New York student test scores in math and reading have largely stagnated since the pandemic, according to new data released Wednesday.

The National Center for Education Statistics tracks the data among fourth and eighth graders at public schools nationwide and publishes the results every two years. New York hasn’t improved much since the last round of data was released, and its students’ scores are largely consistent with the national average, the data show.

Statewide, fourth grade math scores made moderate gains, and some subgroups — like English Language Learners, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students — made slight improvements. However, math and reading scores for those groups have largely been on the decline in New York over the last two decades.

“The Nation’s Report Card” previously showed sharp declines in 2022 scores following the Covid-19 pandemic. With schools returning to a sense of normalcy, the latest data offers an important look at how student performance is recovering.

“The news is not good,” said Peggy Carr, the NCES commissioner, during a call with the media. “We're not seeing the progress we need to retain the ground students lost during the pandemic.”

This week's Reporters' Notebook has stories about a prominent New York lobbying firm — Patrick B. Jenkins and Associates — racking up fines; a claim by Governor Kathy Hochul that an alternative to cap and invest would be a faster injection of cash (not entirely true); and details about the governor's two proposed updates to Foundation Aid, the complicated formula used to allocate most of New York’s state education funding.

Donald Trump wasn’t kidding.

He told supporters on the campaign trail that he would halt offshore wind projects on “day one” of his second term. On Monday, the new president issued an executive order doing just that.

The order suspended new federal leases, permits, and other approvals for wind projects, and targeted the large offshore installations that the federal government has the most authority over. The move could throw a major wrench in New York’s climate agenda, since the state — like many of its East Coast peers — is counting on the projects to meet its climate targets.

When a devastating fire ripped through the Twin Parks apartment complex in the Bronx three years ago, leaving 17 dead and dozens injured and homeless, the Bronx Community Foundation sprang into action.

By the end of the day, the organization, which was founded in 2017 to support social services nonprofits in the Bronx, had started a fundraising drive for the fire’s victims. The foundation said it was “working with community members, partners and local elected officials to mobilize resources as quickly as possible.” Both Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul’s offices promoted the foundation’s effort, which raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Two years later, internal financial audits show, almost all of that money was still sitting in the bank.