From the article: "One in four students today is chronically absent, meaning that they miss more than a tenth of instructional days, a substantial increase fro

From the article: "One in four students today is chronically absent, meaning that they miss more than a tenth of instructional days, a substantial increase from pre-pandemic averages. ... Roughly 40 percent of middle-school teachers work in schools where there are no late penalties for coursework, no zeroes for missing coursework, and unlimited redos of tests." That alone may explain the declines in at the bottom. "80% of success is showing up", as Woody Allen once said.