COVID devastated education. This is a chance for renewal.

Desks are spaced apart ahead of planned in-person learning at an elementary school on March 19, 2021, in Philadelphia. The COVID-19 pandemic spared no state or region as it caused historic learning setbacks for America’s children, erasing decades of academic progress and widening racial disparities, according to results of a national test that provide the sharpest look yet at the scale of the crisis. (AP)

The numbers are rolling in now about how much ground our kids have lost academically due to COVID-19, and they are very bad. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known informally as “the nation’s report card,” has released the results of its latest large survey of fourth- and eighth-graders in reading and math.

Reading scores declined in half of states. And in math, well, as Education Week put it, the 2022 NAEP scores showed the “biggest drop in ... performance in 4th and 8th grades since the testing program began in 1990,” resulting in two decades’ worth of progress being nearly wiped out.