# Pandemic, Politics, Pre-K & More: 12 Charts That Defined Education in 2024 December 15, 2024 *From the spread of AI to the limits of federal COVID aid, these research findings captured the world of education this year.* As 2024 reaches its end, it’s a good time to ask what’s coming next for K–12 education. Nearly five years after the emergence of COVID, the pandemic’s after-effects still ripple through schools and communities, with student learning persistently failing to reach levels seen in 2019. Just under $200 billion in federal assistance to states, which was used to keep districts afloat during the crisis, expired in September — with no further help visible on the horizon. Increasingly, though, the kids filling American schools have only dim memories of quarantines or virtual instruction. Their experience is instead defined by a rash of trends and technologies that sprang up, or became much more common, during the period when schooling was scrambled: a massive build-out of tutoring programs; the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence as a tool of both academic achievement and academic dishonesty; a rise in student despair and anxiety, which some experts attribute to the spread of smartphones; and, for adolescents, soaring recreational marijuana use under newly permissive state laws. Tomorrow is coming faster than ever, and its contours will be shaped by new leadership in Washington. After a fervid campaign season, President-elect Trump has already vowed to essentially terminate the federal government’s role in setting education policy by eliminating the U.S. Department of Education. But before turning to the future, The 74 is taking a look back at 2024’s biggest discoveries from the world of education research. Welcome to the year in charts. ### **Federal Funds Lifted Learning — But Not Enough** Two papers released this summer by the Education Recovery Scorecard and the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research attempted to quantify the effects of the federal government’s [ESSER funds](https://osse.dc.gov/page/elementary-and-secondary-school-emergency-relief-esser-grants), which channeled $190 billion to schools and districts over the last four years in response to the pandemic. Their findings showed that the money has helped, but came nowhere close to filling the academic hole left by COVID. ESSER’s benefits were relatively modest (measured in math test scores, each $1,000 spent yielded about 10 percent of what is generally considered a medium-sized effect in education research) and distributed unequally, as different school districts received wildly divergent amounts from Washington. Assuming a similar bang for the buck, Congress would have to appropriate between $450 and $900 billion in further legislation in order to bring learning back to where it was in 2019, the researchers estimated. That’s almost certainly not going to happen; ESSER funds officially dried up this September, and no effort has been made to renew them. If no further assistance is coming, the program’s legacy will have been helping to spur an incomplete learning recovery: According to [a January analysis](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/31/us/pandemic-learning-loss-recovery.html) released by the leaders of the Education Recovery Scorecard, students across the country had only made up one-quarter of their lost progress in reading, and one-third of their deficits in math, by the beginning of this year. Read more at [the74million.org](https://www.the74million.org/article/charts-that-defined-education-in-2024/). See also:- [ In the News ](/cepr-in-the-news) - [ Education Recovery Scorecard ](/projects/education-recovery-scorecard) - [ 2024 ](/year/2024) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)