Nearly 60 Percent of College Students with a Psychosis Diagnosis Are Not Receiving the Recommended Mental Health Treatment

Although the majority of students sought and received therapy or counseling in the past 12 months, less than 40 percent received the recommended combination of therapy/counseling and antipsychotic medication, suggesting potential barriers to accessing this medication.

Despite a low overall prevalence of psychosis in the United States, affecting three percent of the population, this condition is a serious public health concern because people often delay seeking care for an average of 74 weeks from the time symptoms begin. As psychosis tends to emerge in early adulthood, it’s important to understand the reasons why young adults who experience psychosis seek—or do not seek—mental health treatment. 

A new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researcher examined the perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes that influenced college students’ with a diagnosis of psychosis to seek help for their mental health and found that while a majority of these students believed they needed mental health treatment, 60 percent of students did not meet current recommended guidelines for combined antipsychotic medication and therapy. 

Published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, the study found that nearly 8 in 10 surveyed college students with psychosis reported needing mental health support. While 8 in 10 students did seek therapy or counseling within the past 12 months, only 4 in 10 students reported taking antipsychotic medication. 

“This high identified need for help but low utilization of services indicates potential barriers to accessing this care,” says study lead and corresponding author Clara Godoy-Henderson, a PhD student in health services and policy research at BUSPH. “Early intervention and access to services such as therapy and medication in this population are important because it improves outcomes related to overall quality of life, school involvement, employment, symptom severity, and relapse rate.”

The study is among the largest to assess the use of antipsychotic medication, therapy/counseling, and informal support among college students with psychosis. As the average age of onset of psychosis is about 20 years old, understanding college students’ perceptions and behaviors around treating this condition can help identify opportunities for earlier interventions that could improve psychosis outcomes.

For the study, Godoy-Henderson and colleagues at BUSPH and the University of Minnesota analyzed national survey data from the Healthy Minds Study, the nation’s largest survey of student mental health, conducted by the Healthy Minds Network. The researchers examined responses from 2,819 college students with a diagnosis of psychosis, provided between 2015-2024, about their 12-month history with therapy/counseling and antipsychotic medication, as well as whether informal support from various groups around them (friends, loved ones, roommates, campus staff, religious counselors, or support groups) motivated them to seek or utilize these services.

Overall, the majority of students—nearly 60 percent—believed that they needed help for their psychosis condition. Students who did not believe they needed mental health help—or who believed that therapy/counseling and medication would not be helpful in treating their condition—were less likely to seek and receive these services. Still, the high identified need for help, but low utilization of antipsychotic medication, may indicate that students are encountering barriers to care, such as stigma—an issue that is also the focus of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Month, an awareness campaign held each May by the National Alliance on Mental Illness. 

The findings also suggested that college students who believed they needed mental health treatment were more likely to have received informal support from health professionals or friends, and were more likely to take antipsychotic medication and/or receive therapy/counseling if they were encouraged—versus being pressured or forced to seek help, as is often the case when patients can be institutionalized for their mental health.

"Support systems play a crucial role in identifying early psychosis symptoms and help navigate mental health services, which may be an important factor in treatment initiation,” says Godoy-Henderson. “However, future research should examine the long-term outcomes of individuals who are encouraged by their support systems to seek help for their mental health versus being mandated to treatment.”

Future research should also aim “to better understand the barriers to antipsychotic medication to improve poor outcomes, such as delayed care, and high relapse rates in individuals with psychosis,” she says.

The study’s senior author is Dr. Sarah Lipson, associate professor of health law, policy & management at BUSPH and a principal investigator of the Healthy Minds Network.

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Journal

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology

DOI

10.1007/s00127-026-03102-7#Sec13 

Is listening to music while studying a helpful habit or hidden distraction?

 New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has shed light on why so many students listen to background music while studying, and whether it helps or hinders their focus. 

The study, led by Dr Lindsey Cooke, surveyed more than 220 university students about whether they listen to music while reading for studying purposes.  

