In This “Research Insights” Edition

In this “Research Insights” edition, we present the follow up to “Schooling During the Pandemic, Part 1: Insights from Teachers” from our previous issue (December 2020). Collectively, these two articles explore the online learning experiences of teachers, families, and students during the early phase of the pandemic, as examined by five studies produced by NNERPP member RPPs. In Part 1, we focused on the “supply” side of schooling, looking at the experiences of teachers as they adjusted to distance learning in the Spring of 2020. Here in Part 2, we focus on the “demand” side of schooling –the experiences of students and families– which are explored in the remaining studies.

Why This Series

When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in the spring of last year, schools all across the U.S. were forced to respond quickly and with little preparation, resulting in a shift from in-person learning to online formats amidst school buildings closures. This unprecedented challenge in the field of education, including for teachers, students, and families, led to a number of disruptions in learning opportunities. In this two-part series, we seek to capture important lessons or insights from this time to inform current and (possibly similar) future conditions, as studied by our members.

Overview and Context

We turn to the following artifacts to examine the experiences of students and their families during distance learning in Spring 2020:

Table 1. List of RPPs + Artifacts Included in This Article

Below, we provide a brief description of the context in which these studies occurred.

>>WISCONSIN:

Wisconsin schools were ordered to close by March 18, 2020, and remained closed through the end of the 2019-20 school year. Districts developed their own reopening plans detailing modes of instruction for the fall.

>>DETROIT, MI:

School buildings in Detroit were closed on March 13, 2020, for the remainder of the school year. Detroit Public Schools Community District outlined a phase-in approach to reopening for the fall.

>>SAN ANTONIO, TX:

Schools that had not already closed previously were ordered to close to in-person learning for the remainder of the academic year on April 17, 2020, with the goal of reopening in the fall, either in person or virtual, to be outlined in district reopening plans.

Research Questions 

The following is a summary of the research questions included in each partnership’s study:

>>WISCONSIN:

This study examined how families in Wisconsin perceived and experienced their students’ home / remote learning, including their perceptions of student engagement and student learning, access to materials, and the challenges faced by families. Families were also invited to share suggestions for improvement. 

>>DETROIT, MI:

This study examined how Detroit high school students experienced school engagement and participation early on in the pandemic, how their experiences early on in the pandemic were shaped by their experiences with school and attendance before the pandemic, what their personal experience was with COVID-19, and what their thoughts were on going back to school in the fall of 2020.

>>SAN ANTONIO, TX:

This study examined what worked and didn’t work for teachers, students, and families during emergency distance learning in the Spring of 2020, how engaged students were during distance learning, and what other societal factors affected overall learning experiences. Parts 2 and 3 of the three-part publication, included in this article, focus on students’ and families’ experiences. 

Research Methods

Of the three studies, the team in Wisconsin conducted a state-wide survey, the team in Detroit, Michigan conducted interviews, and the team in San Antonio, Texas conducted both surveys and interviews – the study in Detroit included a small district-wide sample and the one in San Antonio included a city-wide sample. 

>>WISCONSIN:

In Wisconsin, sixteen school districts signed up to use a “Family Home/Remote Learning Survey” as of July 2020. A small number of families from other districts also completed surveys, for a total of 3,227 families across all districts. Most families completed their surveys in May 2020.

>>DETROIT, MI:

In Detroit, the study team interviewed 29 Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) high school students via phone or Zoom for about 30 minutes in May and June 2020. Note that only high school students were interviewed.

>>SAN ANTONIO, TX:

This study collected survey and interview data from May 22 to July 1 from representative samples of teachers, parents, and high school students for each of seven participating school districts (East Central, Edgewood, Harlandale, Judson, Northside, North East, and Southwest) as well as an eighth set of schools known as the the Centers for Applied Science and Technology (CAST) Network for a total of 1,669 participants. For the purposes of this article, we focus on the parent and student sample. In total, 884 parents and 241 students participated.  

What Does the Research Show?

Three common themes emerged across findings from all five studies included in this series: the importance of access, engagement, and guidance and supports. In Part 1 of this series, we examined what the teacher-focused studies found for each of these themes. Here, we highlight findings from the student- and family-focused studies and how students’ and families’ experiences were similar to or different from teachers’ experiences. 

