It can be easy to think of school closures, remote learning and masked classrooms as part of the pandemic past.

But educators across the country know better. They see the learning loss that persists, despite their best efforts to provide some measure of consistency amid all the disruption.

While new data suggest students are making a “ ‘surprising’ rebound,” findings also show math and reading levels for elementary and middle school students are nowhere near pre-pandemic levels.

Worse yet, systemic inequality has actually worsened, with students in the poorest communities falling even further behind their more affluent peers.

Recognizing near the start of the pandemic that U.S. public schools required vast support, federal and state government officials appropriated historic levels of help via elementary and secondary school emergency relief funds.

Read the full article about pandemic funds for learning loss by Hamlet Michael Hernandez at The Hechinger Report .