Unfinished Learning

Unfinished Learning explores what happened to families and to children during the pandemic school closures of 2020 and 2021.

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COVID-related school closures affected all students. But for students who needed in-person schooling most—students with disabilities, English learners, and students living in poverty—the impact was disproportionate and devastating. One research calls it “the largest increase in educational inequity in a generation.”

Unfinished Learning follows families as they navigate the challenges of virtual learning, from figuring out how to log on to a sometimes unstable school platform to ensuring that their child’s special education needs were addressed. It looks at what data is now showing about which students are (and which students are not) recovering from learning lost during the pandemic.

The book also traces the parent activism that arose as a result of school closures. It explores two elections that followed close on the heels of school reopenings: the 2021 election for governor in Virginia and the 2022 recall of school board members in San Francisco. Many of the conclusions drawn by pundits about both those elections do not fit with either the polling or with parent interviews. Finally, the book offers some suggestions on how schools, families, and communities can prepare for the inevitable next school closures.