The findings suggest that the impact of music on study performance is not universal and instead shaped by individual differences in how people engage with music. 

More than half of the students (54 per cent) reported regularly listening to music when reading for study, while 46 per cent preferred silence.  

Among those who listened to music, almost all believed it helped their reading. 

Students described using music to boost motivation, enhance focus, or block out external noise, with Classical and Rock emerging as the most common genres. Many preferred non‑lyrical, slow music to support concentration. 

“Many students feel music helps them get into the zone, especially when they’re studying in noisy or distracting environments,” Dr Cooke said. 

Dr Cooke said the findings challenge long‑held assumptions about the cognitive impact of music during study. 

“There’s a widespread belief that music automatically drains cognitive resources, but our data shows the story is far more individual,” she said. 

The study found that a student’s working memory capacity or tendency to mind wander (daydream) did not influence whether they chose to listen to music or how distracted they felt by it.  

Instead, a student’s music engagement, i.e. how personally involved and emotionally connected they are with music, was strongly linked to whether they perceived background music as helpful and whether they chose to use it while studying. 

Dr Cooke said this highlights the importance of personal preference in study environments. 

“For some students, music genuinely supports their reading experience. For others, it gets in the way. The key is understanding your own relationship with music rather than assuming one-size-fits-all advice,” she said. 

The next phase of Dr Cooke’s research will test students’ actual reading comprehension when listening to different types of music, not just perceptions. 

The study ‘Music as a distraction during reading: Music listening habits of university students’ is published in the journal Psychology of Music. ECU authors Lindsey Cooke, Ross Hollett & Craig Speelman. 

- ends - 

 

Tori Pree, Senior Media Adviser (08) 6304 2208, t.pree@ecu.edu.au 

or   

ECU Public Relations, (08) 6304 2222, pr@ecu.edu.au  

 

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Journal

Psychology of Music

DOI

10.1177/030573562614212 

Teen attitudes to exercise shape fitness years later

Teenagers who see exercise as fun, social and good for their health are significantly fitter by late adolescence than those driven by competition, pressure or fear of judgement, new research led by Flinders University shows.

Tracking more than 1,000 young people from age 14 to 17, researchers found early attitudes to physical activity strongly predict measurable aerobic fitness three years later.

The national study, using data from the long‑running Raine Study, was led by Flinders University in collaboration with the University of Notre Dame Australia, and has been published in Child: Care, Health and Development journal.

Researchers examined how teenagers’ beliefs about physical activity relate to aerobic fitness in late adolescence, measured using a standard laboratory cycling test at age 17.

The findings show that intrinsic motivations - such as enjoying physical activity, feeling healthy, keeping fit and spending time with friends - consistently matter most between the ages of 14 and 17.

Teenagers who value these factors are significantly fitter at 17 than those motivated primarily by winning, external rewards or pressure from others.

Senior author Associate Professor Mandy Plumb, a clinical exercise physiologist at Flinders University, says the results underline the importance of understanding what genuinely motivates young people.

“When adolescents see physical activity as enjoyable, social and good for their health, they are more likely to develop lasting fitness into later adolescence,” says Associate Professor Plumb, who is based at Flinders’ Rural and Remote Health NT.

Participants reported both how important they believed different outcomes of physical activity were, and how likely they thought those outcomes were to occur, including enjoyment, health benefits and appearance.

While most motivational factors remained relatively stable across adolescence, improving appearance was the only factor that increased in importance for both boys and girls by age 17.

Associate Professor Plumb says this reflects normal adolescent development.

“As teenagers get older, they become more aware of their bodies and how they are perceived by others, which is why appearance becomes more influential in later adolescence,” she says.

The study also identified clear gender differences in how motivation relates to fitness outcomes.

Boys tended to have higher aerobic fitness at 17 when motivated by competition, winning and external rewards.

Girls, by contrast, were fitter when motivated by enjoyment, feeling healthy, weight control and supportive social environments.

Associate Professor Plumb says these findings show youth sport and physical activity programs need to be more targeted.

