This is on point. I'm Megna Chakrabardi.

During the COVID pandemic, the United States closed schools for longer than almost every

other similarly developed nation. The price children are paying for those closures is only

now becoming clear and not only in terms of social development and mental health.

Just last week, the federal government released the so-called Nations Report Card, the results

of a national assessment that's been given to American students since the 1970s and what

they found shocked even the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics,

the agency that administers the test. American nine-year-olds performance in math and

reading have dropped back to the levels they were two decades ago.

Put another way, the pandemic erased 20 years of educational gains for third and fourth

graders in this country. Today, we're going to speak with longtime education reporter

Anya Kaminets about kids and the pandemic. She's published a new book titled The Stolen

Year, How COVID Changed Children's Lives, and Where We Go Now. But before we speak with Anya,

let's listen to the story of a student featured in her book.

Jonah is a middle schooler in California's Bay Area. He has autism, dyslexia, and ADHD.

Before March 2020, Jonah was getting comprehensive and effective supports that helped him learn,

moderate his behavior, and engage with the world. But he lost all that when schools closed.

Jonah's mom says she'll never forget the day. March 13, 2020 to be exact. When she found

out San Francisco was shuttering its school buildings.

Because we were actually at his school, it was fifth grade, and he was getting a progress

support, and it was a glowing progress report. And while we were there, all of our phones

buzzed at the same time. And we heard that this was Friday afternoon, and we were not

...