When it comes to the pandemic’s impact on academic achievement, no children are immune. But just as COVID-19 itself has hit underserved demographics the hardest, minority students in poorly equipped schools experienced the steepest slides in the national test-score decline. According to a new federal study, math and reading scores fell across the board for the nation’s 9-year-olds during the first two years of the pandemic. However, explained Rutgers University–Camden Assistant Professor Valerie Adams-Bass, a researcher for the Department of Childhood Studies in the Camden College of Arts and Sciences, students of color face systemic disadvantages that exacerbate an already dire situation. To read the full story.