US Education Recovery Leaves Middle-Income Districts Behind

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – May 13, 2026 – A major new report on the state of American education reveals a starkly uneven post-pandemic recovery, with the nation’s wealthiest and poorest school districts showing significant academic gains while middle-income districts are being left behind. The findings, part of the fourth annual Education Scorecard, paint a complex picture of progress and peril, highlighting early signs of a turnaround in reading but also exposing a decade-long "learning recession" that began long before COVID-19.

The report, a collaboration between researchers at Harvard University, Stanford University, and Dartmouth College, analyzes test score data from roughly 35 million students in grades 3-8 through the 2024-2025 school year. It identifies a "U-shaped recovery" where the middle is being hollowed out, raising urgent questions about equity and the allocation of resources in the nation's public schools.

The 'Missing Middle' in America's Schools

The Scorecard's most striking finding is the disparity in academic recovery based on district income levels. Both the highest-income districts (with fewer than 30% of students receiving subsidized lunch) and the lowest-income districts (with more than 70%) have improved the most since 2022. In contrast, middle-income districts—those serving a large swath of America where 30% to 70% of students receive federally subsidized lunches—have seen the least improvement on average.

Researchers attribute the gains in the highest-poverty districts largely to the massive infusion of federal pandemic relief funding. The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund, distributed based on the Title I formula, heavily favored districts with high concentrations of low-income students. The report states that without this aid, "the average high-poverty district would have remained at its 2022 level of achievement."

This funding model, however, created a "missing middle." These districts did not qualify for the highest levels of poverty-based aid, yet they often lack the robust local tax bases and private philanthropic support that wealthier districts can draw upon. They serve a significant number of students facing economic hardship but without the resources to match, leaving them struggling to fund the intensive tutoring, extended school days, and mental health supports needed to accelerate recovery.

A 'Learning Recession' That Predates the Pandemic

While the pandemic exacerbated learning gaps, the report makes clear that the crisis in student achievement began much earlier. Researchers pinpoint 2013 as the start of a "learning recession," when student progress in math and reading stalled and began a steady decline. The data shows that the rate of learning loss in reading in the years just before the pandemic (2017–2019) was just as severe as the loss during the pandemic itself. As a result, 8th-grade reading scores are now at their lowest point since 1990.

The report suggests this decade-long erosion coincided with two major shifts. The first was a policy change away from the stringent, federally mandated, test-based accountability of the No Child Left Behind Act. Starting around 2013, the federal government began issuing waivers to states, a trend solidified by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, which returned significant control over accountability to the states. This may have reduced the external pressure on districts to focus on lagging student scores.

The second factor is the dramatic rise of social media in the lives of young people. Independent research has consistently linked heavy social media use to diminished attention spans, reduced capacity for deep thinking, and poorer academic performance.

"The pandemic was the mudslide that followed seven years of erosion in student achievement," said Professor Tom Kane, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. "The 'learning recession' started a decade ago, after policymakers switched off the early warning system of test-based accountability and social media took over children's lives."

A Glimmer of Hope: The 'Science of Reading' Sparks a Turnaround

Amid the concerning trends, the 2025 data offers a significant glimmer of hope, particularly in literacy. While math achievement began rebounding immediately after 2022, reading scores continued to fall through 2024. This year's report marks the first evidence of a turnaround.

This nascent recovery appears strongly linked to state-level adoption of "science of reading" reforms. This evidence-based approach to literacy emphasizes explicit, systematic instruction in foundational skills like phonics and phonemic awareness. According to the Scorecard, all states that saw reading improvement between 2022 and 2025—including the District of Columbia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee—were implementing comprehensive "science of reading" policies.

States like Mississippi, with its long-standing Literacy-Based Promotion Act, and Tennessee, with its newer "Reading 360" initiative, have invested heavily in teacher training and high-quality instructional materials aligned with this approach. In contrast, none of the states that had eschewed such reforms as of early 2024, including California and Massachusetts, saw improvements in reading scores. Researchers caution that these reforms may be a necessary but not sufficient path to improvement, as some states implementing them have yet to see gains.

The Path Forward: Leadership, Attendance, and Shared Strategies

The report outlines several key priorities for education leaders. A major headwind continues to be chronic absenteeism. In the 2024–2025 school year, 23% of students were chronically absent—missing at least 10% of school days. While down from its post-pandemic peak, this is still far above the pre-pandemic rate of 15% and is estimated to have slowed recovery by the equivalent of one to two weeks of learning per year. Experts stress that effective interventions require a multi-tiered approach, including early warning systems, strong family engagement, and addressing root causes like health and housing instability.

Despite these challenges, the Scorecard identifies 108 "Districts on the Rise" that are proving success is possible. These districts have achieved large improvements in both reading and math relative to their peers, even when serving similar student populations. Their success underscores a central theme of the report: leadership and strategy matter.

"The 108 'Districts on the Rise' are proof that leadership matters and demographics are not destiny," said Tom Kane. "In districts with high poverty and persistent challenges, local leaders are finding ways to accelerate recovery. We owe it to our children to understand what they are doing and help spread it."

The report calls on states to pair these successful districts with struggling peers to share recovery strategies. It also urges policymakers to direct resources to the middle-income districts that have been overlooked and to fund further research into the impacts of social media and the most effective literacy and attendance interventions.

"From the early 1990s through 2013, public elementary and middle school students' math and reading skills improved dramatically... and racial/ethnic achievement disparities narrowed," said Professor Sean Reardon of Stanford University. "That shows that we can improve our public schools and equalize educational opportunity. But we haven't been doing much of that for the last decade. It's time now to make our public schools once again the engine of the American Dream."