“One‑size‑fits‑all approaches don’t work, particularly for girls during adolescence,” she says.

The research also highlights the damaging impact of negative social experiences, especially for teenage girls.

Girls who believed others would make fun of them for being physically active were significantly less fit by age 17.

“Fear of judgement can directly reduce participation in physical activity, leading to poorer long‑term fitness outcomes,” says Associate Professor Plumb.

Importantly, the study shows that attitudes formed in early adolescence influence later health outcomes - not just behaviour at the time.

“What teenagers believe about physical activity at 14 continues to shape their fitness several years later,” says Associate Professor Plumb.

The authors say the findings have clear implications for parents, schools, coaches and policymakers.

“Programs that prioritise fun, friendship and feeling healthy may be more effective than those focused on competition or performance alone,” says Associate Professor Plumb.

“Reducing pressure, bullying and overly competitive environments could help more young people stay active throughout adolescence.”

The authors say that schools and community sports organisations are well placed to apply the findings to help reverse declining physical activity levels among teenagers.

The paper, Perceptions of the Likelihood and Importance of Physical Activity Outcomes at 14 Years Affects Physical Fitness at 17 Years by Amanda Timler, Paola Chivers, Helen Parker, Elizabeth Rose, Jocelyn Tan, Beth Hands and Mandy S. Plumb was published in Child: Care, Health and Development journal. DOI: 10.1111/cch.70276

Teaching with food boosts preschoolers’ science knowledge and vocabulary

Using food in the classroom can help preschoolers learn more about science and increase their vocabulary skills, according to new research from North Carolina State University and East Carolina University.

It also might get preschoolers to taste, or at least touch, the green vegetables on their dinner plates.

Food-based learning is defined as the use of food as a tool to improve children’s dietary behaviors and academic learning related to knowledge (e.g., science, mathematics and literacy) and skills (e.g., gross motor, fine and physical).

Researchers explored whether putting food at the center of learning could spark young children’s interest in science while also learning about nutritious foods grown in North Carolina. They also looked at whether this approach could help teachers explain science concepts more effectively.

“We want to encourage kids to get excited about science and be curious about the world around them. We saw food as a way to get kids excited about learning, because you can also use food as a way to teach so many different concepts, like science, mathematics and language.” said Virginia Stage, an associate professor of agricultural and human sciences at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the study.

“Our work also teaches teachers how you can build those positive experiences with food while you’re also meeting the other learning standards that have to be addressed to get preschoolers ready for kindergarten,” Stage added. “In the meantime, we are also teaching kids about nutritious foods by giving them opportunities to explore food as they learn more about where it comes from, how it looks, smells, feels, tastes, and sometimes, even how it grows, before ever having to eat the food. This method can be particularly helpful for foods that young children are often hesitant to try, like fruits and vegetables.”

After conceiving and implementing an innovative food-based-learning program – called “More PEAS Please!” – for Head Start children in three North Carolina counties, the team examined the program using both quantitative and qualitative methods. It compared more than 125 students who received the intervention with almost 150 who did not.

One of the classroom units for the intervention was learning about seeds, the building blocks of fruits and vegetables. Children looked at and played with different seeds, examined how a seed germinates, tested how seeds grow in different environments – with and without sun and water, for example – and then made a “seed salsa” recipe made with tomatoes and corn.

The results were positive, showing that children receiving the food-based learning intervention increased their understanding of scientific concepts four times more than the group without the intervention. Their vocabulary increased, too, by almost 20% at the end of the school year, while the group without the intervention increased their vocabulary by 6%.

Moreover, the qualitative portion of the study showed that teachers learned a lot about communicating science and nutrition through food.

“We feel like teacher perspectives are critical, because we could be missing something really important about what teachers need to be successful. If we don’t have that context to understand what’s happening in the classroom, we won’t really know how to make the program more effective in the future. We’re investing in the teachers so that they can practice those skills and invest in their kids,” Stage said.

Intervention teachers attend an all-day workshop early in the school year and then receive supplemental resources throughout the year. YouTube whiteboard videos provide additional training. One example: how to talk about science with a four-year-old.

