COVID-19 and Schools

This book features contributions from leading experts who present peer reviewed research on how the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic affected U.S. teachers, students, parents, teaching practices, enrolments, and institutional innovations, offering the first empirical findings exploring educational impacts likely to last for decades. The COVID-19 pandemic presented the greatest crisis in the history of U.S. schooling, with America's 50 states, thousands of school systems, and tens of thousands of private and charter schools responding in myriad ways. This book brings together peer reviewed, empirical research on how U.S. schools responded, and on the educational and health impacts likely to persist for many years. Contributors explore how the U.S. responses differed from those in other countries, with slower reopening, and both reopening and modes of instruction varying widely across states and school sectors. Compared to European countries, U.S. responses to reopening schools reflected political influences more than health or educational needs, though this was less true in market-based private and charter schools. The pandemic was a catalyst for school choice movements across the U.S. Many parents reacted to school closings by exploring alternatives to traditional public schools, including an important and likely permanent innovation, small, parent-created or "pod" schools. As the papers here detail, long term student learning loss and health and socioemotional impacts of COVID-19 closings may well last for decades. The volume concludes by exploring teacher experiences across different sectors following the pandemic. COVID-19 and Schools will be a key resource for academics, researchers, and advanced students of education, education policy and leadership, educational research, research methods, economics, sociology and psychology. The chapters included in this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of School Choice.

Robert Maranto holds the 21st Century Chair in Leadership in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA. He has produced 15 books including Educating Believers: Religion and School Choice (2021) and President Obama and Education Reform (2012), while serving on his local school board. David T. Marshall is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA. His research focuses on COVID-19 pandemic and K-12 education, as well as charter schools and school choice. Dr. Marshall is a former teacher and previously served as Chair of the Alabama Public Charter School Commission.

Introduction 1. COVID-19 and Schooling in the U.S.: Disruption, Continuity, Quality, and Equity 2. We're All Teachers Now: Remote Learning During COVID-19 3. Parent-Created "Schools" in the U.S. 4. Reopening America's Schools: A Descriptive Look at How States and Large School Districts Navigated Fall 2020 5. Are School Reopening Decisions Related to Funding? Evidence from over 12,000 Districts During the COVID-19 Pandemic 6. The Longer Students were Out of School, the Less They Learned 7. COVID-19 and School Closures: A Narrative Review of Pediatric Mental Health Impacts 8. The Pre-Pandemic Growth in Online Public Education and the Factors that Predict It 9. This Time Really Is Different: The Effect of COVID-19 on Independent K-12 School Enrollments 10. Opting Out: Enrollment Trends in Response to Continued Public School Shutdowns 11. COVID-19 Safety Concerns, School Governance Models, and Instructional Modes: An Exploration of School Quality Perspectives During the Pandemic 12. Teacher Morale, Job Satisfaction, and Burnout in Schools