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Covid-19 recovery
What Happened to the K-12 Education Labor Market During COVID? The Acute Need for Better Data Systems
The COVID-19 pandemic upended the U.S. education system and the economy in ways that dramatically affected the jobs of K-12 educators. However, data limitations have led to considerable uncertainty and conflicting reports about the nature of staffing challenges in schools. We draw on education… more →
Learning-Mode Choice, Student Engagement, and Achievement Growth During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Topics: Student LearningThe COVID-19 pandemic initially resulted in an unanticipated and near-universal shift from in-person to virtual instruction in spring 2020. During the 2020-21 school year, schools began to re-open and families were faced with decisions regarding the instructional mode for their children. We… more →
Test Score Patterns Across Three COVID-19-impacted School Years
Topics: Student LearningThe COVID-19 pandemic has been a seismic and on-going disruption to K-12 schooling. Using test scores from 5.4 million U.S. students in grades 3-8, we tracked changes in math and reading achievement across the first two years of the pandemic. Average fall 2021 math test scores in grades 3-8 were… more →
The Legacy of Covid-19 in Education
Topics: Student LearningIf school closures and social-distancing experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic impeded children’s skill development, they may leave a lasting legacy in human capital. To understand the pandemic’s effects on school children, this paper combines a review of the emerging international literature… more →
The Pandemic’s Effect on Demand for Public Schools, Homeschooling, and Private Schools
Topics: School ChoiceTags: Covid-19 recoveryThe Covid-19 pandemic drastically disrupted the functioning of U.S. public schools, potentially changing the relative appeal of alternatives such as homeschooling and private schools. Using longitudinal student-level administrative data from Michigan and nationally representative data from the… more →
The Impact of a Messaging Intervention on Parents’ School Hesitancy During COVID-19
Morgan S. Polikoff, Daniel Silver, Marshall Garland, Anna R. Saavedra, Amie Rapaport, Michael Fienberg.Topics: Families and CommunitiesTags: Covid-19 recovery, ParentingDuring the 2020-21 school year, families' access to--and desire to participate in--in-person schooling was highly stratified along racial and income lines. Research to date suggests that "school hesitancy" was driven by concerns about "fit" and safety, as well as simple access to in-person… more →
Who Wants to Reopen Schools in a Pandemic? Explaining Public Preferences Reopening Schools and Public Compliance with Reopening Orders During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceTags: Covid-19 recoveryDue to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the decision to reopen schools for in-person instruction has become a highly salient policy issue. This study examines what overall factors drive public support for schools re-opening in person, and whether members of the public are any more or less willing to… more →
The Revealed Preferences for School Reopening: Evidence from Public-School Disenrollment
Topics: Families and CommunitiesBefore the 2020-21 school year, educators, policymakers, and parents confronted the stark and uncertain trade-offs implied by the health, educational, and economic consequences of offering instruction remotely, in person, or through a hybrid of the two. Most public schools in the U.S. chose… more →
Health Equity, Schooling Hesitancy, and the Social Determinants of Learning
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceAt least 25 million K-12 students in the U.S.—disproportionately children of color from low-income families—have been physically out of school for a full year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These children are at risk of significant academic, social, mental, and physical harm now and in the long-… more →
Changing Patterns of Growth in Oral Reading Fluency During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Topics: Student LearningEducation has faced unprecedented disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic; evidence about the subsequent effect on children is of crucial importance. We use data from an oral reading fluency (ORF) assessment—a rapid assessment taking only a few minutes that measures a fundamental reading skill—… more →
The Impact of COVID-19 on Community College Enrollment and Student Success: Evidence from California Administrative Data
Enrollment increased slightly at both the California State University and University of California systems in fall 2020, but the effects of the pandemic on enrollment in the California Community College system are mostly unknown and might differ substantially from the effects on 4-year colleges… more →
High-Impact Tutoring: State of the Research and Priorities for Future Learning
Topics: Student LearningResearch consistently demonstrates that tutoring interventions have substantial positive effects on student learning. As a result, tutoring has emerged as a promising strategy for addressing COVID-related learning loss and affording greater educational opportunities for students living in… more →
Unequal Opportunity Spreaders: Higher COVID-19 Deaths with Later School Closure in the U.S.
Topics: Student Well-BeingTags: Covid-19 recovery, EquityMixed evidence on the relationship between school closure and COVID-19 prevalence could reflect focus on large-scale levels of geography, limited ability to address endogeneity, and demographic variation. Using county-level CDC COVID-19 data through June 15, 2020, two matching strategies address… more →
Determinants of Ethnic Differences in School Modality Choices during the COVID-19 Crisis
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceA growing body of research and popular reporting shows racial differences in school modality choices during the COVID-19 crisis, with white students more likely to attend school in person. This in-person learning gap raises serious equity concerns. We use unique panel survey data to… more →
Impacts of COVID-19 on the Child Care Sector: Evidence from North Carolina
Topics: Families and CommunitiesCOVID-19 has created acute challenges for the child care sector, potentially leading to a shortage of supply and a shrinking sector as the economy recovers. This study provides the first comprehensive, census-level evaluation of the medium-term impacts of COVID-19 on the county child care market… more →
All States Close but Red Districts Reopen: The Politics of In-Person Schooling during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThe COVID-19 pandemic created enormous challenges for public education. We assess the role of political factors and public health in state and local education decisions, especially the continuation of learning during COVID-19. Using an original dataset of state education policies since the start… more →
Apart but Connected: Online Tutoring and Student Outcomes during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Topics: Student LearningIn response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the governments of most countries ordered the closure of schools, potentially exacerbating existing learning gaps. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention implemented in Italian middle schools that provides free individual tutoring online… more →
Achievement Gaps in the Wake of COVID-19
Topics: Student LearningA survey targeting education researchers conducted in November, 2020 provides both short- and longer-term predictions of how much achievement gaps between low- and high-income students in U.S elementary schools will change as a result of COVID-related disruptions to schooling and family life.… more →
A Blueprint for Scaling Tutoring Across Public Schools
Topics: Student LearningTags: Covid-19 recovery, TutoringIn this thought experiment, we explore how tutoring could be scaled nationally to address COVID-19 learning loss and become a permanent feature of the U.S. public education system. We outline a blueprint centered on ten core principles and a federal architecture to support adoption, while… more →
Politics, Markets, and Pandemics: Public Education’s Response to COVID-19
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceThe COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to examine how local governments respond to a public health crisis amid high levels of partisan polarization and an increasing tendency for local issues to become nationalized. As an arena that has, in recent years, been relatively separate… more →