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National Survey of Public Education’s Response to COVID-19

Project

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NEW! View preliminary results from the National Survey of Public Education’s Response to COVID-19 >>

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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. Educators’ efforts to navigate this challenging situation and commitment to their students is an inspiration.

"Across our nation and throughout the world, district leaders are working with schools to develop high-quality remote learning plans with the goal of ensuring students continue to grow and master content standards. This survey will provide us all with a glimpse of how our colleagues around the nation have responded to this unexpected shift in instruction. The insight we will gain will support our ongoing efforts to improve remote instruction and inform our next steps."

- Dr. Heather Mullins, Chief Academic Officer Newton-Conover City Schools, North Carolina

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. To that end, from late spring through summer 2020, we are asking 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. This knowledge will inform the best approach to serving students as we face new challenges.

The survey addresses how school districts and charter management organizations are coping 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 language learners; district policies and requirements, such as grading and graduation; staffing and human resources; and health, well-being, and safety.

The project will provide actionable information to educators, policymakers, and researchers to inform future education practices beyond the initial public health crisis.

Preliminary Study Results

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.

Next Steps

The project team will share more detailed results in early fall 2020. We will continue to share updates throughout the 2020–2021 school year. Project updates, research briefs, email communication, and events will be shared via this website. We encourage district and charter management organization leaders to request additional analyses.

We will provide results for the nation as a whole, as well as for key subgroups, including small and large districts; urban, suburban, and rural districts; and high- and low-poverty districts.