Younger students have regained academic ground lost during the pandemic, but older students' test scores remain stagnant. That's according to the latest testing data released Wednesday by the federal government. The report shows 9-year-olds have returned to pre-pandemic reading levels and improved in math. But scores for 13-year-olds in math and reading are still below pre-pandemic averages. Schools have focused on revamping elementary instruction, especially in reading, but experts say more attention is also needed for adolescents, especially middle schoolers. The national test has been given every four years since the 1970s. Students' scores peaked in 2012, then declined, corresponding with the rise of social media on cellphones.

Under Trump administration, efforts to address deep-rooted inequities for students of color are being cast as discriminatory against white students. Civil rights lawyers describe the Republican administration's actions as an inversion of legal history. The federal government long enforced civil rights laws with an eye toward remedying historic, systemic discrimination against Black people and other people of color. Programs that withstood legal scrutiny are now quick to be deemed "illegal" examples of diversity, equity and inclusion by the White House. Schools that fail to comply have faced threats to their funding and in some cases have lost federal grants.

Schools across the U.S. are starting to rethink the abundance of digital devices in classrooms. After pouring billions of dollars into laptops, tablets and learning apps, a growing number of schools say it is time to scale back. The Los Angeles public school system announced it will stop giving its youngest students devices, as part of a sweeping new screen policy in the nation's second-largest school district. Concerned parents are driving the reforms. As one mother says: her daughter came home from school "with a screen addiction in her backpack."