Study co-author Jocelyn Dixon, assistant director and research project coordinator for the Feeding & Eating Education Lab in NC State’s Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences, said that non-pressuring exposures to healthy foods outside of mealtime are an important aspect of the “More PEAS Please!” project.

“We try to reframe what success looks like in this field of working with healthy foods in the preschool space,” she said. “Because we often trap ourselves into thinking that success means that a child ends up eating some broccoli or spinach. But if the last time you did an activity, the child only touched the spinach with a fork, and today the child is open to touching it and tearing it with their fingers – that’s a huge win.

“That’s really the crux of what ‘More PEAS Please!’ is all about. I’m at lunch, and there’s an expectation that I need to eat this spinach, but rather, how can I explore spinach like a scientist as something that we grow in our garden or as an example of a living thing?”

Qiang Wu, Tammy D. Lee and Archana V. Hegde from East Carolina University co-authored the paper, as did Savannah Baldwin and Ashleigh Schmitt from Telamon Corporation Head Start. The paper is open access and is published in the Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior.

This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

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Journal

Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

DOI

10.1016/j.jneb.2026.04.004 

Adolescents’ knowledge of legal capacity to independently consent = higher STI/HIV testing

 A new study found that adolescents who were aware of their state’s minor consent laws were more likely to seek and receive testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, suggesting that teens’ accurate knowledge of their legal capacity to consent to healthcare services may be more important than the laws providing this right.

Confidentiality concerns and limitations are significant reasons why adolescents do not seek sexual healthcare. Adolescents who can consent independently to testing, treatment, and prevention services for sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV are more likely to receive these services, according to a new study led by a researcher at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH).

Furthermore, adolescents who are aware of their legal capacity to consent to STI and HIV services without permission from guardians are even more likely to receive them. The findings were published in the journal Pediatrics.

At the time of the study, which occurred from December 2022-April 2024, all US states and Washington, DC had laws that allowed minors to consent independently to testing and treatment for HIV and certain STIs, depending on age. These laws were implemented to increase access to these services for minors who were hesitant or unwilling to involve their parents or guardians. However, the study found that more than 60 percent of adolescents in the study did not know about their ability to independently consent to these services.

The study is the largest to examine minor consent laws and included at least 50 adolescents in every US state, plus Washington, DC. The findings suggest that adolescents’ accurate knowledge of their state’s minor consent laws may be even more influential in their STI/HIV testing than the laws themselves. Access to this testing is especially important for this age group, as US youth ages 13-24 have disproportionately higher rates of STIs and HIV, compared to older adults, and currently, adolescent STI/HIV testing rates are lower than the goal rates set in Healthy People 2030, the federal government’s 10-year plan for public health.

“These findings indicate that having these laws on the books is not enough—teens need to know about them for the laws to be helpful,” says study lead and corresponding author Dr. Kimberly Nelson, associate professor of community health sciences at BUPSH, and who also recorded a video abstract that is included at the top of the study. Pediatrics also published an invited commentary about the findings.

For the study, Dr. Nelson and colleagues collected survey data on minor consent laws and STI/HIV services, with input from nearly 6,000 adolescents ages 13-17 across the country. The team assessed participants’ knowledge about their ability to consent to receive testing and treatment for STIs and HIV, HIV preventative treatment, and the HPV vaccine. Participants’ legal capacity to consent was determined using a comprehensive dataset the study team created, available at LawAtlas.org, which captures more than 170 years of minor consent laws in each state. 

Participants who could independently consent to STI and HIV services were more likely to have received STI and HIV testing within the past year. Among the adolescents who said they knew whether they could or could not independently consent, almost half reported guessing. But those who had accurate knowledge of their ability to independently consent were even more likely to have been tested for STIs and HIV within the past year.

The study also found that teens who learned about minor consent laws from reputable sources such as healthcare providers or at school—as opposed to family and friends or an online source—were also more likely to have received an STI or HIV test within the past year.

