December 30, 2020 Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is pandemic, with malarkey a distant runner-up. What else could it be? Like a strangler fig, Covid-19 enveloped all aspects of life and education in California. It uprooted families, turned bedrooms into classrooms, put friendships on ice. The comforting, daily rhythms of school interrupted are now measured in learning loss and screen time. There was other big news, too — monumental protests, election defeats, new college leaders. But most of 2020, we concentrated on and tried to make sense of a virus that disrupted and transformed California schools and colleges. Here are the highlights of what we wrote.