The new study, published in the American Economic Review: Insights this month, looked at data from 11 state standardized tests across grades 3–8 and found that pass rates on these tests had declined significantly from 2019 to 2021, with an average decline of 12.8 percentage points in math and 6.8 percentage points in English language arts.

However, the study found that schools that offered fully in-person instruction, as opposed to fully online instruction, did not experience such a decline in test scores. “Offering fully in-person learning, rather than fully virtual learning, reduced pass rate losses by approximately 13 percentage points in math and approximately 8 percentage points in” English, the study reads. Even offering hybrid instruction lessened the blow: Hybrid schools reduced their educational losses by “7 percentage points in math, and 5 to 6 in [English],” when compared with fully online schools, according to the study.

“Our analyses demonstrate that hybrid or virtual schooling modes cannot support student learning in the same way as fully in-person instruction can, at least during this elementary and middle school period,” the study concludes. “As such, educational impacts of schooling mode on students’ learning outcomes should be a critical factor in policy responses to future pandemics or other large-scale schooling disruptions.”

[We will be dealing with these consequences for a generation, all in service to a policy that scientific data almost immediately indicated was unnecessary. The educational establishment abandoned children in an attempt to flex political muscle and stoke pandemic hysteria rather than “follow the science.” It’s too late this time — but perhaps it will make a difference the next time. Perhaps. — Ed]