One of the remarkable pieces of data is that lower socioeconomic students actually learn more in school than their peers. That's right. They actually start cl

One of the remarkable pieces of data is that lower socioeconomic students actually learn more in school than their peers. That's right. They actually start closing the gap while they're in school. Unfortunately, their higher socioeconomic peers outpace them significantly over the summer. And this swamps the gains made during the school year so the lower socioeconomic students are again at a disadvantage. This is particularly frustrating to people who really do want things to improve education because it is perniciously difficult to counteract--this is where the "year round school" push comes from. So, the 3 worst states magically managed to overcome every mechanism arrayed against them simply by teaching phonics in the classroom? Even during the height of a pandemic in which teachers could barely corral the students let alone teach them something? And, by the way, people have been collecting and pushing data about phonics for years--the data always comes back inconclusive to weak. Many places still teach it. Most places see the same things--focused effort regardless of system results in slight increases in performance.