>>ACCESS

Challenges with student access to remote learning, including lack of internet access, lack of access to devices, and technological problems, emerged as a major concern for teachers across the three studies we examined in Part 1. It was also a common theme among students and families in the three studies examined here, though less consistently so across studies.

• In Wisconsin, 25% of responding families reported challenges with their students engaging in home/remote learning because of a lack of or bad internet access or access to devices. Importantly, this reflects families’ experiences after many schools had already distributed devices and worked with families to acquire internet access. Internet access was especially problematic for families living in rural Wisconsin and living on the Menominee reservation. 
• In the 29 interviews with high school students conducted in Detroit, a few students named problems with technology or the internet, or a phone being their only device to access schoolwork, as barriers keeping them from participating in remote learning.
• In San Antonio, most students reported having adequate technology and internet access for distance learning, even though disparities did exist. 89% of students were always able to access the internet for school when they needed it and 79% of students were always able to use a computer/digital device for school. 64% of families reported either purchasing or already owning digital technology for their student’s remote learning while 34% received their computer technology from their school. The more crucial challenge that emerged was lack of access to food: 26% of surveyed students and parents said they were experiencing food insecurity. Many families reported that districts’ efforts around providing meals were only helpful to a certain extent – transportation issues and schedules for pickup prevented families from reaching school meals.

>>ENGAGEMENT

Teachers surveyed in Tennessee, Michigan, and San Antonio, TX in the collection of studies in Part 1 reported student engagement as a major challenge. Similarly, a lack of engagement emerged as a clear theme across the interviews and surveys with students and families in the Wisconsin, Detroit, MI, and San Antonio, TX studies we examine here – as did some reasons for this lack of engagement.

• In the Wisconsin study, as referenced above, 25% of the surveyed families indicated that lack of internet access or insufficient devices kept their students from engaging in remote learning. Additionally, most Wisconsin families agreed that their student was not learning as much as they were before the COVID-19 crisis. Only 15% of families said their students were learning at the same level as before. In their free responses, several families indicated that the lack of new, challenging material and the lack of accountability kept students from being fully engaged. 
• Of the 29 high school students interviewed in the Detroit study, most reported participating consistently in remote learning to some extent; however, there was extreme variation in the number of hours they were doing schoolwork or logged on to online classes, and 28% of students reported that they had not participated at all. Students gave several reasons for not participating, including problems with technology, increased family responsibilities, disinterest, and lack of information or unclear information/instructions. This study also examined the connection between students’ pre-pandemic attendance and distance learning participation, finding that 90% of students with strong pre-pandemic attendance had participated in some distance learning during the school closures, while just 63% of the chronically absent students had participated at all. 
• Of the students and parents interviewed as part of the San Antonio study, 64% reported that students learned less during distance learning. However, 11% said they learned more. 54% of students said that they had fewer engaging lessons during distance learning compared with pre-pandemic learning. Students gave similar reasons for low or decreased engagement as those named in the Detroit study, including frustration with technological problems, working (oftentimes increased hours due to the economic impact of the pandemic on their families), and increased caregiving responsibilities at home. Student engagement and motivation were also related to food insecurity: While food-insecure high school students represented 20% of all high school students surveyed, they represented 65% of high school students who said they never turned in assignments.

>>GUIDANCE AND SUPPORTS

In Part 1 of this series, we examined teachers’ top sources of guidance and support and areas where they needed further support. Students and families also identified several supports they would like to see or would have needed.

