"This book is one of the few, or even the first, to be published after the release of the results of the two latest international student assessments (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, or PIRLS, 2021, and Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA, 2022). As so, it is the first one to provide a global assessment of the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning as measured by independent international comparative surveys. One reason only made it possible for us to present this work to the reader with such a short delay after the release of the PISA results in December 2023: we were truly fortunate to be able to gather an exceptionally knowledgeable and generous group of international experts.The 12 countries discussed in this volume represent a wide variety of educational systems—including Chile, Ecuador, England, Estonia, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and the USA. We have high performers; countries that perform at the OECD mean; and countries that are struggling to attain the OECD average. Each country has its history that reflects efforts to cope with pandemic school closures and improve educational achievement. (...)"