The Covid pandemic has affected all of us differently, but no one lost more than America’s youth.
The learning losses among American children during the lockdowns became apparent last fall after the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released data showing a precipitous decline in test scores of fourth and eighth graders. Based on this data, Eric Hanushek of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University estimated the economic cost of these learning losses will have substantial long-term negative effects on students’ lifetime earnings and the overall U.S. economy.
Hanushek focused his economic analysis on the eighth-graders because students in this grade are
