From CBS News Headquarters in New York, this is the CBS Evening News.

Good evening.

I'm Maurice Dubois.

I'm John Dickerson.

We begin tonight with a classic question that has come to symbolize a crisis in American education.

Why can't Johnny Reed? The question has its roots in a best-selling book

first published 70 years ago.

We ask it again now after the release today

of a troubling report that highlights an ongoing crisis.

It shows that five years after the COVID pandemic

forced millions of kids out of their classrooms, many have yet to catch up.

The average student is still nearly half a grade behind in reading, math too.

One reason long after schools reopened, many students are still skipping class, but it's not all bad news.

Caitlin Huey Burns tells us the report also points to areas where kids are doing

well. When you get a day off, what do you do with your day off? Go to sleep. We went to Kramer

Middle School in Washington, D.C., where we met eighth grader, Aidan Wiggins. He and his classmates

spent about a year and a half in remote learning during the pandemic.

What do you think was the hardest thing in school after the pandemic?

I would say math.

Math. And why do you think?

Really in quarantine. I really wasn't paying attention to it.

Aden wasn't alone. New national test results show that not a single state scored above pre-pandemic

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