School districts that spent most of the 2020-2021 school year in remote learning saw students fall behind more than a half a grade level in math on average, according to new research.

The study from Harvard and Stanford universities compared students’ achievement to districts that spent most of the year in person.

Also, national test scores from the spring of 2023 found that students in grades 3 through 8 overall have not rebounded from what they lost in math before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Districts need to boost funding for tutoring or summer school to get those numbers back up, according to experts.

There are valuable lessons that were learned during COVID, according to health leaders. Schools should invest in ventilation systems to help build up that resilience to prepare schools for the next health crisis.