• Asked about how their students’ schools could better support them with remote learning, many of the surveyed families in Wisconsin spoke favorably of their school’s, district’s, or teachers’ efforts, but also noted several challenges. These included the problems with internet access noted previously and the difficulty for working parents to support their children’s learning. The most common suggestion for improving remote learning was for teachers to provide more online, synchronous virtual instruction. Families also suggested recording such instruction and posting it online. Families also indicated a need for better organization and more streamlining across teachers and schools around expectations and online technologies and a need for more / better communication with students and their families, such as emails to parents that help them monitor their student’s assignments and work, feedback to students, and providing opportunities for support and clarification. As mentioned previously, families also suggested holding students accountable for their work. Some families also commented on the need for schools to support students’ and families’ social emotional health – this was also mentioned by teachers in the studies examined in Part 1. 
• In the interviews with Detroit students, one theme that emerged was students’ lack of a regular schedule or routine during distance learning. This suggests that students may need much more support in learning how to create and maintain schedules to account for their various responsibilities. Students were also asked about their personal experiences with COVID-19 and many witnessed the impact of COVID-19 first hand. Nearly 40% of the interviewed students personally knew someone who had contracted COVID-19, and a quarter knew someone who had died from it. This suggests that more socioemotional support is needed, as was mentioned in the Wisconsin study as well. Lastly, students’ confusion about expectations indicates the same need for better communication that was pointed out by parents in the Wisconsin study.
• The high school students in the San Antonio study provided similar suggestions as the parents in the Wisconsin study around providing more synchronous instruction and further reported that creative, project-based assignments giving them autonomy and choice made lessons more engaging. Both students and parents in San Antonio said that clear, frequent, and consistent communication from teachers was extremely helpful, as were student one-on-one time with teachers and social emotional check-ins.

Implications and Recommendations

The following takeaways emerge from the studies examined here:

• First, lack of internet access and/or lack of access to devices is a major barrier to participating in online learning for some students. Addressing these concerns is foundational to ensuring more equitable remote learning in the future. This aligns with teachers’ concerns highlighted in Part 1 of this series.
• Students and families also named a number of other challenges to distance learning participation, some of which are easier to address for schools than others. For example, increased caregiving responsibilities at home for students are challenging to address, but students and families provided concrete suggestions for ways to make remote learning more engaging, such as more synchronous, interactive virtual instruction.
• Additionally, many families and students were not clear on what was expected of them during remote learning and struggled with confusing messages and demands, but were also quick to suggest solutions: These include using the same remote learning platforms across schools in the same district, providing clear sets of expectations to families and students, and communicating more frequently with students / families. In Part 1 of this series, we found that teachers, too, struggled with a lack of clarity and guidance around what was expected of them during the early phase of the pandemic, given the unprecedented nature of this shift to distance learning. Now a year into the pandemic, we expect that districts, schools, and teachers have greater clarity and are able to provide clearer expectations to students and families.
• Some students struggled more than others. Students who were most vulnerable to being disengaged and chronically absent from school before the pandemic also were less engaged (or not engaged at all) during the pandemic; students experiencing food insecurity were less engaged and less motivated. In the studies examined in Part 1 of this series, teachers had similar observations about deepening inequities. Socioemotional support as well as targeted logistical support for groups of students (for example, more efficient meal distribution; targeted transportation support once schools reopen fully or partially) are crucial to addressing these inequities.

In Practice

Because the studies included in this article were produced as part of an RPP, they each have the intention of informing the work of the practice-side partner(s) in each RPP. In this section, we briefly highlight how study findings have impacted practice so far.

>>WISCONSIN: 

In Wisconsin, the results of the survey informed the creation of a reentry plan. It also reinforced the decision of school districts to bring grading back to schools in the fall of 2020. Most directly, local districts used their results to inform their own policies and practices regarding the 2020-2021 school year.

>>DETROIT, MI:

The study helped inform an ongoing effort among Detroit school leaders and community organizations to support students during the pandemic. With little data to identify students who were most at-risk for disengagement, school and community partners in the RPP turned to chronic absenteeism data as a potentially useful proxy. The interview data from students also offered some grounding for discussions among partners about the kinds of additional support families might need going forward, including clearer communication about distance learning and expectations, access to technology, and help setting a regular schedule.

>>SAN ANTONIO, TX:

Superintendents and school leaders of each of the eight school systems featured in the study used the findings to inform reopening strategies and plans for learning. CAST Schools took it a step further and spent the school year working in partnership with the Urban Education Institute’s Improvement Science team on concrete ways to improve student engagement for students amid the pandemic. The Institute uses Improvement Science methods to help campuses and school systems learn to improve by putting teachers in the driver’s seat. This work led to a new collaborative initiative between CAST and the Institute to showcase strategies for using blended learning in order to improve student achievement across diverse student demographics in schools with persistent achievement gaps. Also, the findings on increased food insecurity among students and their families culminated in a joint effort with the San Antonio Food Bank in which one of the partner school districts in the study held a massive drive-through food distribution in its stadium parking lot.

