Back to School During K-12 Education's Long COVID

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Back-to-school season is here for America’s 50 million K-12 public school students and 3 million teachers. But this is not a typical back-to-school time, as schools confront “education’s long COVID.”

Six post-pandemic realities create challenges and opportunities for America’s K-12 system:

1. Students are behind academically
The assessment provider NWEA reports that students in grades three to eight lost ground in reading and math during the 2022-23 school year. On average, they need four more months in school to catch up to pre-pandemic levels, though even “average” hides variation across grades, subjects, and characteristics like race and income levels. These results are similar to other analyses, including that of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Unfortunately, parents’ perceptions of what children are learning in school do not mirror the reality of learning loss. This is “education’s long COVID.”

2. Student mental health has declined
Pandemic effects on young people’s general well-being are worrying. One analysis reports that from April 2020 to October 2020—the period when the pandemic first peaked, and widespread closures were underway—“the proportion of mental health–related visits” to emergency departments rose by 24 percent over pre-pandemic levels for children aged 5 to 11 and by 31 percent for children aged 12–17. By April 2022, 70 percent of public schools reported an increase in the percentage of children seeking school mental-health services compared to pre-pandemic levels. Finally, one analysis suggests a connection between student learning loss and community disruptions. For example, learning loss was greater in communities with higher COVID death rates, adult rates of anxiety and depression, and levels of disruption to daily routines.

3. Families are choosing other education options
The pandemic produced an exodus from public schools of over 1 million students. The New York Times calls it a “supersized . . . seismic hit” (though declining birth and immigration rates played a role as well). Parents began choosing new options for their children, including private and parochial schools, micro-schools, and learning podsHomeschooling enrollment hit record levels. Policymakers created new K-12 funding programs like education savings accounts that allowed families to pay for private school tuition or other educational services. 

4. School districts face fiscal problems
Declining enrollment means less funding for school districts since funding is based on enrollment. Inflation has raised district costs on all fronts, from food to fuel. Finally, deadlines for spending federal pandemic relief funds are nearing or have passed for designating a purpose for the money. These factors result in a significant revenue drop-off for school systems, creating a fiscal cliff.

5. College has lost its glow for families, students, and employers
Surveys of young people and adults, such as the Wall Street Journal/NORC poll, report growing skepticism about a college degree’s value. Today, the percentage of Gen Z high schoolers considering a degree is around 50%, down more than 10 percentage points from before the pandemic and 20 points since an all-time high soon after the pandemic began. They want options like online courses, “boot camps,” and apprenticeships. Finally, employers increasingly no longer use a degree as the gatekeeper credential for jobs; they are shifting from degree-based to skills-based hiring.

6. K-12 pandemic recovery efforts lag
There is a disconnect between student needs and school system remedies. Districts are spending the federal $190 billion pandemic relief support at a “snail’s pace.” For example, the 25 largest school districts using remote learning for at least half the 2020–21 school year spent, on average, only about 15 percent of their relief funds. Recovery efforts, as promising as some are, face an “urgency gap,” with “little evidence of systematic catchup.” The September 2024 deadline for committing federal funds is fast approaching.

As a new school year begins, we can imagine an agenda that responds to the six challenges facing post-pandemic K-12 education.

Programs exist to accelerate student learning, including evidence-based ones like intensive small-group tutoringcompetency-based instruction, which allows students to advance based on what they know and can do, rather than by age; old-fashioned summer school; extra instruction in core subjects; lengthening the school year; and offering financial incentives to students, parents, and teachers for things like reading books, attending classes, or, in the teachers’ case, achieving specific learning outcomes in their classes. 

The key to district implementation success for these programs is strong support from principals and other school leaders, including a school district program manager.

Additionally, elected state leaders have expanded school-choice options or created new ones, including open enrollment across school district boundaries, school vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, and education savings accounts. This creates a more pluralistic K-12 system with more educational options for families and students.

Education’s long COVID will not go away by wishing it away. As a new school year begins, the onus is on K-12 advocates and stakeholders to up their game. This is an opportunity for genuine leadership, for rising to the challenge and mobilizing a recovery effort worthy of our young people.

If we don’t do so, the consequence will be a COVID generation leaving the K-12 system unprepared to pursue opportunity and reach its full potential.



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