking for." Brutal. But now I'm curious — professors, educators, teachers, even students: what's the wildest excuse you've ever heard (or given)? Drop it in the comments or the anonymous form below. As for me? I had the opposite problem. Full-on self-proclaimed nerd here. I loved class so much that I'd send my teachers photos of my antibiotics just to prove I was actually sick. I couldn't stand the idea of them thinking I was faking it or wasting their time. Classic child-of-two-educators behaviour, I guess. And for more, make sure you follow BuzzFeed Canada on TikTok and Instagram!
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Why the overwhelmed American family need its own software
There are things you can do to prepare yourself for parenthood: Read the books, take the classes, set up a college fund. Nothing can truly prepare you for the overwhelm. More specifically, nobody tells you how hard it is to keep up with the logistical demands and bureaucratic bloat. If deciding what to eat for dinner was annoying before children, try meal planning for a week with a family. There are chores to do, school emails to answer, trips to plan, bills to pay, and only so many minutes in the day. Running a family has become akin to running a small business for many Americans. So it's no surprise that a cottage industry has cropped up to support those fledgling families using a range of tools borrowed from work culture. Offering everything from AI-powered assistants to wall-mounted touchscreens, these tech companies promise to provide your family with its own command center or operating system — a software-based solution to the societal problem of parenting while overwhelmed. The need for such a fix has cropped up as the demands of parenting have escalated. A 2025 report from the Office of the Surgeon General showed that nearly half of American parents said that 'most days their stress is completely overwhelming.' Women tend to carry more of the mental load. The vast majority of parents in opposite-sex households say the mother spends more time managing schedules, according to a Pew Research Center poll published in 2023. A separate study found that mothers, on average, did 71 percent of the cognitive labor at home — child care, cleaning, scheduling, finances, managing relationships — while men did just 29 percent. It's no surprise that a cottage industry has cropped up to support those fledgling families using a range of tools borrowed from work culture. 'This work of organizing the family is work, and it's falling on women, particularly in different-sex couples,' said Allison Daminger, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the upcoming book What's on Her Mind: The Mental Load of Family Life. There's no relief in sight for most families. The cost of child care has steadily increased in recent years, and most working parents do not have access to paid family leave. An app won't solve these policy challenges, but it might make a tired parent's day slightly more streamlined. 'We have some of the most family hostile public policies and workplace practices of any high-income country, and parents are absolutely strapped for time and money,' said Brigid Schulte, director of the Better Life Lab at New America and author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time. 'Are these apps the answer? No, they're not,' Schulte told me. 'At most they're Band-Aids. They can help people manage, keep their heads above water, but the real solutions we need are much bigger than any app.' That was my experience trying out many of these new tools. The touchscreen in my kitchen is not paying for pre-school. However, I'm in no position to run for Congress and champion the cause, because I still have to make a pediatrician appointment, schedule a playdate, and plan the next week's worth of family meals. But do you need a $600 family command center? My child is not yet 2, but my wife and I already feel the strain of administrative overload. And we learned the hard way that just creating a new Google Calendar wasn't going to cut it, where family obligations get mixed in with work meetings and personal to-dos, turning the whole thing into a soup of confusion. That led me to check out dedicated family calendar apps, like Maple, before exploring full fledged family command centers, like Skylight. The idea of using software to help families stay organized is not new. Some 20 years ago, a couple of former Microsoft employees created an online family organizer called Cozi, which is still around today. It wasn't until the pandemic that the concept really took off, though. I'm in no position to run for Congress and champion the cause, because I still have to make a pediatrician appointment, schedule a playdate, and plan the next week's worth of family meals. Skylight, makers of the touchscreen in my kitchen, started out as a digital picture frame company over a decade ago. In September 2020, the company made a meaningful pivot toward building a family command center with the launch of the Skylight Calendar, which syncs with existing digital calendars, like Google Calendar and Outlook, but