From New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro. This is the Daily.

Today, what students didn't learn because of the pandemic and the challenges they're facing

now from the Delta variant. Kevin Rus spoke with our colleague, education reporter Dana Goldstein.

It's Wednesday, September 1st.

Dana, it's been 18 months more or less since schools first closed due to the pandemic.

And I think we all know it's been a hugely challenging time for parents and kids, navigating

all this distance learning, hybrid learning, all these new COVID protocols.

And there's still, I'm sure a lot we don't know, but you've been reporting on some new

information about what we do know now about the impacts of the last 18 months on students

and their learning. Can you just walk me through your reporting on the impact that COVID has

had on students and their learning?

Sure, it has definitely had an impact on the learning of students of all ages, but some

of the most worrying academic data that we've seen have come with the youngest children.

And that's not necessarily surprising.

Some of the kids that were asked to learn online this past year are too young to read, too

young to type, too young to log into a computer without adult help.

And not every child had an adult who could sit side by side with them, you know, for hours

every day to handle this.

So we do see what I would like to call missed learning.

And I'm using the term missed learning, even though learning loss is what's commonly talked

about.

Why is that?

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