Skip to main content
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact

Search form

American Institutes for Research

  • Our Work
    • Education
    • Health
    • International
    • Workforce
    • ALL TOPICS >
  • Our Services
    • Research and Evaluation
    • Technical Assistance
  • Our Experts
  • News & Events

You are here

  • Home
30 Dec 2020
Report

To What Extent Does In-Person Schooling Contribute to the Spread of COVID-19? Evidence from Michigan and Washington

Dan Goldhaber, AIR/CALDER, University of Washington
Scott A. Imberman, Michigan State University
Katharine Strunk, Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, Michigan State University, CALDER
Bryant Hopkins, Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, Michigan State University
Nate Brown, Center for Education Data and Research, University of Washington
Erica Harbatkin, Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, Michigan State University
Tara Kilbride, Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, Michigan State University

The decision about how and when to open schools to in-person instruction has been a key question for policymakers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The instructional modality of schools (in-person, hybrid, or remote instruction) has implications not only for the health and safety of students and staff, but also student learning and the degree to which parents can engage in job activities.

In this working paper, we consider the role of instructional modality in disease spread among the wider community. Using a variety of regression modeling strategies to address unobserved heterogeneity, we find that simple correlations show in-person modalities are correlated with increased COVID cases, but accounting for both pre-existing cases and a richer set of covariates brings estimates close to zero on average. In Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) specifications, in-person modality options are not associated with increased spread of COVID at low levels of pre-existing COVID cases, but cases do increase at moderate to high pre-existing COVID rates. A bounding exercise suggests that the OLS findings for in-person modality are likely to represent an upper bound on the true relationship.

These findings are robust to the inclusion of county and district fixed effects in terms of the insignificance of the findings, but the models with fixed effects are also somewhat imprecisely estimated.

To What Extent Does In-Person Schooling Contribute to the Spread of COVID-19? Evidence from Michigan and Washington

Related Centers

Center

National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER)

The National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) is a joint project of AIR and scholars at Duke University, Northwestern University, Stanford University, the University of Missouri, the University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of Washington.

Related Work

1 Dec 2020
Spotlight

covid19-3-18-20-lkb-small-feat.jpg

Illustration of woman with cell phone

AIR’s COVID-19 Response and Resources

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. This virus, also known as COVID-19, has dramatically changed the lives of people around the globe, touching all aspects of life, from health care to education to the economy. In this new world of rapidly changing information about the virus, AIR seeks to be a source of evidence-based information that examines and begins to understand the various complexities of this crisis.
Topic: 
Education, Social and Emotional Learning, Technology for Teaching and Learning, Health, Health Cost and Coverage, Mental Health, Patient, Family, and Stakeholder Engagement, Trauma-Informed Care, Workforce, Adult Learning
24 Mar 2020
Brief

COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions, In Plain Language

AIR has created a plain-language FAQ that addresses a variety of topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is designed to make information accessible and comprehensible to everyone, regardless of education level or background.
Topic: 
Health, Chronic and Infectious Diseases, Health Cost and Coverage

Further Reading

  • How Willing Are People in the U.S. to Seek Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic?
  • AIR Informs Episode #8: Supporting the Foster Care Community During COVID-19
  • Investigating Health Care Hesitancy During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency
  • Using Telehealth to Meet the Challenges of the Opioid Epidemic
  • The Expansion of Telehealth: Equity Considerations for Policymakers, Providers, and Payers
Share

Contact

Dan Goldhaber

Dan Goldhaber

AIR Vice President and Director, CALDER

Topic

Education
District and School Improvement
Health
Chronic and Infectious Diseases
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

RESEARCH. EVALUATION. APPLICATION. IMPACT.

About Us

About AIR
Board of Directors
Leadership
Experts
Clients
Contracting with AIR
Contact Us

Our Work

Education
Health
International
Workforce

Client Services

Research and Evaluation
Technical Assistance

News & Events

Careers at AIR


Search form


 

Connecting

FacebookTwitterLinkedinYouTubeInstagram

American Institutes for Research

1400 Crystal Drive, 10th Floor
Arlington, VA 22202-3289
Call: (202) 403-5000
Fax: (202) 403-5000

Copyright © 2020 American Institutes for Research®.  All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap