How coronavirus school closures could cause 'historic academic regression'

At 8:40 a.m., a mindfulness coach at a private preschool in Miami used Zoom to greet toddlers lounging on carpets, beds and couches at home. Their faces lit up when she sang and said she loved them.

At 8 a.m. in Nashville, Tennessee, charter school teachers met via Zoom while their principal beamed them onto Facebook Live. He reminded students to fill out the daily online survey about their well-being. "Do you feel safe at home?" is a question teachers monitor closely.

At 8:30 a.m. in a Milwaukee suburb, high school students logged on for their first practice day of remote learning. They wouldn't be expected to be online every day and working through new material until this week.

So went another week of school closures across America, where learning from home to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus has become an abnormal state of normal.

Even though nearly all American children have been home from school for almost a month, their experiences continue to be wildly divergent. Some districts pivoted immediately to online learning in mid-March. Others waited until this week to launch formal virtual learning plans. Some schools require work to be graded; others are telling teachers to give all students A's.