As the new school year begins, parents, researchers, advocates, and educators are still trying to untangle the academic, mental and social-emotional consequences of the pandemic. There is no one answer to the question: Are the kids OK? Academics with a...

California’s K–12 students experienced significant academic setbacks during the 2020-21 school year of mainly remote learning, showing growing achievement gaps, lagging progress in math and English, increased chronic absenteeism and a slight decline in the statewide graduation rate, according to...

California high school seniors were in 10th grade when the Covid-19 pandemic closed schools and sent them home to learn. This year, many seniors are either struggling to earn enough credits to graduate or, because of a new state law...

It didn’t take long before the consequences of the pandemic shone a spotlight on the growing inequities within our communities and systems. Existing disparities in housing and food security, education, and health care, for example, grew wider between socioeconomic and...

Students across the nation, including in Kern County are testing lower than required for their grade level as a result of virtual learning in the past year and a half. Teachers said it helps that the students are back in...

Much of the discourse around learning loss has gotten stuck on what to call it. Learning lag, interrupted learning and unfinished learning are favored among academics, because knowledge did not vanish from the minds of young people. Kids just didn’t...

As of Sept. 23, Piedmont, Hayward, and Oakland students — 12 and older — must be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing to attend school in person. This mandate goes into effect starting November for Piedmont and December 17 for Hayward...

One of the major disruptions to daily life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic was the rapid shift from in-person K–12 education to virtual learning. While necessary for social distancing and slowing the spread of disease, there is a concern that...

The pandemic has touched many students with heightened stress, disruptions and remote learning hurdles, but experts say it may have the greatest impact on the youngest learners, those in the formative years of learning to read. Creating a language-rich environment on...

As most students in California return to the classroom, many educators and parents are concerned that a year or more of Zoom school means students may be lagging behind where they would have been if there had been no pandemic. Learning loss...

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been clear that not all students have been impacted by the switch to online learning in the same ways. The greatest impacts have fallen on young children, as well as English language learners and low-income...

All throughout the previous year, we held our collective breaths in hope for a “return to normal,” while recognizing that whatever we returned to would look very different. As school starts this fall, after a year of interrupted learning imposed...

The Education Department projects that homelessness within the public school system has increased by an astounding 70% in the past ten years. This poses problems when the school bell rings, but those issues don’t dissipate when class is not in...

Thanks to unprecedented funding from the American Rescue Plan and other federal, state, and local resources, school districts across the country are leveraging several evidence-informed strategies to accelerate learning and provide students with needed supports and services. Local initiatives include...

Any effort to reach students disproportionately affected by the pandemic must address the needs of English learners (ELs). These students have always been underserved and underfunded by the U.S. education system. And now, data suggests that these students have been...

With the 2020-21 school year in the rearview mirror, now is the opportunity to take a breath and turn our attention to how we want to approach the upcoming school year to maximize recovery. To expand our understanding of the...

With the 2020–21 school year in the rearview mirror, now is the opportunity to take a breath and turn our attention to how we want to approach the upcoming school year to maximize recovery. As data experts, we believe that...

A new law offers California students several ways to make up for lost learning after the profound disruptions of the pandemic year. Under AB104, signed into law Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, K-12 students have a number of options to...

Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed a law to help alleviate the pandemic’s effect on grades and graduation credits by giving California students an opportunity to redo a grade level. Assembly Bill 104, now law, creates a range of grading options to accommodate K-12 students who struggled during the 2020-21 academic year, when distance learning disrupted classroom routines.

Schools are emphasizing summer programs—some underway now, and others still to come, as summer break varies across the country—in part because they fear remote learning wasn't the best for academic and social growth. Just how far behind students fell is...

Given how many kindergartners struggled with remote learning this year and the many families who opted out of kindergarten during the pandemic, experts say it’s likely a lot of children might need to play catch-up this summer before heading into...

As a full return to in-person instruction in the fall seems more likely, almost everyone associated with public education is hoping for a return to some semblance of normalcy.  But with the global pandemic revealing long-standing inequities in stark and painful ways...

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s bill to address learning loss suffered by students learning virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic has had some ups and downs: When she first introduced the measure, she told VOSD, “No one wants me to do this bill.”...