“Increasing the amount of healthcare providers or schools who inform teens about their ability to independently consent to these services could increase testing rates among teens,” Dr. Nelson says. 

However, she says, it is also important for clinicians to recognize that the state/s in which they practice could potentially revoke minor consent laws, and advocate for these laws accordingly. For example, between 2023 and 2024, Montana, Indiana, and Tennessee passed laws that significantly reduced minors’ capacity to consent independently to healthcare. In 2023, Montana repealed a provision that had allowed minors to consent independently to nonemergency care “for conditions that will endanger the health or life of the minor if services would be delayed” by parental consent. The state narrowed the law's language, stating that minors in Montana can only consent independently to general healthcare when they need “immediate healthcare” and the doctor believes “that the giving of aid is the only alternative to probable death or irreparable physical damage"—which effectively eliminates minors' access to most care. In 2024, Tennessee enacted a law that allows minors to consent only for emergency treatment, and Idaho passed a similar law specifying that, with the exception of a life-threatening emergency or “imminent, irreparable physical injury,” minors cannot seek or receive healthcare services without prior consent from a parent “except as otherwise provided by court order."

“As this is the first time in US history that the ability for minors to independently consent to care is being revoked, it is critical that researchers assess the effect of these reversions on clinical practice, access to care, and health outcomes among minors,” says Dr. Nelson.

Future research should explore whether disseminating information about minor consent laws in various environments affects adolescents’ knowledge of these laws and their decision to obtain STI/HIV services, the research team says. 

“For minor consent laws for HIV and STI services to be effective for their intended purpose—to make HIV and STI services more accessible to minors—the law must be known by minors, known and trusted by clinicians, implemented by individuals and organizations, and attentive to barriers like cost and confidentiality protections,” Dr. Nelson says. “Additional research assessing every step in the operationalization and implementation of these laws is critical for understanding how these laws are being used, or are not being used, in practice and what the continued barriers are to successful implementation.”

Student wellbeing drops after move to high school

The move from primary to secondary school is a major transition for many children, marked by new environments, new peers and increasing expectations. But while the jump signals growing up and greater independence, it also triggers a significant decline in student wellbeing, according to new research from Adelaide University.

In a study tracking more than 20,000 South Australian students as they moved from primary to secondary school, researchers found wellbeing declined across every measured domain, including happiness, optimism, perseverance, emotional regulation, cognitive engagement and life satisfaction, while sadness and worry increased.

Researchers also found that negative impacts could persist for more than two years after the move, with some student cohorts – females and students residing in remote areas – experiencing greater declines than their male and city counterparts. 

Importantly, because the study tracked two cohorts of students who simultaneously started secondary school in 2022 – one transitioning at Year 7 and the other at Year 8 – researchers were able to show that the wellbeing decline was independent of the developmental changes often associated with adolescence.

Published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, the study analysed more than 104,000 wellbeing records collected through the South Australian Well-being and Engagement Collection census between 2019 and 2025.

Lead researcher and PhD candidate Adelaide University’s Mason Zhou said the study challenges the long-held belief that poorer wellbeing is a simply a natural part of the teenage years.

“People often assume that declines in wellbeing are simply a normal part of growing up, but our findings suggest the transition to secondary school plays a much larger role than previously understood,” Zhou said.

“We know the move to a new school can be challenging. Students are adapting to unfamiliar environments, navigating new social structures, and meeting more demanding academic expectations while often leaving behind close friends and familiar adults.

“But too often, poor wellbeing in the early teenage years is dismissed as part of normal development. Our research suggests the transition itself is a major driver of these wellbeing declines.

“The findings are clear: every aspect of student wellbeing is affected by the move from primary school to secondary school, with poorer wellbeing persisting well beyond the first year of high school.”

Researchers said the findings highlight the need to rethink how schools support students transitioning into high school, particularly as many programs focus heavily on the first few weeks or months of secondary school.

Co-researcher Adelaide University’s Professor Dot Dumuid said the transition to high school should be viewed as more than just an academic milestone.

