Quick Hit:

A new study shows that many parents are unaware of their children’s academic performance following COVID-19 due to states’ failure to provide accessible school data. The lack of transparency hinders parents’ ability to evaluate schools and hold them accountable.

Key Details:

• A study by Arizona State University found that 35 states received a grade of "C" or lower for transparency in school performance data.
• 13 states, including Maine, New Mexico, and North Dakota, received an "F" for providing little to no accessible information.
• Only 7 states received an "A" for making school performance data easily available to the public.

Diving Deeper:

Parents across the U.S. are struggling to find reliable data on their children's school performance post-COVID, according to a study from Arizona State University's Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE). The study graded state education websites based on the ease of access to critical data like student achievement, absenteeism, and graduation rates. Results showed that most states are failing to provide transparent, easily accessible data to parents, with 35 states earning a "C" grade or lower.

Thirteen states were handed failing grades, including Maine, New Mexico, and North Dakota, which earned zero points on a 21-point scale. On the other end, only seven states received an "A" for their efforts to make this important data available. Without access to this information, many parents remain unaware of how far their children may have fallen behind due to pandemic-related disruptions.

The fallout from COVID-19 extended far beyond school closures, exacerbating existing challenges such as teacher shortages, unequal access to technology, and growing achievement gaps. Student absenteeism soared, graduation rates fluctuated, and proficiency among English learners declined significantly. Yet, despite these concerns, states have largely failed to provide parents with the information needed to gauge their child's educational standing or the effectiveness of their local schools.

Morgan Polikoff, an education professor at USC Rossier and lead researcher for the CRPE study, emphasized the problem, stating, "We’ve been doing testing and accountability for like two decades, and the fact that you still have so much data that’s just missing...is problematic."

Adding to the complexity, political leaders have focused on ideological battles rather than education reform. Former President Donald Trump has pushed for "patriotic" history lessons and discussed abolishing the Department of Education, while Vice President Kamala Harris has concentrated on school safety issues, leaving many parents in the dark about academic performance.

Without clear data, parents are left to navigate school choices based on limited information, making it harder to advocate for improvements. As debates over education continue, the lack of transparency leaves critical questions about the true state of post-COVID learning unanswered.