Report: Kids' test scores began falling years before COVID
May 19, 2026
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1:09Now PlayingReport: Kids' test scores began falling years before COVID
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as posted by the channelA report out today offers new details on math and reading scores for students in the United States — researchers say big losses in learning didn’t begin with the coronavirus pandemic some six years ago, but years earlier.
The Education Scorecard comes from researchers at Stanford, Harvard and Dartmouth. Poring over decades of math and reading scores, researchers say learning recession began around 2013.
As for why learning got so derailed, the researchers have two theories: a big federal education law was essentially abandoned around 2013, meaning school leaders started feeling less pressure to improve, and social media use among children started to skyrocket.
Check out NPR News Now wherever you listen to podcasts for more of today’s news.
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