“Transition support cannot end after orientation week,” Prof Dumuid said.

“Our findings show that for many students, wellbeing challenges don’t disappear after the first term or even the first year of high school. In some cases, students may continue to struggle for two years or more after starting secondary school.

“That means schools need to think about transition support as an ongoing process, rather than a short-term program delivered at the beginning of Year 7.

“We need continued monitoring and support throughout the early years of secondary school, particularly for students who may be more vulnerable to declining wellbeing.

“If schools, families and policymakers can recognise these risks early and work together to respond, we have a much better chance of protecting young people’s mental health over the long term.” 

New Education Scorecard Finds “U-Shaped Recovery”

 

High- and low-income districts improve most since 2022, while middle-income districts (30–70% federally subsidized lunches) lag

In its fourth year, the Education Scorecard (a collaboration between the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University, and faculty at Dartmouth College) provides a mixed picture of American education: a post-pandemic math rebound and early signals that comprehensive literacy reforms are beginning to pay off, but signs that middle-income districts are lagging behind. 

The Scorecard uses data from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA), which links state test results for roughly 35 million grade 3–8 students in 2022–2025 to a common national scale to track district-level changes in achievement across the country. This year’s findings draw on data through the 2024–2025 school year.

1. A U-shaped recovery suggests the middle has been left behind. 
   The post-pandemic recovery has been U-shaped, with larger improvements among the highest-income and the lowest-income school districts in the country. Middle-income districts (those with between 30 and 70 percent of students receiving federally subsidized lunches) have seen the least improvement on average.

   The recovery in achievement in the highest-poverty districts seems largely driven by the federal pandemic relief funding. Without that relief, the average high-poverty district would have remained at its 2022 level of achievement.
    

2. The “learning recession” began before COVID.
   The U.S. entered a “learning recession” in 2013 — years before the pandemic — as student progress in math and reading stalled and began to decline. In reading, the average annual loss in achievement in the years leading up to the pandemic (2017–2019) was just as large as the loss sustained during the pandemic itself (2019–2022). Grade 8 reading scores in NAEP are now at their lowest point since 1990 and Grade 4 scores are at pre-2003 levels.

   The slowdown in learning coincided with a dismantling of test-based accountability in schools and a dramatic rise in social media use among young people. Although it remains unclear whether and how much each factor caused the decline in scores, both are likely candidates.
    

3. Although math began rebounding in 2022, reading continued to decline. The 2025 scores offer the first signs of a turnaround in reading. 
   After the pandemic, math achievement rebounded immediately, with the annual rate of improvement returning to pre-2013 levels in 2022–2024. In reading, however, achievement continued to decline through 2024. In 2025, we see the beginnings of a turnaround in reading.
    
4. “Science of reading” reforms are making a difference — but not everywhere.
   The recovery in reading appears to be related to state early-literacy reforms. All of the states which improved in reading between 2022 and 2025 were implementing comprehensive “science of reading” reforms (DC, IN, KY, MD, MN, MS, LA, and TN). None of the states which had eschewed literacy reforms as of January 2024 improved in reading between 2022 and 2025 (CA, GA, HI, MA, NH, NJ, RI, SD, WA, and WI). Nevertheless, many states which were implementing multiple elements of “science of reading” reforms have yet to turn around (e.g., AZ, FL, and NE). Evidence-based reading reform may be a necessary but insufficient path to improvement.
    
5. High student absenteeism continues to be a headwind for learning.
   High student absenteeism continues to slow academic progress. 23% of students were chronically absent in 2024–2025, down from the post-pandemic peak, but still higher than the 15% before the pandemic. If student absence rates had returned to pre-pandemic levels, the recovery would have been meaningfully larger (0.03–0.05 grade equivalents) for districts at all income levels.
    

