Why Oregon schools' pandemic recovery lags behind much of the nation

Sitting in his living room with his mom, fourth grader Judah Moisan holds up a post-it note where he's written the words "Priority," and "Frenzy."

They're song titles, he explains, for his first album with his future punk rock band, which will be called Siblings of War. Judah plays bass. Their band will be kind of like Green Day, he says, except made up of ten-year-olds instead of "old guys." Obviously.

Just writing down these song names is a small act of progress for this future rock star. Judah has been struggling with writing in the last few years. He is one of many of Oregon's students who are still grappling with pandemic related setbacks.

Oregon schools are struggling more than others across the country to close this gap, according to a recent study from researchers at Harvard and Stanford evaluating state efforts to recover academic learning losses. The federal government invested billions of dollars in aid to states towards this effort.

Surveyed schools in Oregon remain nearly two-thirds of a year behind pre-pandemic levels in reading and three-fourths of a year behind in math, according to the study. Learning loss in Oregon is roughly two to three times worse than national averages.

Judah is a kid who likes to go deep into his interests. His mom, Jane Moisan, recalls her son reading her the liner notes from Beatles' albums when he was four years old. His favorite book? Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe. His favorite story? "The Tell-Tale heart."

Because of his natural curiosity and aptitude, Jane wasn't overly concerned about his scholastic development during the pandemic. The Moisans abandoned the online learning platform the school provided in favor of their own curriculum.

But Jane says she didn't realize