Chalkbeat Ideas: New Insights from Learning Loss Data with Emily Oster

Join us for our first-ever Chalkbeat Ideas event, where our journalists examine the ideas and debates shaping American schools.

Think you know everything there is to know about learning loss and recovery? In this event, we’ll go beyond the headlines to unpack learning loss data and discuss solutions. We’ll dig into fresh data compiled by Brown University professor Emily Oster. This will offer answers to some new questions, including:

• Which demographic group was hit hardest by learning loss? The answer may surprise you.
• Are pandemic-era school closures still correlated with learning declines?
• Is there any good news in the sea of glum data? (Yes!)

Following a presentation from Oster, Chalkbeat Ideas editor Matt Barnum will lead a conversation with her and Ashley Bowling, a middle school principal in Alabama, a state that has seen strong learning recovery. They'll discuss lessons from this data and ideas for policymakers and educators to boost recovery.

RSVP to be the first to hear about this new data and what parents, educators, and policymakers can learn from it. There will be plenty of time for audience questions. Please submit yours when you register.

Emily Oster is the CEO of ParentData, which seeks to empower parents by providing the data and tools they need to make confident decisions. After getting a PhD in economics from Harvard, she went on to pursue research in health economics and is now a professor of economics at Brown University. She is a New York Times best-selling author, whose books include “Expecting Better,” “Cribsheet,” “The Unexpected,” and “The Family Firm.”

Dr. Ashley Bowling is an award-winning school leader and passionate advocate for student-centered education. As Principal of Florence Middle School in Alabama, Dr. Bowling leads with a clear focus on creating safe, high-expectation environments where all students can grow, achieve, and thrive. Named Alabama’s Assistant Principal of the Year in 2022 and AAMSP District 7 North Principal of the Year in 2024, she brings over two decades of experience in special education, instructional leadership, and building collaborative school cultures. She currently serves as the President-Elect of the Alabama Association of Middle School Principals and a Network Facilitator for the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Matt Barnum is the editor and a columnist for Chalkbeat Ideas, a section devoted to explaining and examining the ideas and debates shaping American schools. Before launching this section, Matt covered K-12 education for the Wall Street Journal. While there, he chronicled the ways technology is changing schools and broke news about the Trump administration's plans to close the Education Department. Prior to that, he helped start Chalkbeat's national coverage in 2017 as that team's first reporter. Matt's reporting has been recognized by the Education Writers Association and the American Educational Research Association. He was also a Spencer fellow in education journalism at Columbia University and started his career as a middle school language arts teacher.