Lauren Forrow

Jan 17, 2024 | educationnext.org | Lauren Forrow |Phyllis Jordan |Rebecca Jack |Emily Oster

When the Covid-19 pandemic started in March 2020, schools in the United States closed immediately and remained closed for the rest of that school year. When school was set to start again the following fall, many school districts decided to continue online virtual education as a mitigation measure. Other districts decided to resume in-person schooling, many with masking and social distancing in place.

Oct 6, 2023 | educationnext.org | Frederick M. Hess |Lauren Forrow |Martin R. West |Eric Hanushek

Reports of drops in student achievement due to the pandemic are now treated as old news. Amid abstract reporting of test results, a sense of inevitability and complacency has developed. After all, could the fact that students’ math scores fell by “nine points” truly be important? The reality is that the cohort of students in school in March 2020 has been seriously harmed—implicitly facing a lifetime tax on earnings of 6 percent. And the harm is not going away.