As educators work to reimagine the education system, we are taking a look at how it's going this year.

Fifth, sixth and seventh graders, who were in second grade and above when the pandemic hit, are making much better progress in reading. If their current pace of learning continues, they'll be on track to recover in two or three years.

However, many are falling behind in middle school math. Nationwide, students who started middle school early in the pandemic lost more ground in math than any other group and don't appear to be recovering.

Test data paints a dire picture - educational assessment nonprofit NWEA found that seventh and eighth graders' scores on its math assessments fell in 2022, the only group of kids for whom that was true. NWEA researchers estimate it will take these students at least five years to catch up to where they would have been without the pandemic.

On the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, average eighth grade math scores declined eight points from 2019, hitting a level not seen since the early 2000s.

Meanwhile, early adolescence is also a time of rapid cognitive change, when kids need social interactions with peers and teachers to learn.

Artificial intelligence has come into play and many schools are trying to adapt to prepare students for a future filled with all kinds of tools. Could it unlock student creativity, offer personalized tutoring and better prepare students to work alongside A.I. systems as adults?

News 12’s Elizabeth Hashagen is joined by a panel of experts including Dr. Robert R. Zywicki, a New Jersey school superintendent, and Ashley Bencan, chief operations officer for New Jersey Tutoring Corps and co-founder of ConnectED Workforce.