Making the decision to open a school to in-person instruction was difficult given the mixed messages of safety handed down by news agencies, the CDC, and state Departments of Education. However, Harvard research now shows that two states, Florida and Texas, that opened to in-person instruction in August, have shown the most favorable academic progress.
Conversely, school districts and states that dragged out remote learning during the pandemic had greater learning losses than others. “Interestingly, gaps in math achievement by race and school poverty did not widen in school districts in states such as Texas and Florida and elsewhere that remained largely in-person,” said Thomas Kane, one of the authors of the study.