[okbake]

I wish there was a little bit more data on this last chart. How are they measuring 'math progress' here? It looks like the data comes from "online usage data from Zearn math", but how is progress being measured? Does a +53% increase mean that average classroom scores (tests and quizzes?) increased by 53% over where they were before covid? Does it mean the class as a whole covered 53% more of the topics than they would have otherwise? It's unclear to me.

Whatever the measurement, I find it just as interesting that there was such a large increase over pre-covid for the high income zipcodes. My assumption would have been a decrease in the low-income zipcodes (due to access to technology resources for e-learning, more friction in adjusting to staying at home, economic woes effecting low income families more, etc), but the high-income zipcodes to stay roughly the same. It looks like (for math at least) that e-learning is working out great when you have access to the technology, much better than regular in-person school (assuming what they're measuring as 'progress' is actually meaningful to begin with).

[deeeeplearning]

>My assumption would have been a decrease in the low-income zipcodes (due to access to technology resources for e-learning, more friction in adjusting to staying at home, economic woes effecting low income families more, etc), but the high-income zipcodes to stay roughly the same. It looks like (for math at least) that e-learning is working out great when you have access to the technology, much better than regular in-person school (assuming what they're measuring as 'progress' is actually meaningful to begin with).

My anecdote working with a lot of engineers who are all currently remote is that they're spending much more time with their kids overall. All throughout the day and not just after work hours. It makes a lot of sense that high income households have math literate parents and those parents now have more time to help their kids become math literate.

[otoburb]

Since we're focusing on that last chart, the week the national emergency was declared was also the same week where schools started shutting down en masse; NYC DOE shut down week of March 15[1], and during the enuring weeks and months had issues scrambling to issue tablets to low-income families.

The participation rates for Zearn is, at best, a proxy. And when they say "student progress", I believe it means "students solving puzzles and progressing through the lessons" (whether that's with parental supervision or self-supervised).

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/15/nyregion/nyc-schools-clos...