A new review of COVID-era research shows that K–12 students around the world suffered harrowing learning loss due to school closures that persists today. The meta-analysis, published Monday in the science journal Nature Human Behavior, finds that students experienced average learning deficits equal to about one-third of a school year. And the harm was more severe in relatively poorer countries and among poorer populations of students.

Those conclusions represent the latest and widest-ranging evidence yet of the damage inflicted by the emergence of COVID — both in terms of direct interruptions to schooling and the social and economic turmoil in other spheres of life. They dovetail with the observations of education experts who have also pointed to steep declines in nationwide academic performance, along with the billion-dollar investments made by governments to help schools bounce back.

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