Four years ago, on March 12, 2020, Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio took the extraordinary step of closing all schools in the state in light of the then nascent coronavirus pandemic. In less than a week, the rest of the nation made that extraordinary step ordinary, and America’s public schools would remain closed until the end of the school year.
The school closures and remote schooling that followed are now years behind us. Nonetheless, just as some individuals still suffer from long COVID months after being infected, schools are still suffering from a long COVID of their own.
Having cataloged how the nation’s schools responded to the pandemic for the past four years, I see two main challenges facing schools today. The first is learning loss, which at its height in 2022 saw students more than half a year behind in math and more than a third of a year behind in reading.
The second is less well-known but arguably…
