Research Wednesday | January 29, 2025
Dear Friends,
This week’s evidence is a disappointing report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Years after students returned to school, the evidence suggests that a combination of absenteeism and the failure of distance learning had a particularly adverse impact on high-poverty families. This is particularly acute for families when students cannot attend after-school and summer school support. This clarifies how important our advice has been to help schools focus on academic support during the day, with weekly support – not waiting for the end-of-semester and end-of-year intervention. Schools with fewer periods during the day – 5, not 9, have better results. This requires some tough trade-offs – fewer periods give teachers more time but also limits electives. However, that is what elite independent schools do; traditional public schools could learn from that.
Here's the link to the research report: