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Going Back to School after Covid-19: Narrative Essay

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Works Cited-

Education: From disruption to recovery. UNESCO. (2021, November 7). Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https:en.unesco.orgcovid19educationresponse.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Guidance for covid-19 prevention in K-12 Schools. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved November 14, 2021, from https:www.cdc.govcoronavirus2019-ncovcommunityschools-childcarek-12-guidance.html.

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Back to School amidst the New Normal: Ongoing Effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Children’s Health and Well-Being

Elizabeth Williams Published: Aug 13, 2021

Issue Brief

As millions of children across the nation prepare to go back to school this fall, many will face challenges due to ongoing health, economic, and social consequences of the pandemic. Children may be uniquely impacted by the pandemic, having experienced this crisis during important periods of physical, social, and emotional development, and some have experienced the loss of loved ones. Further, households with children have been particularly hard hit by loss of income, food and housing insecurity, and disruptions in health care coverage, which all affect health and well-being . Public health measures to reduce the spread of the disease also led to disruptions or changes in service utilization, difficulty accessing care, and increased mental health challenges for children. Young children are still not eligible for vaccination, and though children are likely to be asymptomatic or experience only mild symptoms, they can contract COVID-19. Children may face new risks due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant, and some children who contract COVID-19 experience long-term effects from the disease. Many of these effects have disproportionately affected low-income children and children of color, who faced increased health and economic challenges even prior to the pandemic. This brief examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the health and well-being of children, explores recent policy responses, and considers what the findings means for the back-to-school season amidst new challenges due to the recent increase in cases and deaths. Key findings include:

During the pandemic, some children experienced disruptions in routine vaccinations or preventive care appointments and difficultly accessing care, particularly dental and specialized care. Use of telemedicine has increased but not enough to offset declines in service utilization overall.
Children’s mental health service utilization declined amid elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological stress for children and parents.
Households with children have experienced significantly higher rates of economic hardships throughout the pandemic compared to households without children, leading to increased barriers to adequately addressing social determinants of health. Black, Hispanic, and other people of color have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic’s economic effects.
Though the risk of severe illness from COVID-19 is lower for children than adults, over 43,000 children are estimated to have lost a parent due to COVID-19, with Black children being disproportionately impacted by parent death.
Most children are likely to be back in the classroom this fall, but many still face health risks due to their or their teachers’ vaccination status. Some states and school districts are beginning to announce mask or vaccine requirements while others are banning vaccine or mask mandates for schools.

Recent policy developments, most notably the American Rescue Plan Act and the American Families Plan, attempt to alleviate some of the existing and pandemic-induced issues impacting children’s health and well-being. However, there is still uncertainty around what back to school will look like this fall, and the transition to “the new normal” may be more difficult for some. Schools, parents, and policymakers may face additional pressure to address the ongoing effects of the pandemic on children.

Children’s Health Care Disruptions and Mental Health Challenges

The pandemic has led to delays in child vaccinations and preventive care. KFF analysis of the Household Pulse Survey from June 23 – July 5, 2021 estimates 25% of households with children have a child who has missed, delayed, or skipped a preventive appointment in the past 12 months due to the pandemic (Figure 1). Preliminary Medicaid administrative data confirms this pattern, showing that when comparing March 2020 – October 2020 to the same months before the pandemic in 2019, there were approximately 9% fewer vaccinations for children under 2 and 21% fewer child screening services. Rates for primary and preventative care among Medicaid beneficiaries show signs of rebounding in more recent months with service use reflecting pent-up demand, but it is unclear whether this trend will continue and make up for the millions of services missed early in the pandemic. Another recent study similarly reports vaccinations for all children declined sharply after March 2020. The study also finds vaccinations have completely recovered for children under 2 but have only partially recovered for older children.

essay on first day at school after covid 19

Figure 1: Children have missed or delayed preventive appointments and utilized telehealth during the pandemic

Children also experienced difficulty accessing and disruptions in specialty and dental care. Parents have reported delaying dental care or difficulty accessing dental care for their child, and there were 39% fewer dental services for Medicaid/CHIP beneficiaries under 19 when comparing the pandemic months March 2020 – October 2020 to the same months in 2019. Children with special health care needs experienced difficulties accessing specialized services , especially services that could not be conducted via telehealth.

Children’s utilization of telemedicine services has increased since the pandemic, but the increase has not offset the decreases in service utilization overall. Preliminary data suggest that telehealth utilization for Medicaid/CHIP beneficiaries under 19 increased rapidly in April 2020 and remains higher than before the pandemic. 23% of households with children surveyed by the Household Pulse Survey from June 23 – July 5, 2021 reported a child having a telehealth appointment in the past 4 weeks (Figure 1). Throughout the pandemic, the federal government and states have taken action to expand access to telehealth services. While telehealth utilization has increased, the increase has not offset the decreases in service utilization overall, and barriers to accessing health care via telehealth may remain, especially for low-income patients or patients in rural areas.

Children’s mental health and mental health service utilization has worsened since the start of the pandemic. The pandemic caused disruptions in routines and social isolation for children, which can be associated with anxiety and depression and can have implications for mental health later in life. Also, research has shown that as economic conditions worsen, children’s mental health is negatively impacted. Parents with young children reported in October and November of 2020 that their children showed elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, and psychological stress and 22% experienced overall worsened mental or emotional health. Recent studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) find children’s emergency department visits increased during the pandemic for mental health-related emergencies and suspected suicide attempts by children ages 12 to 17. At the same time, mental health service utilization has declined, with preliminary data for Medicaid/CHIP beneficiaries suggesting there have been approximately 34% fewer mental health services when comparing the pandemic months March 2020 – October 2020 to the same months in 2019. Private mental health care claims also decreased from 2019 to 2020. There has been an increase in access to mental health care through telehealth, but there remain technological and privacy barriers to accessing mental health services via telehealth for some children.

Parental stress and poor mental health due to the pandemic can negatively affect children’s health. A previous KFF analysis finds economic uncertainty has led to increased mental health challenges, especially for adults in households with children and specifically mothers in those households. Further, 46% of mothers who reported a negative mental health impact due to the pandemic were not able to access needed mental health. Parental stress can negatively affect children’s emotional and mental health, harm the parent-child bond , and have long-term behavioral implications . Maternal depression can worsen child health status and lead to less preventative care. Additionally, parental stress and financial hardship can lead to an increased risk of child abuse and neglect. Early evidence shows declines in child abuse during the pandemic, though it is unclear if that is due to decreased reporting or due to social policy interventions during the pandemic. Children’s existing and pandemic-induced mental health challenges may have implications for the transition back to school and indicate children may need additional mental health support when they return to school.

Pandemic-related challenges in children’s access to health care built on a system that was sometimes not meeting needs even before the pandemic, especially for low-income children . In 2019, 23% of children living in households with incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL) were estimated to have not received a preventative check-up in the past 12 months and 26% did not see a dentist for a preventive visit during the past 12 months (Figure 2). Some children with mental health needs were not receiving care, with an estimated 29% of the lowest income children who needed mental health services not able to access care (Figure 2). The pandemic may have made it even more challenging for children already experiencing difficulties accessing care and likely worsened existing disparities in access to needed care for children of color, children with special health care needs, children in low-income households, and children living in rural areas.

