Are plummeting literacy skills the new pandemic among young learners? Dozens of studies over the past year have shown alarming drops in the percentage of students meeting reading benchmarks at the beginning of the current school year, particularly among grades K–2, where 50% or more of students are already behind on foundational literacy skills. The learning loss in math is similarly significant and persistent, those same studies show.

The Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology (MS-SLP) program, housed in the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, is entering the second semester of its first year, having opened in Fall 2021. The program leverages the Keck School of Medicine’s resources as a premiere medical school in the nation’s second largest city to train a new generation of speech-language pathologists. The MS-SLP program consists of 69 units, which are taught over two years/six semesters. Additionally, students are required to acquire 400 clinical hours, take comprehensive examinations, and present a capstone project. Although it is only in its first year, USC’s setting and offerings provide an extraordinary opportunity to build a top-ranked speech-language pathology program.