New standardized test scores show students in Massachusetts are still recovering from learning losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — but critics say those results are hiding a more complicated reality.

MCAS results for 2024 show a more mixed result than the positively trending 2023 results and remained lagging well behind pre-pandemic scores, state education officials said in an embargoed

It’s a safe bet that Woody Allen, who is often credited with the coinage, wasn’t thinking about student testing when he remarked that 90 percent of success is just showing up. But he might as well have been.