Figure 2: Even before the pandemic, some children were not receiving preventive care or mental health care

The Economic Downturn and Children’s Well Being

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many families with children were faced with unemployment and income loss and continue to face economic hardship. Throughout the pandemic, households with children were consistently more likely to report job or income loss, with more than half of households with children reporting losing income between March 2020 and March 2021. 1 While national indicators signaling job and income loss have moderated in recent months, they are still not at pre-pandemic levels. KFF analysis of the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey from June 23 – July 5, 2021 found 12% of adults with children in the household applied for Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits and 23% experienced loss of income in the past 4 weeks (Figure 3). These rates were significantly higher compared to adults without children in the household.

Figure 3: Households with children are experiencing higher rates of job or income loss compared households without children

Loss of family income affects parents’ ability to provide for children’s basic needs. KFF analysis of the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey also found that among adults reporting income loss in the past 4 weeks, 91% of adults with children in the household reported difficultly paying for expenses in the past week, 20% reported not having confidence in their ability to make their next month’s housing payment, and 32% reported food insufficiency (Figure 4). All of these rates are significantly higher for adults living in households with children than adults living in households without children. A large body of research shows that economic instability is a social determinant of health outcomes for children.

Figure 4: Among households experiencing income loss, households with children are experiencing higher rates of hardship

Further, Black, Hispanic , 2 and other households of color have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and its economic effects. In 2019, Black and Hispanic children were nearly three times more likely to be living in poverty than Asian and White children, and food insufficiency rates before the pandemic were three times higher for Black households and two time higher for Hispanic households when compared to White households. A recent report found Hispanic and Black households with children have experienced almost double the rate of economic or health-related hardships during the pandemic compared to White and Asian households with children. Overall, child poverty rates children have increased during the pandemic, especially among Hispanic and Black children.

Job and income loss may lead to disruptions in children’s health coverage, though increased coverage through Medicaid and CHIP is likely offsetting much of that decline. Roughly 2 to 3 million people between March and September 2020 have lost employer health benefits, a trend that built on years of coverage losses among children. From 2016 and 2019, the rate of uninsured children in the US started to increase despite reaching the lowest rate in history (4.7%) in 2016, with the rate of uninsured Hispanic children increasing more than twice as fast as the rate for non-Hispanic youth. Loss of coverage or coverage interruptions can negatively impact children’s ability to access needed care. 3 , 4 , 5 During the pandemic, Medicaid and CHIP provided a safety net for many children. Administrative data for Medicaid show that children’s enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP has increased between February 2020 and February 2021, a total increase of 3.2 million enrollees, or 9.1%, from child enrollment in February 2020 (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Child Medicaid/CHIP enrollment has increased since the pandemic

Children’s Health and COVID-19

While likely to be asymptomatic or experience only mild symptoms, children can contract COVID-19. Preliminary data through July 29, 2021 show there have been over 4 million child COVID-19 cases, and children with underlying health conditions may be at an increased risk of developing severe illness. Though a small percentage, some children who tested positive for the virus are now facing long haul symptoms , with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) the most-common complication that has impacted 4,000 children as of June 2, 2021 . It is unclear how long symptoms will last and what impact they will have on children’s long-term health. Cases have risen in recent weeks due to the Delta variant, and children are making up an increasing share of new cases, with children making up 19.0% of cases for the week ending in July 29 compared to 14.3% since the pandemic began. Hospitalizations of children with COVID-19 have also been rising since early July, reaching 216 children, on average, being admitted to the hospital every day for the week of July 31 – August 6, 2021.

Eligible children have lower vaccination rates than the adult population, and some children remain ineligible for a vaccine. Children 12 and up are now able to be vaccinated against COVID-19, which reduces the risk of adolescents contracting, spreading, or experiencing severe symptoms from COVID-19. Approximately 37% of children ages 12-15 and 48% of children ages 16-17 have received at least one vaccine dose as of July 26, 2021. These rates are lower than the adult population, which reached 70% as of August 2, 2021. There is currently no COVID vaccine for children under the age of 12, so some risk remains for that population to contract and spread the virus. Vaccine clinical trials are currently underway for children under 12, with authorization expected by the end of 2021. The KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor recently reported that almost half of parents of children ages 12-17 say their child has received a COVID-19 vaccine or they intend to get them vaccinated right away. The report also found that parents’ vaccination intentions for their children are largely correlated with their own vaccination status and those who say their child’s school provided information on or encouraged COVID-19 vaccines are more likely to report their child has received a vaccine. The KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor also found that parents are more cautious when it comes to vaccinating their child under 12, with about a quarter saying they would get their child between the ages of 5 and 11 vaccinated right away once the vaccine is authorized and four in ten saying they would wait and see.

Some children have experienced COVID-19 through the loss of one or more family members due to the virus. A study estimates that, as of Feb. 2021, 43,000 children in US have lost at least one parent to COVID-19. The study also finds Black children represent only 14% of children in the US but 20% of children who have lost a parent, and low-income communities and communities of color overall experienced higher COVID-19 case rates and deaths . Losing a parent can have long term impacts on a child’s health, increasing their risk of substance abuse, mental health challenges, poor educational outcomes , and early death . Further, the death of a loved one from COVID-19 may have occurred amid increased social isolation and economic hardship due to the pandemic. Estimates indicate a 17.5% to 20% increase in bereaved children due to COVID-19, indicating an increased number of grieving children who may need additional supports as they head back to school in the fall.

Policy Responses

Several policies passed during the pandemic provided financial relief for families with children. To address the economic fallout of the pandemic, the federal government passed relief bills that included direct financial relief for families, and evidence suggests material hardships that affect health, such as food insufficiency and financial instability, declined following stimulus payments. In addition, the March 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) included targeted aid to families with children through the Child Tax Credit (CTC). The ARPA is projected to decrease the number of children living in poverty by over 40%, with the expanded CTC now reaching children previously too poor to qualify and giving families in the lowest quintile an average income boost of $4,470. Alleviating child poverty is associated with improved child health outcomes such as healthier birthweights, lower maternal stress, better nutrition, and lower use of drugs and alcohol.

Other recent policies directly target children’s health coverage or access to health care. To address health care coverage, the ARPA extended eligibility to ACA health insurance subsides for people with incomes over 400% of poverty and increased the amount of assistance for people with lower incomes. The ARPA also included incentives for states to expand Medicaid for low-income adults under the ACA and extend Medicaid postpartum coverage for up to 12 months, both of which could benefit the health and well-being of families. 6 , 7 The Child Tax Credit, expanded by the ARPA, is not taxable income, so expanding the tax credit will not count toward Medicaid eligibility . To address access to health care challenges, the federal government and many states are making policy changes to permanently expand access to telehealth services. In their most recent report to congress , the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) recommended more coordinated efforts by agencies to address the design and implementation of benefits and improve access to home and community-based behavioral health services for Medicaid/CHIP children with significant mental health needs. In addition, the Biden Administration created a program to provide relief for COVID-19 related funeral costs, but targeted services for bereaved children were not included.

Back to School

Most children are likely to be back in the classroom this fall, but many still face health risks due to their or their teachers’ vaccination status and increasing transmission due to the Delta variant. The vast majority of schools, 88% of schools with 4 th grade and 89% of schools with 8 th grade, in the U.S. offered hybrid or full-time, in-person learning in Spring 2021, according to a federal survey . Most of these schools, as well as others, are likely to be in-person in fall 2021. While many states allow for in-person learning decision to be made at the local level, nine states have mandated schools return to in-person learning for the 2021-22 school year as of June 2021. No states are requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for school attendance at this time, and some states have enacted legislation to ban vaccine mandates for school attendance. However, due to concerns over the Delta variant and rising cases, some local districts are beginning to require the COVID-19 vaccine for teachers and staff. There have been legal challenges to vaccine mandates, with a federal District Court in Texas recently upholding a Hospital’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for employees. The CDC recently updated their guidance for COVID-19 in schools, recommending masks for all staff and students regardless of vaccination status for in-person learning in the fall. While some states and school districts will require students and staff to wear masks at school, at least nine states have passed legislation to ban mask mandates for schools as of late July 2021. Recent KFF polling shows that about half the public overall supports K-12 schools requiring COVID-19 vaccination, but most parents are opposed, with divisions along partisan lines.

While returning to in-person learning can support children’s development and well-being, the transition back to school in the fall may be challenging for some children. Experts notes that in-person learning is beneficial for children’s social, emotional, and physical health and can provide access to important health services and address racial and social inequities. However, this school year will look different for many children due to COVID-19 prevention strategies and transitioning back to “the new normal” may be difficult for some, especially those who have adapted to new routines and virtual learning in the past year . Children’s mental health has worsened during the pandemic , which could make the transition back to school more challenging. Additionally, young children who have been home with parents during the pandemic may experience separation anxiety as they transition back to school or day care.

Schools and proposed policies may provide additional supports for children and families as they transition back to school. The increased Child Tax Credits began July 15 th and will continue monthly, but the enhanced CTC was only adopted for 2021. The American Families Plan put forth by the White House proposes to extend the CTC expansion through 2025 and make the credit permanently available to families with no earnings. The American Families Plan also proposes expanding school meals and access to healthy foods, making the summer EBT program permanent, and expanding SNAP eligibility for formerly incarcerated individuals. The American Families Plan also proposes a national paid family and medical leave program and universal pre-kindergarten, both of which research has shown have benefits for children’s health outcomes. 8 , 9 President Biden and congressional Democrats also recently released a reconciliation budget resolution that includes expanded child tax credits and investments in universal pre-k, child care, paid leave, and education. Other policy actions at the local level can also address children’s well-being. For example, schools and school districts can support students as they transition back to school by creating a safe in-person learning environment , providing staff and resources to support students having difficulty transitioning, ensuring staff and teachers have access to mental health resources, and developing a trauma-informed plan to respond to COVID-19 related trauma.

COVID-19 and the health care disruptions, mental health challenges, and economic hardships stemming from COVID-19 all have implications for children’s health and their transition back to school in the fall. While returning to in-person learning can support children’s development and well-being, uncertainty remains around what in-person learning will look like as cases rise due to the Delta variant and the transition to “the new normal” may be difficult for some children and their families. Recent policy developments attempt to address the ongoing effects of the pandemic on children, and schools, parents, and policymakers may face additional pressure to support children during this time.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Coronavirus

news release

Children Head Back to School Amid an Ongoing Pandemic That Has Had Significant Effects on Their Health and Well-Being

Also of Interest

Mental Health and Substance Use Considerations Among Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Next Stage of COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-Out in United States: Children Under 12
KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor: Parents and the Pandemic

9 Students Share How They Really Feel About Going Back to School

By Madeleine Burry , Jessica Fregni, and Laura Zingg

August 24, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep across the country, students, families, and teachers are navigating the new normal of going back to school —while much of the country still shelters in place. Some students are preparing for a return to remote learning. Others are still unsure of how exactly they will be attending school this year.

We spoke with a few students and their family members from different schools around the country to learn what school will look like for them this fall. They shared their personal experiences with remote learning and how they feel about going back to school in the middle of a pandemic.

Missing Everything About School

‘i just carry on about my day with no specific emotion’ syedah asghar, college sophomore, washington, d.c..

Syedah Asghar will begin her second year of college at American University in Washington, D.C., where she studies public relations and strategic communications. After receiving some mixed messages over the summer about the status of her school reopening, Syedah recently learned that her school’s campus will remain closed for the fall semester. She plans to attend remote classes in a few weeks. And like many college students, she is grappling with staying motivated and missing out on the college experience.

College has been a safe space where I’m the most “me.” I would wake up much happier. I had confidence in my routine, and I was surrounded by friends who made me feel excited to start the day. With online learning, I just carry on about my day with no specific emotion.

The hardest part about attending college remotely is maintaining a routine and motivation. For in-person classes, I would get dressed and have to physically be present which put a start to my day. Now, I sometimes turn on my computer as soon as I wake up and not give myself the mental space ahead of time to start my day. On the plus side, with online learning, there is a lot more flexibility in my schedule since I’m able to complete an assignment on my own timeframe. Most of my professors are honoring mental health, and are more understanding of external factors that impact the quality of education now that we're learning remotely.

Being part of the Enduring Ideas Fellowship has kept me busy working 20 hours a week. I’m also trying to get creative by learning how to cook and attempting new recipes. With my friends, we’ve all been checking-in and making sure we’re able to support one another through these mentally-draining times. Only two of my professors have reached out and asked how we’re doing, so there isn’t much support on that end.

While it can be mentally challenging and exhausting, I’m very fortunate to have access to technology and internet connection so I can complete my coursework. And I’m able to stay at home and quarantine if need be.

‘I'm Hoping That Jose Goes Back, Even Though I Know It's Scary’ Marisol Escobedo & Jose Manrrique, 4th grade, Kansas City, Missouri

Fourth-grade student Jose Manrrique is returning to school at Carver Dual Language in Kansas City, Missouri, in September—virtually, for now. Schools in the Kansas City Public School System will not reopen for in-person instruction until the community’s COVID-19 cases decrease for at least 14 days. While Jose eagerly awaits the day when he can return to the classroom and see his teachers and friends again, his mother, Marisol Escobedo, feels much more conflicted.

Marisol: They're going to be starting online school first, on September 8th. They will do that for a couple of months while the cases keep decreasing, then they will start putting some of the kids back in school. I'm hoping that Jose goes back, even though I know it's scary at the same time for him to go. I'm really worried that he will get sick. I don't want to go through that, it scares me. But I really would like Jose to be able to develop his learning so that he can learn what he's supposed to in school.

I don't really think that Jose learned much from online classes. Even though I know that the teachers do their best to teach them as much as they can, I don't think it's the same for the kids.

Especially the younger ages, I think that it's hard for them to be able to teach them everything on a computer—especially because you have multiple children at the same time in the class. For an older student, like my sister, I know that she did really good because she's older. She's 16 and she already knows what she's doing. But for Jose, it was hard.

I'm hoping that they will make the school safe for students, to try to keep them as healthy as they can. I don't know what that process will be, but I'm hoping that everything that they do, they will plan it well.

Jose: I want to go back in the school building. I'm hoping that I can still play with my friends and also be in the same class with my friends.

Adapting to a New Normal

‘i have to push myself to get things done’ haanya ijaz, 12th grade, dublin, ohio.

Haanya Ijaz is a rising senior at Hilliard Davidson, in Dublin, Ohio where she will be attending remote classes in the fall. She’s also taking classes at Ohio State University, which will be solely online. While she finds in-person classes more interesting and also values the face-to-face time with friends, she knows online learning is safer, and also allows her to independently create a schedule that works for her.

Online classes are definitely a lot more organized this fall than before.

I also think I've gained skills with handling procrastination and sticking to a schedule, so I should be more organized this fall. [The hardest part about online learning is] staying interested and motivated. Without sticking to a schedule, I easily fall into a cycle of procrastination and feeling down, so I have to push myself to get things done and stay on top of my responsibilities.

Most of my classes should be done before 4 p.m., leaving me room to work on college apps and extracurriculars in the afternoon along with homework.

I also think I'll have more time for my personal hobbies and interests which have always been something that give me a break outside of academics and keep my mental health in check. I read a lot! I also sketch landscapes, my friends, and characters from my favorite shows. Recently I've gotten back into skateboarding after a one-year-long hiatus, which has been great.

[I feel worried about] college applications and the situation with the state-administered SAT. It's still very gray. [I’m hopeful about my] self-growth and exploration with this extra time at home! I am also looking forward to the remote internship opportunities I will be participating in this fall.

I would obviously love it if COVID-19 did not exist, but within the current parameters of the situation I'm excited for the courses I am taking and the extracurriculars I am involved in. I also have a huge list of books I need to get through, so staying at home is going to be great for that!

‘I’m Feeling Hopeful About My Ability to Sit in on More Online Classes’ Annabel Morley, 12th Grade, Baltimore, Maryland

Annabel Morley is a rising senior at the Baltimore School of Arts. At least the beginning of Annabel’s final year of high school will be spent at home, where she will be learning remotely. Although Annabel worries about how engaging and supportive online learning will be this year, she’s found a silver lining: More time at home means that she has more time for her artistic pursuits which include writing for CHARM , an online literary magazine that amplifies voices of Baltimore youth and spending time with her family.

I’m not really sure yet what my school day will look like, but I know it will be entirely online. I definitely don’t think I would feel very safe going back to school in person unless CDC guidelines were followed really well. Both my parents are at risk and I wouldn’t want to put them, or my friends’ families, at risk.

The hardest part of attending school remotely is definitely not seeing any of my school friends in person and having some difficulty understanding the content. We have a lot less academic support. I’m most worried about understanding what's going on in my classes—especially in math. I hope that we can find a way for online schooling to be more engaging because it was very difficult to understand or stay focused on a class last spring.

Now that school is online, I definitely have more time to work on personal projects and interests. For example, I’ve started crocheting and oil painting, and have made a bunch of clothes. During quarantine, I've mainly been doing lots of crafts and baking, Facetiming, and having safe outdoor hangouts with my friends.

My mom and I are really close so it's been nice to be able to spend more time with her, and with all the Facetiming with my friends, I feel like I’ve been really loved and supported during this time. I’m feeling hopeful about my ability to sit in on more online classes and teach myself artistic and personal skills.

‘Honestly, I Would Prefer Learning in a Virtual Setting’ Amia Roach-Valandra, 12th Grade, Rosebud, South Dakota

Amia Roach-Valandra will begin her senior year of high school this fall on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. She is also an Enduring Ideas fellow, a student-led leadership initiative to reimagine the future of education. Amia's school will be online during the first quarter, with plans to reevaluate whether to open for in-person classes. Like many students and families, Amia is feeling anxious not knowing what lies ahead.

In this new school year, we are faced with challenges that we never had to face before. My high school reached a decision to go online for the first quarter and have a revaluation in nine weeks. As a student I feel in the dark about the decision that is being made, and anxious about it. If the school isn’t prepared yet, how do they expect students to be prepared?

Not having a normal school setting may not allow me to be the best student I can be. I’ll have the safety of my health top of mind instead of learning the curriculum. Honestly, I would prefer learning in a virtual setting, and being able to learn from the comfort of my own home. I know I would be able to stay on top of assignments, although I know some students may not feel the same.

I am also a student-athlete, and I am worried about my school's plan regarding sports. It is definitely a piece of my life that I would want to go back to normal, yet I want to be considerate of my health as well as others. A lot of students depend on sports as a place to escape for a while, and others depend on sports scholarships for college. I am also thinking about those students and how much that will impact them this school year.

‘My Overall Mental and Physical Health Improved Significantly’ Tehle Ross, 10th Grade, Baltimore, Maryland

Tehle Ross is a rising sophomore attending Baltimore City College and a contributor for CHARM , a digital magazine featuring voices of Baltimore youth. She loves studying history and plans to study abroad this year in Italy, a country that has made a remarkable recovery through the pandemic. Her Italian school will be a hybrid of online and in-person at the beginning of the year and Tehle is optimistic about transitioning to all in-person classes.

Attending school remotely has several benefits and shortcomings alike. Each family's living and working situation is different; however, in my personal experience, I noticed that my overall mental and physical health improved significantly when doing school online. I was less stressed because I was able to space out my work as I desired, and I also was able to complete every assignment from the comfort of my own home. Attending school remotely stunted my academic progress, though, I believe, for I am a more focused student when instruction takes place in the classroom with my peers.

The hardest part of attending school remotely was the social isolation from my classmates and teachers. At school, you always feel like you have a community around you, and it is tough to not feel that same sense of community when learning online at home. Additionally, it takes an innate sense of motivation to get assignments done in a timely manner when you are doing work online.

Quarantine has been tough for us all, but I cope and stay busy by doing what makes me happy. I have developed a passion for baking, and I have also been an avid reader and writer. Having game nights with my family and watching movies together lifts my spirits.

My community has been supporting me during this time by checking up on me and staying in touch virtually. Supporting others during this time means prioritizing their safety.

Worries and Hopes About the Next Chapter

‘this pandemic is serious, but people have stopped taking it seriously’ shubhan bhat, 11th grade, baltimore, maryland.

Shubhan Bhat will also begin 11th grade this fall at The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. He enjoys poetry, writing for CHARM magazine, and studying American government. His school will hold online classes this fall and possibly offer a hybrid option later on. Shubhan prefers remote learning because it’s less stressful and safer for students. But being at home while trying to learn has also been very difficult for Shubhan and his family.

With remote learning, I gained more time to finish my work, had less stress, and more free time. What is lost is the social aspect of the classes, which is fine with me. I’m hopeful that online classes will be safer than an in-person school and there will be less work.

The hardest part about attending school remotely is being in the house when events happen. I was in my English class when the paramedics came to my house to try and revive my grandfather. I watched my grandfather die right in the middle of class. At that point, because my maternal grandfather also died a month ago, I lost all my motivation to be in class or do work. I left class, and haven’t come back since.

I’ve been getting support through classes and therapy. My family tries to work together on activities so I won’t be depressed during quarantine. My teachers also made my classes optional last spring so that decreased my stress. I don’t really have a lot of friends or go on social media as much as I used to. It used to entertain me, but it’s starting to get boring.

I wish schools in Texas and Florida wouldn't be in-person. I find that in-person classes during the pandemic aren't safe because students are going out in public and have a greater risk of spreading COVID. This pandemic is serious, but people have stopped taking it seriously. And now there is an increase in cases.

‘I Fear All of My College Plans Will Go Out the Window’ Me’Shiah Bell, 11th Grade, Baltimore Maryland

Me’Shiah Bell is a rising 11th grader at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, where students will continue to receive remote instruction this fall. While Me’Shiah believes that remote learning is the best and safest option for now, she worries about what remote learning will mean for her college plans—especially since she’s entering her junior year, a critical time for college admissions. In her free time, Me’Shiah also writes for CHARM online magazine.

I think remote learning is the best option, as it is the safest. However, I think there are quite a few downsides.

I miss the social interactions, but I realize that it’s unimportant in the long run. The main downside for me is the lack of clarity and communication between the students and teachers. For example, last spring I had a grading error that would have been fixed immediately if I was physically at school. However, since I wasn’t there, there was no sense of urgency, and my concern was disregarded by multiple adults. This caused the situation to be pushed over for much longer than it should’ve been.

Hopefully, this fall we’ll have a better system to avoid issues like this. I also hope classes will be scheduled like a typical school day, with multiple sessions in a row, and independent work to do between classes. Last spring, teachers could decide if and when classes sessions were held, and everything was very unorganized. Sometimes, the sessions would overlap with other responsibilities I had.

The hardest part of remote learning has been keeping myself motivated and holding myself accountable. I’m going into my junior year, which is probably the most important year for college admissions, and I don’t feel like I’m able to put my best foot forward. I’ve worked hard to get to the point I’m at now, and I fear that all of my college plans will go out of the window due to circumstances out of my control.

Overall, I’m worried about how prepared I am mentally to adjust to such a huge change, while still continuing to perform well academically. I’m hopeful that my school will be more prepared to accommodate all of our needs so that everyone can have the best possible experience.

‘I Think COVID Gave Me a New Story to Tell the Next Generation’ Rosalie Bobbett, 12th Grade, Brooklyn, New York

This August, Rosalie Bobbett will begin her senior year at Brooklyn Emerging Leaders Academy (BELA). The first three weeks of school will be held online, after which she will alternate one week of in-person classes and one week of remote learning. Rosalie lives with her parents, siblings, grandmother, and uncle so she’s been extra cautious about quarantining. Going back to in-person classes will be a big adjustment. But she’s ready.

My school is really on top of safety. They're going to make us wear masks. And we have to get a COVID test before we enter the school building. For in-person classes, we're going to stay in one room with 12 other people. The teachers have to rotate to us instead of us traveling in a big group.

I think with online learning, it gives me an opportunity to move at my own pace and take accountability for my learning. The disadvantages are the lack of talking to people and being in the classroom. I'm very fortunate to be in a school where I have a computer. I know how to work Zoom. I know how to work from Microsoft. Most of my peers don’t even have a computer. And so I'm wondering—how are those students navigating this world right now?

I feel like a lot of students are going to be left behind because of resources or their parents—there might be other children in the home and it's going to be difficult for them to take care of their siblings. The teachers and principals and people who are responsible for their education—I don't want them to lose sight of that child who is behind the screen.

I’m excited about school. It's my senior year. This is the last chapter before entering my adulthood. I think COVID gave me a new story to tell the next generation. It's going to be a lot of mixed emotions, but I know my teachers are going to make my senior year the best that they can.

How are new teachers coping with the new realities of returning to school? Find out what some incoming corps members told us about starting their teaching career in the midst of a pandemic.

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Front Psychol

Stress-Related Growth in Adolescents Returning to School After COVID-19 School Closure

1 Centre for Positive Psychology, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

Kelly-Ann Allen

2 Faculty of Education, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

Gökmen Arslan

3 Department of Psychological Counselling and Guidance, Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Burdur, Turkey

4 International Network on Personal Meaning, Toronto, ON, Canada

Associated Data

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

The move to remote learning during COVID-19 has impacted billions of students. While research shows that school closure, and the pandemic more generally, has led to student distress, the possibility that these disruptions can also prompt growth in is a worthwhile question to investigate. The current study examined stress-related growth (SRG) in a sample of students returning to campus after a period of COVID-19 remote learning ( n = 404, age = 13–18). The degree to which well-being skills were taught at school (i.e., positive education) before the COVID-19 outbreak and student levels of SRG upon returning to campus was tested via structural equation modeling. Positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use in students were examined as mediators. The model provided a good fit [ χ 2 = 5.37, df = 3, p = 0.146, RMSEA = 0.044 (90% CI = 0.00–0.10), SRMR = 0.012, CFI = 99, TLI = 0.99] with 56% of the variance in SRG explained. Positive education explained 15% of the variance in cognitive reappraisal, 7% in emotional processing, and 16% in student strengths use during remote learning. The results are discussed using a positive education paradigm with implications for teaching well-being skills at school to foster growth through adversity and assist in times of crisis.

Introduction

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) spread rapidly across the globe in 2020, infecting more than 70 million people and causing more than 1.5 million deaths at the time of submitting this paper (December 8, 2020; World Health Organization, 2020a ). The restrictions and disruptions stemming from this public health crisis have compromised the mental health of young people ( Hawke et al., 2020 ; UNICEF, 2020 ; Yeasmin et al., 2020 ; Zhou et al., 2020 ). A review assessing the mental health impact of COVID-19 on 6–21-year-olds ( n = 51 articles) found levels of depression and anxiety ranging between 11.78 and 47.85% across China, the United States of America, Europe, and South America ( Marques de Miranda et al., 2020 ). Researchers have also identified moderate levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in youth samples during the COVID-19 pandemic ( Guo et al., 2020 ; Liang et al., 2020 ; Wang et al., 2020 ).

Adolescence is a critical life stage for identity formation ( Allen and McKenzie, 2015 ; Crocetti, 2017 ) where teenagers strive for mastery and autonomy ( Featherman et al., 2019 ), individuate from their parents ( Levpuscek, 2006 ), and gravitate toward their peer groups to have their social and esteem needs met ( Allen and Loeb, 2015 ). The pandemic has drastically curtailed the conditions for teens to meet their developmental needs ( Loades et al., 2020 ). Gou et al. (2020 , p. 2) argue that adolescents are “more vulnerable than adults to mental health problems, in particular during a lockdown, because they are in a transition phase… with increasing importance of peers, and struggling with their often brittle self-esteem.”

In addition to the researching psychological distress arising from COVID-19, it is also important to identify positive outcomes that may arise through this pandemic. Dvorsky et al. (2020) caution that research focused only on distress may create a gap in knowledge about the resilience processes adopted by young people. In line with this, Bruining et al. (2020 , p. 1) advocate for research to keep “an open scientific mind” and include “positive hypotheses.” Waters et al. (2021) argue that researching distress during COVID-19 need not come at the expense of investigating how people can be strengthened through the pandemic. Hawke et al. (2020) , for example, found that more than 40% of their teen and early adult sample reported improved social relationships, greater self-reflection, and greater self-care.

Focusing on adolescents and adopting positive hypotheses , the current study will examine the degree to which a positive education intervention taught at school prior to the COVID-19 outbreak had an influence on three coping approaches during remote learning (i.e., positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use) and on student levels of stress-related growth (SRG) upon returning to school.

Can Adolescents Grow Through the COVID-19 Crisis? The Role of Positive Education

The calls for positive youth outcomes to be investigated during COVID-19 ( Bruining et al., 2020 ; Dvorsky et al., 2020 ; Waters et al., 2020 ) align with the field of positive education. Positive education is an applied science that weaves the research from positive psychology into schools following the principles of prevention-based psychology (e.g., teaching skills that enable students to prevent distress) and promotion-based psychology (e.g., teaching skills that enable students to build well-being; Slemp et al., 2017 ; Waters et al., 2017 ).

With the WHO focusing on student well-being as a top priority during the COVID-19 crisis ( World Health Organization, 2020b ), positive education is an essential research area. Burke and Arslan (2020 , p. 137) argue that COVID-19 could “become a springboard for positive change, especially in schools that draw on positive education research to …foster students’ social-emotional health.”

The field of positive education has developed a host of interventions that teach students the skills to support their mental health including mindfulness ( Waters et al., 2015 ), gratitude ( Froh et al., 2008 ), progressive relaxation ( Matsumoto and Smith, 2001 ), sense of belonging ( Allen and Kern, 2019 ) and, more specific to the current study, coping skills ( Collins et al., 2014 ; Frydenberg, 2020 ), cognitive reframing ( Sinclair, 2016 ), emotional management skills ( Brackett et al., 2012 ), and strengths use ( Quinlan et al., 2015 ). While prior research has shown that students can be successfully taught the skills to reduce ill-being and promote well-being, this research has been conducted predominantly with mainstream and at-risk students (for recent reviews, see Waters and Loton, 2019 ; Owens and Waters, 2020 ). Comparatively little research in positive education has been conducted with students who have experienced trauma ( Brunzell et al., 2019 ) yet, in the context of a global pandemic, the risks of trauma are amplified, hence is it worth considering the role of positive education in this context.

When it comes to trauma, a number of interventions have been developed based on cognitive behavioral principles (for example, see Little et al., 2011 ). These interventions teach students about trauma exposure and stress responses and then show students how to utilize skill such as relaxation, cognitive reframing, and social problem-solving skills to deal with PTSD symptoms ( Jaycox et al., 2010 ). Positive education ınterventions for trauma have been used with students who have experienced natural disasters, have been abused, have witnessed violence, or have been the victims of violent acts. These interventions have been shown to reduce depression, anxiety, and PTSD in students ( Stein et al., 2003 ; Cohen et al., 2006 ; National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2008 ; Walker, 2008 ; Jaycox et al., 2010 ).

The findings above, that positive education interventions help reduce the negative symptomology experienced by students in the aftermath of trauma begs the question as to whether these interventions can also promote positive changes following adversity. After first coining the term “ stress-related growth ,” Vaughn et al. (2009 , p. 131) defined it as the “experience of deriving benefits from encountering stressful circumstances” and asserted that SRG goes beyond merely a state of recovery following adversity. SRG also includes the development of a higher level of ongoing adaptive functioning. Those who experience SRG come out of the adversity stronger, with a deeper sense of meaning, new coping skills, broadened perspectives and newly developed personal resources ( Park and Fenster, 2004 ; Park, 2013 ).

In turning to see if positive education interventions can foster SRG, two studies were identified in the literature. Ullrich and Lutgendorf (2002) conducted a journaling intervention with undergraduate students (mean age = 20.05 years) who were asked to write about a stressful or traumatic event in their life twice a week for 1 month. Results showed that engaging in both emotion-based and cognitive-based reflection helped students see the adversity’s benefits and increase SRG. In Dolbier et al. (2010) study, college students (median age = 21 years) were placed in an intervention group or a waitlist control group. The intervention group participated in a 4-week resilience program that taught problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies. At the end of the program, the intervention group showed more significant increases in SRG from pre- to post-test than the waitlist control group. The findings from these two studies suggest that positive education interventions can lead to SRG. However, given that both studies used college students, there remains a gap in researcher as to whether positive interventions can promote SRG for school-aged students. As such, the question remains, “Can positive education interventions help students grow from their experience of adversity?”

Cross-sectional and longitudinal findings from traumatology, coping psychology, and adolescent psychology have shown that young people can grow through adversity. Indeed, considerable research has shown the transformative capacity within young people to use aversive experiences as a platform for growth ( Levine et al., 2008 ; Meyerson et al., 2011 ). Children and teens have been found to grow following experiences such as severe illness (e.g., cancer; Currier et al., 2009 ), terrorist attacks ( Laufer, 2006 ), natural disasters (e.g., floods and earthquakes; Hafstad et al., 2010 ), death of a parent ( Wolchik et al., 2009 ), war ( Kimhi et al., 2010 ), abuse ( Ickovics et al., 2006 ), minority stress ( Vaughn et al., 2009 ), and even everyday stressors ( Mansfield and Diamond, 2017 ). These studies were not intervention-based but do provide consistent evidence that young people are capable of experiencing stress related growth. The findings above, showing that young people can use adversity as a springboard for growth, leads to our first hypothesis:

Hypothesis 1: Adolescents will demonstrate stress-related growth during COVID-19.

The bulk of evidence for SRG in youth samples comes from cross-sectional or longitudinal research rather than intervention-based studies. While there has been intervention-based research working with school-aged students focusing on reducing PTSD, there has been none on promoting SRG. Moreover, the CBT interventions outlined above were run with students after the trauma had occurred. As there is no research looking at whether learning skills through a positive education intervention before a trauma influences the likelihood of SRG during or following a crisis. Drawing on the principle of promotion-based positive education, the current study seeks to explore whether teaching well-being skills to students before COVID-19 was significantly related to SRG during the global pandemic. Aligning with past research findings that the coping skills existing in individuals before a traumatic event are significant predictors of growth during and after trauma ( Park and Fenster, 2004 ; Prati and Pietrantoni, 2009 ; Zavala and Waters, 2020 ), hypothesis two is put forward:

Hypothesis 2: The degree to which students were taught positive education skills at school prior to the pandemic will be directly and positively related to their SRG upon school entry.

Coping Approaches in Remote Lockdown and SRG Upon School Re-entry

The possibility that the stressors of COVID-19 can trigger SRG in teenagers leads to the question of what factors might increase the chances of this growth. With reduced social contact during the pandemic, Wang et al. (2020 , p. 40) suggest that the development of intrapersonal skills are needed to optimize “psychological, emotional and behavioral adjustment.” Examples provided by Wang et al. (2020) include: (1) cognitive approaches that help students challenge unhelpful thoughts and (2) emotional approaches that give students the ability to express and handle their emotions. In research on everyday stressors with teenagers, Mansfield and Diamond (2017) found that cognitive-affective resources are significantly linked to SRG.

The coping factors examined in the current study were guided by the findings of Mansfield and Diamond (2017) together with the findings from college samples that cognitive reflection and emotional reflection ( Ullrich and Lutgendorf, 2002 ) as well as problem-focused and emotion-focused coping ( Dolbier et al., 2010 ) are significantly related to SRG. The recommendations of Wang et al. (2020) to investigate a student’s “psychological, emotional and behavioral adjustment” were also followed. The effect of three well-known coping skills during remote learning on SRG was examined: a cognitive skill (positive reappraisal), an emotional technique (emotional processing), and a behavioral skill – (strengths use).

