Story perspectives

Scorecard Flags 2013 Learning Recession; Detroit, Baltimore Improve

5/13/2026

Summary

Story summary

Stanford, Harvard and Dartmouth researchers released the Education Scorecard, identifying a learning recession that began around 2013.
Authors cite the 2013 No Child Left Behind rollback and rising teen social-media use as triggers of the decline.
Detroit’s Munger school reduced chronic absenteeism to 61% and raised English-learner growth to 74% in 2025.
Baltimore City schools restored reading scores to 2017 levels after adopting a science-of-reading curriculum in 2016.

History

Historical Context

The 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act began aid. After the 1983 A Nation at Risk report called for standards, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left-Behind Act in 2001, mandating tests. NAEP data in 2005 showed nine-year-olds’ reading scores improved more than in 28 years, but 2013 rollback and social-media use have coincided with a learning recession in Detroit and Baltimore.

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Story summary

Stanford, Harvard and Dartmouth researchers released the Education Scorecard, identifying a learning recession that began around 2013.
Authors cite the 2013 No Child Left Behind rollback and rising teen social-media use as triggers of the decline.
Detroit’s Munger school reduced chronic absenteeism to 61% and raised English-learner growth to 74% in 2025.
Baltimore City schools restored reading scores to 2017 levels after adopting a science-of-reading curriculum in 2016.

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