puts the entire family on one screen. There are also tabs for a to-do list, a grocery list, and a meal plan, all of which are also available on a mobile app. Skylight has since added features, like a gamified chores tab for kids, and an AI assistant called Sidekick that converts emails and even pictures of things like fliers and recipes into calendar events and meal plans. The 27-inch Cal Max, launched last year, costs up to $600, plus an additional $80 a year for access to all the features. Hot on Skylight's heels is an app called Maple, which launched in February 2021. Initially described as 'the back office of every family,' Maple has gone through a few iterations, including one that enabled parents to sell 'ready made plans' to other families, but the app is primarily a family calendar powered by to-do lists. You can create to-dos, assign them to members of the family, and then see a schedule of everything that needs to be done. There's also a meal planner, a family messaging platform, and a project management feature that's surprisingly good at planning birthday parties. It costs $40 a year to sync external calendars, get rid of ads, and access AI features. I know what you're thinking: Google and Apple software can do a lot of this stuff for free. And you'd be right. There's no need to pay for a dedicated family calendar app, if you want to bootstrap existing software, including what you use for work, to stay organized. Tech-savvy parents have been doing this for years. In 2016, a dad in Sweden went semi-viral for blogging about using Slack to keep track of his family and helped inspire The Atlantic story, 'The Slackification of the American home.' Emily Oster, the economist turned parenting guru, canonized the concept in The Family Firm, a book about using off-the-shelf enterprise software like Asana to keep her family organized a few years ago. Just last year, the New York Times spoke to a number of parents, many of whom worked in the venture capital or crypto industries, that use project management tools like Trello and Notion to run their families like startups. 'Tasks and chores, to-do lists, grocery lists: There are apps that do those individual things better than we do,' Michael Segal, co-founder and CEO of Skylight, said in an interview. 'It's just more convenient to do it all in the place where you go to manage the family and home.' Michael Perry, Maple's co-founder and CEO, similarly told me that his company's job is 'building a calendar that's all encompassing for seven days a week of our life as a working parent.' Maple also invites its users to join a Slack community, where they can weigh in on features they love or hate or check out upcoming releases, like Maple's new web app, which is set to launch this fall. Skylight and Maple are the two family assistants I've used the most, but they're hardly the only ones. Hearth sells its own giant touchscreen calendar for your kitchen, and Jam looks like a Maple clone with some Gen Z design flair. Apps like Milo and Ohai lean into the AI of it all, promising to use chatbots to keep your family organized. There are also tech companies trying to connect parents. Honeycomb says it helps parents 'share the mental and logistical load' via group chats and smart calendars, and the Sandwich Club is an AI-powered advice platform that lets other parents weigh in on your questions. The rise of famtech Together, these companies comprise a burgeoning new industry, referred to as famtech. There's even an industry association dedicated to promoting its interests, drumming up investment, and pushing for policy changes for caregivers, like paid family leave. 'Liken it to where financial services has fintech, we look at the care economy as having famtech as its innovation sector,' said Anna Steffany, executive director of 'and we look at family technology as all things addressing the caregiving space.' One trend report, which Steffany contributed to, values the care economy at nearly $650 billion. It's easy to feel skeptical about a single app or kitchen-based touchscreen that promises to make parents' lives easier. Heck, I've been using both for a few weeks now, and it's certainly nice not to have to text my wife every time there's a change in the schedule or to remind me who's on preschool pickup duty that day. Then again, I'm also starting to wonder if using a parenting app just means I'm giving up more data about my family in the services of better targeted ads. (The privacy policies of both Maple and Skylight say the companies may collect and share personal data with third parties.) I'm also acutely aware that having a new tool to manage my family means I've got yet another thing to manage. 'When you're trying to integrate across so many different apps and systems and interfaces, the real cost benefit ratio can get thrown off,' said Daminger, the UW-Madison professor. 'Sometimes we're trying to make things easier, but in the end, we actually end up just creating new forms of labor.' A version of this story was also published in the User Friendly newsletter. Sign up here so you don't miss the next one! Solve the daily Crossword