Transitioning back to school, although a welcome move for many students, is still likely to be experienced as a source of distress ( Capurso et al., 2020 ). Re-entry requires a process of adjustment and a rupture of the “new-normal” routines that students had experienced with their families at home ( Pelaez and Novak, 2020 ). Some students may experience separation anxiety, others may be afraid of contracting the virus, and others may find the pace and noise of school unsettling ( Levinson et al., 2020 ; Pelaez and Novak, 2020 ). Even for those who adjust well, a “post-lockdown school” takes time and energy to get used to – wearing masks, lining up for daily temperature checks, washing hands upon entry into classrooms, and maintaining a 1.5-meter distance from their friends are foreign for most students and will require psycho-emotional processing ( Levinson et al., 2020 ). The better a student has coped during the period of remote learning (through positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use), the higher the chance they may have of growing through stress when they return to campus.

Positive Reappraisal

Positive reappraisal is a meaning-based, adaptive cognitive process that motivates an individual to consider whether a good outcome can emerge from a stressful experience ( Carver et al., 1989 ; Folkman and Moskowitz, 2000 ). Positively reappraising a stressful experience in ways that look for any beneficial outcomes ( Garland et al., 2011 ) has been shown to make people more aware of their values in life and to act upon those values ( Folkman and Moskowitz, 2000 ), thus, in doing so, it is linked to a deeper sense of meaning in life emerging from the stressor ( Rood et al., 2012a ). Positive reappraisal has been shown to reduce distress and improve mental health outcomes across various crises such as chronic illness, war, and rape ( Sears et al., 2003 ; Helgeson et al., 2006 ). Concerning the COVID-19 crisis, Xie et al. (2020) assert that an optimistic outlook may be critical. The reverse pattern has also been found in two student samples ( Liang et al., 2020 ; Ye et al., 2020 ) during the coronavirus crisis. Negative rumination (i.e., repeated negative thoughts about the virus) has been related to higher distress levels. Learning how to re-construct obstacles into opportunities during COVID-19 (e.g., “I miss seeing my teachers in person, but I am learning to be a more independent student”) can help young people to emerge from the crisis with new mindsets and skillsets. This logic leads to the third hypothesis of the current study:

Hypothesis 3: Higher use of positive reappraisal during remote learning will be significantly related to higher levels of stress-related growth when students return to school.

Emotional Processing

Emotional processing is described as the technique of actively processing and expressing one’s emotions during times of stress (in contrast to avoidance; Stanton et al., 2000 ). Emotional processing is a positive factor in helping children cope with and grow through adverse events such as grief ( McFerran et al., 2010 ), identity conflict ( Davis et al., 2015 ), and natural disasters ( Prinstein et al., 1996 ). To date, the role of emotional processing during a pandemic has not been explicitly studied; however, there is indirect research to suggest the value of this coping approach. For example, students in Chen et al. (2020) study who knew how to manage their stress levels displayed fewer symptoms of depression during COVID-19. Similarly, in Duan et al. (2020) study, emotion-focused coping during the coronavirus crisis was significantly related to anxiety levels in students from Grade 3 to Grade 12. These findings lead to Hypothesis four:

Hypothesis 4: Higher use of emotional processing techniques during remote learning will be significantly related to higher levels of stress-related growth when students return to school.

Strengths Use

The third coping factor to be examined in the current study is the skill of strengths use. Strengths are defined as positive capacities and characteristics that are energizing and authentic ( Peterson and Seligman, 2004 ). Strengths use is described by Govindji and Linley (2007) as the extent to which individuals put their strengths into actions and draw upon their strengths in various settings. Shoshani and Slone (2016) showed that strengths have a moderating role in the relationship between political violence and PTSD for young people exposed to lengthy periods of war and political conflict. In an adult sample, strengths were found to enhance PTG in earthquake survivors ( Duan and Guo, 2015 ). In the current COVID-19 pandemic, Rashid and McGrath (2020 , p. 116) suggest that “using our strengths can enhance our immunity to stressors by building protective and pragmatic habits and actions.” Adding to this, research shows that strengths use leads to an increased sense of control/self-efficacy in young people ( Loton and Waters, 2018 ), which may be an important outcome to combat the “uncertainty distress” ( Freeston et al., 2020 ) that many young people are currently feeling ( Demkowicz et al., 2020 ). The research and reasoning outlined above about strengths use has been used to formulate Hypothesis five.

Hypothesis 5: Higher strengths use during remote learning will be significantly related to higher levels of stress-related growth when students return to school.

Having established that the three coping approaches above are likely to foster SRG during COVID-19, the final question remaining is whether positive education interventions can increase the use of these coping approaches. Garland et al. (2011) and Pogrebtsova et al. (2017) found that mindfulness interventions increase positive reappraisal. In a related outcome, positive education interventions have been shown to help students better understand their explanatory styles (i.e., how they interpret adversity; Quayle et al., 2001 ; Rooney et al., 2013 ). Adding to this, emotional processing is significantly enhanced in students due to undertaking various positive education interventions ( Qualter et al., 2007 ; Brackett et al., 2012 ; Castillo et al., 2013 ). Finally, positive education interventions have been shown to increase strengths use ( Marques et al., 2011 ; Quinlan et al., 2015 ; White and Waters, 2015 ). These findings inform our final two study hypotheses.

Hypothesis 6: The degree to which students were taught positive education skills at school prior to the pandemic will be directly and positively related to their use of positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use during remote learning.

Hypothesis 7: The degree to which students were taught positive education skills at school prior to the pandemic will be indirectly and positively related to SRG upon school entry via their use of positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use during remote learning.

Materials and Methods

Participants.

After receiving Ethics approval from the Human Ethics Research Committee at Monash University, data were collected from 404 students at a large independent school in New South Wales, Australia. Participants were recruited from Grades 7 to 12 and ranged in age from 11 to 18 ( M = 14.75, SD = 1.59; 50.2% female/46.8% male and 3% identified as non-/other gendered or declined to answer). The vast majority of the sample (93.1%) listed English as their primary language. Prior to conducting the survey, parents were sent information packages explaining the nature of the research, resources available to students feeling distress, security and anonymity of the data collected, and the opt-out process. Participation was voluntary and students could opt out at any time.

Students in the current study were part of a whole-school positive education intervention that focuses on six key pathways to well-being: strengths, emotional management, attention and awareness, relationships, coping, and habits and goals ( Waters, 2019 ; Waters and Loton, 2019 ). The first letter of each of these six pathways forms the acronym “SEARCH.” In 2019, all teachers at the school were trained in the “SEARCH” pathways and given activities to run in classrooms that help students learn skill that allow them to build up the six pathways of strengths (e.g., strengths pathways: strength surveys and strengths challenges), managing their emotions (e.g., learning how to label the full spectrum of emotions and identifying emotions through a mood-meter), focusing their attention (e.g., mindfulness), building their relationships (e.g., active-constructive responding), coping (e.g., cognitive reframing and breathing techniques), and building habits and setting goals (e.g., if-then intentions).

Positive Education

Students rated the degree to which they had been taught positive education skills at school prior to the COVID-19 pandemic along the six pathways of the SEARCH framework. Students rated the degree to which they had been taught how to use their strengths, manage their emotions, and build their capacity to have awareness and so on, prior to COVID-19. There was one item per SEARCH pathway (e.g., “Prior to COVID-19, to what degree did your school teach you about how to understand and manage your emotions?”). The alpha reliability for this scale was 0.91.

Students rated the degree to which they engaged in emotional processing techniques (“I took time to figure out what I was feeling,” “I thought about my feelings to get a thorough understanding of them,” etc.) during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown using the 4-item scale Emotional Processing Scale ( Stanton et al., 2000 ). Answers were given on a 4-point scale from “I didn’t do this at all” to “I did this a lot.” The internal reliability of the scale was α = 0.78.