6. We identify over 100 districts that are improving substantially faster than their peers in reading and math.
   There has been dramatic variation in the pace of recovery even among districts with similar student characteristics. This year, the Education Scorecard identifies 108 districts that have had large improvements in reading and math relative to matched peers in their own states: districts of similar size, socioeconomic composition, racial demographics, and urbanicity. To qualify, a district must:

   • Serve more than 1,200 students in grades 3–8,
   • Have at least four peer districts in their state, and
   • Have experienced an increase in achievement of at least 0.3 grade levels in reading and math from 2022–2025 and 2019–2025.

   To ensure that improvement was not driven by a changing student population, districts with large changes in enrollment or demographics did not qualify. Despite facing similar circumstances to their neighbors, these “Districts on the Rise” found a way to accelerate recovery. 

“The pandemic was the mudslide that followed seven years of erosion in student achievement,” said Professor Tom Kane, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. “The ‘learning recession’ started a decade ago, after policymakers switched off the early warning system of test-based accountability and social media took over children’s lives. In this report, we highlight the work of a small group of state leaders who have started digging out by changing how students learn to read, and 108 local school districts that are finding ways to get students learning again. The recovery of U.S. education has begun. But it’s up to the rest of us to spread it.”

Professor Sean Reardon, faculty director of the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University and developer of the Stanford Education Data Archive, said, “From the early 1990s through 2013, public elementary and middle school students’ math and reading skills improved dramatically — by more than two grade levels in math, for example — and racial/ethnic achievement disparities narrowed. That shows that we can improve our public schools and equalize educational opportunity. But we haven’t been doing much of that for the last decade. It’s time now to make our public schools once again the engine of the American Dream.”

The report highlights four priorities for education leaders:

1. Direct resources to districts with lingering pandemic-era learning losses. Now that federal relief has expired, states should consider achievement losses since 2019 when identifying schools for comprehensive support and improvement. The federal relief dollars were heavily concentrated in the lowest-income districts (with more than 70 percent of students receiving federally subsidized lunches) and higher-income districts (those with less than 30 percent of children receiving lunch subsidies) had greater financial and social capital to draw on. But many middle-income school districts — those with 30–70 percent of students receiving federal lunch subsidies — received little federal aid and remain far behind 2019 levels of achievement.
    
2. Lower student absenteeism. If absence rates had returned to pre-pandemic levels, recovery would have been meaningfully faster. Getting students back into the habit of reliable attendance will continue to pay dividends for years to come.
    
3. The federal government should focus its research dollars in three areas. It is crucial to learn more about the factors that have led to declining scores and the potential of different strategies for improving student performance. To that end, the federal government should support research in three areas:
   • The role of social media. The pre-pandemic decline in achievement was likely partially driven by social media exposure. In the next year, researchers across the country will be reporting on the impact of cell phone bans. The federal government should coordinate efforts to reach consensus and reconcile any differences in findings. Early results suggest positive — but small — impacts on student achievement. There is also evidence of unintended increases in disciplinary actions, especially among minority students. If further research confirms these results, we should be evaluating new approaches to reducing cell phones in schools as well as social media use outside of school.
   • Early literacy reforms. As of March 2026, 42 states, plus the District of Columbia, have passed laws or policies related to evidence-based reading instruction — often referred to as the “science of reading” (Schwartz, 2026). But not every state’s efforts are succeeding. The federal government should provide funding to evaluate specific aspects of state policies — such as literacy coaches or third-grade retention policies — and share lessons learned.
   • Lowering absenteeism. Although there is evidence on effective methods for lowering absenteeism, most of those effects are small. The federal government should support and evaluate new approaches to lowering absenteeism.
      
4. Pair “Districts on the Rise” with peers. The Scorecard calls on states to pair each of the “Districts on the Rise” with one or more comparable districts in their state to share recovery strategies. Facilitating partnerships between districts could yield significant dividends if districts successfully share ideas for improvement. 

“The 108 ‘Districts on the Rise’ are proof that leadership matters and demographics are not destiny,” said Tom Kane. “In districts with high poverty and persistent challenges, local leaders are finding ways to accelerate recovery. We owe it to our children to understand what they are 
doing and help spread it.”

*Due to data limitations, Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Vermont are not included in the 2026 Education Scorecard findings.