Additional Insights

Before we close, we’d like to bring to your attention a few additional Covid-related pieces produced by RPPs in NNERPP. We highlight two of these studies in greater detail below to point out additional insights specifically related to this Research Insights series. We also include a list of all other Covid-related research undertaken by NNERPP members and invite you to further explore these studies!

Putting Professional Development into Practice during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Research Report on the Personalized Learning Environments Pilot

This study from the Stanford-San Francisco Unified School District Partnership was initially designed to examine outcomes of a Personalized Learning Environment (PLE) Pilot program across 12 school sites in the San Francisco Unified School District. The pilot program equipped teachers with classroom resources and extensive professional development to design personalized and flexible learning opportunities that build student agency and ownership. Amid the outbreak of the pandemic in spring of 2020, the RPP refocused the study to examine teachers’ and students’ experiences during distance learning and more specifically, their perceptions of how and if the PLE Pilot prepared them for distance learning. As such, this study provides valuable insights not only into the benefits of this particular professional development program or a personalized learning approach, but also more generally into aspects of in-person instruction that can facilitate distance learning. For example, educators reported that several aspects of the PLE Pilot helped them in their distance learning instruction and also facilitated students’ adaptation to this new way of learning: Teachers gained experience with digital tools, learned new ways of using technology in instruction, strengthened collaboration with other teachers, and developed mindsets that prepared them for distance instruction such as incorporating more student agency and voice. These teachers’ students, in turn, began distance learning accustomed to the kinds of devices and digital platforms used, and had experience developing agency and ownership of their learning.

Educator Resilience: Stressors, Compassion Fatigue and SEL Competencies/Support

This study from the Oakland Unified School District-UC Berkeley Research-Practice Partnership takes stock of the experiences of educators in Oakland Unified School District during the spring of 2020 at the request of the district’s Social-Emotional Learning team. Notably, this study focuses on the mental health and wellbeing of teachers, rather than their more practice-related challenges. Survey responses from 321 educators revealed that their biggest stressor during the distance learning phase was what schooling would look like after the shelter in place order was lifted. Educators were also highly stressed about student engagement during distance learning, the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic crisis, as well as students’ mental wellbeing, health, and safety. A majority of educators strongly or somewhat agreed feeling “compassion fatigue,” which measures how much stress, burnout, and secondary trauma teachers experience, while teaching remotely. Moreover, educators’ positive sense of school connectedness and online teaching self-efficacy functioned as factors related to job resources that could prevent educators from experiencing higher levels of compassion fatigue. A companion brief examines educators’ sense of teaching efficacy during distance learning.

Other publications (starting with the most recent):

• Why Do Detroit Students Miss School? Implications for Returning to School After COVID-19
• Instructional Delivery Under Michigan Districts’ Extended COVID-19 Learning Plans
• To What Extent Does In-Person Schooling Contribute to the Spread of COVID-19? Evidence from Michigan and Washington
• Teaching & Learning in the Time of COVID-19: Challenges and Solutions From Alamo Colleges District Faculty and Students
• Examining Equity in Remote Learning Plans: A Content Analysis of State Responses to COVID-19
• Exploring the Evidence on Virtual and Blended Learning
• New York Early Care and Education Survey: Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on New York Early Childhood System
• COVID-19 and Third-Grade Reading Policies: An Analysis of State Guidance on Third-Grade Reading Policies in Response to COVID-19
• State Policies to Address COVID-19 School Closure 
• Return to Learn: How Michigan School Districts Plan to Reopen in Fall 2020
• How America’s Schools Responded to the COVID Crisis 
• How Did Michigan School Districts Plan to Educate Students During COVID-19? An Analysis of District Continuity of Learning Plans
• Considerations for Reopening Pennsylvania Schools

Nina Spitzley is Marketing Specialist at the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships (NNERPP). 

Suggested citation: Spitzley, N. (2021). Schooling During the Pandemic, Part 2: Insights from Students and Families. NNERPP Extra, 3(1), 2-9.