Across the nation, educators are responding valiantly to an unprecedented health crisis and its ramifications for students, educators, and communities. Leaders and staff are charting new courses for this unique time.
All of us—students, parents, educators, policy makers, and researchers—share an interest in learning from this event. To improve services to students and families as we move forward, we need information on what districts and charter management organizations are doing and plan to do to address COVID-19.
Goals
The main goals of this project are to document this moment in education and to provide actionable information to educators, policymakers, and researchers to inform future education practices beyond the initial public health crisis.
Project Activities
Want to know more? Contact the team at perc@air.org.
2020: In summer 2020, we asked school district and charter management organization leaders to respond to a nationally representative survey of school districts and charter management organizations—more than 2,500 in total—about the actions they have taken and the challenges they have encountered during the COVID-19-related school closures.
The 2020 survey addressed how school districts and charter management organizations coped with issues related to school closures, including the timing of school closures due to COVID-19; distance learning approaches and challenges; supporting students with disabilities and English learners; district policies and requirements, such as grading and graduation; staffing and human resources; and health, well-being, and safety.
2021: As the project continues, a survey will be administered to school district and charter management organizations in February 2021. This survey will address instructional approaches, student engagement and participation, supports for student learning, and priorities and challenges.
In spring 2021, the team will administer two short follow-up surveys that will address social-emotional supports, serving specific student populations, and preparing students to transition to their next stage of development.
Study Results
Interactive Data Tool
This data exploration tool provides actionable data to educators, policymakers, and researchers to inform future education practices beyond the initial public health crisis. (The tool currently displays data for districts; data for charter management organizations will be part of a future update.)
New Research Briefs (To be released in February 2021)
- Barriers and Supports: Teacher Familiarity with Digital Learning Tools
- Social-Emotional Supports for Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Teacher-Student Relationship Building During COVID-19
- How Charter Management Organizations Approached Remote Instruction Across Contexts
English Learners and Students with Disabilities (October 21, 2020)
- Research Briefs:
- Methodology Brief:
Data Analysis and School Leader Responses (Preliminary Results, July 2020)
- A quantitative brief, National Survey on Public Education’s Coronavirus Pandemic Response (PDF), which examined data on how schools reacted after the pandemic hit; and
- A snapshot, Voices of School District Leaders: National Survey of Public Education’s Response to COVID-19 (PDF), which includes school leader responses to questions about school innovation, promising practices, and challenges during the pandemic.
Letters of Support
AASA, The School Superintendents Association (PDF)
Council of Chief State School Officers (PDF)
Education Commission of the States (PDF)
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (PDF)
Media
Podcast: Listen to AIR senior researcher Dia Jackson discuss the results and AIR's research into other district and charter network responses in the wake of the pandemic.
Webinar: How COVID-19 Affected Education for Students with Disabilities and English Learners—The Latest Results from a National Survey (October 21, 2020) View the presentation slides (PDF) >>