And here鈥檚 a twist: The same core difficulties are bedeviling teachers too.

The findings, contained in a new working paper, are believed to be the first to identify brain changes as an explanation for why students have suffered, both inside and outside the classroom, since the pandemic drove millions out of the classroom. 

, a Harvard University psychologist who studies the effects of stress on executive functions and who is the study鈥檚 lead author, said the new findings offer the first evidence to help us 鈥渦nderstand the 鈥榳hy鈥欌�� of the pandemic downturn 鈥� 鈥渨hat is actually causing all these issues that we’re seeing and talking about in the news.鈥�

The paper, from the educational assessment and services company“, examines the cognitive skills of students nationwide and finds that, simply put, over the past several years, kids鈥� famously ever-changing brains have changed for the worse.聽

Since the pandemic鈥檚 onset, students across all ages and economic levels have begun to demonstrate weaker memory and 鈥渇lexible thinking鈥� skills 鈥� those represent the mental bandwidth needed for multitasking, shifting from one activity to another and juggling the day鈥檚 demands. But for a few groups, such as younger and lower-income children, the changes have been more profound.

They also show that their teachers鈥� brains are weaker in almost identical ways, which could help explain high rates of frustration and burnout. They suggest school districts have their work cut out for them if they want to keep their best employees on the payroll and returning to the classroom each fall. 

Understanding the 鈥榳hy鈥� of pandemic downturn

The data come from a large, widely-used assessment, the , developed in 2013 at the University of Pennsylvania. It consists of a series of cognitive tasks that measure subjects鈥� accuracy and speed in several major cognitive domains, including working memory, abstraction, sustained attention, episodic memory and processing speed. 

MindPrint has administered the assessment periodically to its clients over the past decade. The most recent rounds totaled 35,000 students and 4,000 teachers in 27 states.

By most measures, U.S. students are suffering. Last year, NAEP scores showed the average 13-year-old鈥檚 understanding of math dropping to levels last seen in the 1990s and reading levels dropping to 1971, when the test was first administered.

More recent research has shown that while older children are showing encouraging signs of academic recovery, younger kids aren鈥檛 making the same progress. Many students who weren鈥檛 even in a formal school setting when COVID hit are already falling behind 鈥� especially in math.

The Penn assessment found that children who attended elementary or pre-school during the pandemic and who are now 8 to13 years old showed the largest declines in memory. 

鈥淵ounger kids haven’t really developed a lot of these core cognitive skills,鈥� Tsai said. 鈥淚t hasn’t solidified for them, either through development or just through practice in the classroom. And so younger kids are more vulnerable to these pandemic shifts.鈥�

But students across all age groups showed worse flexible thinking, which researchers now theorize contributes to lower academic performance 鈥� as well as challenging behaviors.

Tsai said kids from lower income backgrounds were more vulnerable to these changes, specifically in verbal reasoning and verbal memory, than their higher income peers, with bigger declines in verbal scores, which are highly correlated with academic achievement in all subjects.

Adults in the study had similar declines in both memory and flexible thinking, possibly explaining higher reported levels of and .

Nancy Weinstein, MindPrint鈥檚 CEO, said weaker flexible thinking isn鈥檛 necessarily a problem for experienced teachers who have developed strategies to cope with stressful situations and can modify plans on the fly. But those with less experience may be unable to change gears when lessons go astray or students act out in class. That may lead to higher teacher burnout.

Across the board, teachers鈥� skills suffered in areas such as verbal and abstract reasoning, spatial perception, attention and working memory, but they saw the greatest losses in verbal memory and flexible thinking.

鈥淚f we care about that, we need to know how to help them,鈥� Weinstein said. 鈥淎nd there are some tried and true things you can do.鈥�

She said schools should consider sharing data like this with teachers so they can understand that their frustration in class might not be due to students alone. That could make a big difference, she said, in 鈥渢heir willingness to put in the effort to change, as opposed to saying, ‘Why bother?’鈥�

For students, Weinstein said, offering them more opportunities to practice skills with between study sessions could help. Schools should also consider 鈥溾�� techniques that break learning into chunks and address each individually.

Could such techniques help students 鈥� and teachers 鈥� regain a measure of pre-pandemic skills? Weinstein suggests the answer is 鈥淵es.鈥�

鈥淭he environment will matter, but certainly we can regain some of that if we do the right things,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd we know what the right things are to do.鈥�

Crystal Green-Braswell, coordinator of staff wellness and culture for the Little Rock School District in Arkansas, said offering the Penn assessment to teachers and staff has helped many think more deeply about their work 鈥� and about their own thinking. 

鈥淧eople who have had the assessment will say, ‘Now, you know my processing speed is slower 鈥� y’all are going to have to give me a moment,’鈥� she said. 

That鈥檚 a huge change in a profession in which most workers have been asked 鈥渢o take ourselves out of the equation and just get the work done,鈥� Green-Braswell said. 

She sees offering such insights to educators as part of 鈥渞ehumanizing鈥� teaching. 鈥淲hen we provide this kind of assessment and we provide this kind of space for folks to actually get to know themselves, we are humanizing this profession and helping people to realize, ‘You play a role. You play an active role. You matter.’ 鈥