Positive reappraisal was measured using the 4-item “Positive Reinterpretation and Growth Scale” of the COPE inventory ( Carver et al., 1989 ). Students were asked to rate the degree to which they engaged in positive reappraisal techniques (“I looked for something good in what was happening,” “I learned something from the experience,” etc.) during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. Answers were given on a 4-point scale from “I didn’t do this at all” to “I did this a lot.” The internal reliability of the scale was α = 0.82.

Students rated the degree to which they used their strengths during the remote learning using an adapted three-item version of the Strengths Use Scale ( Govindji and Linley, 2007 ), a 14-item self-report scale designed to measure individual strengths use (e.g., items included “During remote learning and family lockdown I had lots of different ways to use my strengths,” “During remote learning and family lockdown I achieved what I wanted by using my strengths,” etc.). Answers were given on a 5-point scale from 1“Not at all” to 5 “A lot.” The internal reliability of the scale was α = 0.89.

Stress-Related Growth

Using an abbreviated Stress-Related Growth Scale ( Vaughn et al., 2009 ), students were asked to think about whether their experience with COVID-19 changed them in any specific ways, including internal growth (“I have learned to deal better with uncertainty,” “I learned not to let small hassles bother me the way they used to,” etc.) and social growth (“I reached out and helped others,” “I have learned to appreciate the strength of others who have had a difficult life,” etc.). Answers were given on a 5-point Likert scale from “Not at all” to “A lot.” The internal reliability of the scale was α = 0.85.

For students who elected to participate in this study, the school distributed the survey via an email link on the Qualtrics platform distributed by the teachers during the students’ mentor time. The first screen of the form provided information on the survey and reminded students that they could opt out or stop at any time. If distressed, several resources were made available, including teachers at the school, parents, and helplines. Teachers were present during the entire duration of the survey to provide clarification on instructions and/or support for students feeling distressed.

The data collected from the survey were anonymized and shared with the participating school administrators, and this was clearly stated to all participants of the study, including teachers, parents, and students. No personally identifiable information was made available in the data asset provided to the school. The original data source from the survey will be stored in a secure, password-protected file at Monash University for 5 years.

Through the survey, students were asked to reflect upon three different points in time: before school closures, during school closures, and after return to school. More specifically, students were asked to reflect on the positive education taught by their school prior to COVID-19. They were asked to reflect on what actions they took during COVID-19 lockdown to thrive cognitively (positive reappraisal), emotionally (emotional processing), and behaviorally (strengths use). And upon return to school, students were asked to reflect upon what they had learned as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown (SRG).

Data Analysis

We carried out a two-step analytic approach to examine the association between positive education indicators and student levels of SRG upon returning back to campus during the COVID-19 outbreak. Observed scale characteristics were first performed to investigate descriptive statistics and the assumptions of analysis. Normality assumption was checked using kurtosis and skewness scores, with their cut points for the normality. Skewness <|2| and kurtosis scores <|7| suggest that the assumption of normality is met ( Curran et al., 1996 ; Kline, 2015 ). Pearson correlation was additionally used to examine the association between the variables of the study.

Following this, structural equation modeling was used to test the mediating effect of positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use during the period of remote learning in the association between positive education (i.e., the degree to which well-being skills were taught at school prior to the COVID-19 outbreak) and SRG upon returning back to campus. Common data-model fit statistics and squared multiple correlations ( R 2 ) were examined to evaluate the results of structural equation modeling. Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) and comparative fit index (CFI) scores between 0.90 and 0.95 indicate adequate model fit, whereas their scores ≥0.95 provide a good or close data-model fit. The root mean square error of approximation scores (RMSEA; with 90% confidence interval) and the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) between 0.05 and 0.08 are accepted as an adequate model fit, while those scores ≤0.05 indicate a close model fit ( Hu and Bentler, 1999 ; Hooper et al., 2008 ; Kline, 2015 ). The results were also interrelated using the squared multiple correlations ( R 2 ) with: <0.13 = small, 0.13–0.26 = moderate, and ≥0.26 = large ( Cohen, 1988 ). All data analyses were performed using AMOS version 24 and SPSS version 25.

Observed Scale Characteristics and Inter-correlations

A check of observed scale characteristics showed that all measures in the study were relatively normally distributed, and that kurtosis and skewness scores ranged between −0.80 and 0.47 (see Table 1 ). As shown in Table 1 , correlation analysis found that teaching positive education prior to COVID-19 had positive correlations with the way students coped during remote learning (positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use) and with SRG when returning to campus. Additionally, positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use were moderately to largely, positively associated with SRG.

Descriptive statistics and correlation results.

Scales	Range			Skew.	Kurt.	α	1	2	3	4	5
1 Positive education	7–35	20.21	7.68	0.27	−0.71	0.91	–	0.26	0.39	0.40	0.40
2 Emotional processing	4–16	8.78	3.10	0.38	−0.36	0.78		–	0.57	0.48	0.48
3 Positive reappraisal	4–16	10.27	2.85	0.01	−0.56	0.82			–	0.59	0.59
4 Strengths use	4–15	8.28	3.14	0.27	−0.52	0.89				–	0.51
5 Stress-related growth	6–30	16.65	5.65	0.51	−0.01	0.85					–

Mediation Analyses

Several structural equation models were employed to analyze the mediating effect of positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use in the relationship between positive education and SRG. The first model, which was conducted to test the mediating role of emotional processing indicated good data-model fit statistics ( χ 2 = 1.20, df = 1, p = 0.273, RMSEA = 0.069 [90% CI for RMSEA: 0.00–0.13], SRMR = 0.010, CFI = 99, and TLI = 0.99). Standardized regression estimates revealed that positive education was a significant predictor of emotional processing and SRG. Moreover, emotional processing significantly predicted youths’ SRG. The indirect effect of positive education on SRG through emotional processing was significant, as seen in Table 2 . Positive education accounted for 7% of the variance in emotional processing, and positive education and emotional processing together explained 41% of the variance in SRG. These findings demonstrate the partial mediating effect of emotional processing on the link between positive education and student SRG upon returning to campus during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Standardized indirect effects.

Path	Effect		BootLLCI	BootULCI

Positive education⟶ Stress-related growth	0.12	0.03	0.08	0.18

Positive education⟶ Stress-related growth	0.22	0.03	0.17	0.29

Positive education⟶ Stress-related growth	0.20	0.03	0.14	0.26

Positive education⟶ Stress-related growth	0.28	0.04	0.21	0.35

Number of bootstrap samples for percentile bootstrap confidence intervals: 10,000 with 95% bias-corrected confidence interval.

The second model, which was conducted to test the mediating effect of positive reappraisal, indicated excellent data-model fit statistics ( χ 2 = 0.76, df = 1, p = 0.382, RMSEA = 0.00 [90% CI for RMSEA: 0.000–0.12], SRMR = 0.010, CFI = 1.00, and TLI = 1.00). Positive education had a significant predictive effect on positive reappraisal and SRG. Positive reappraisal also significantly predicted youths’ SRG. The indirect effect of positive education on SRG through positive reappraisal was significant, as seen in Table 2 . Positive education accounted for 15% of the variance in positive reappraisal, and positive education and positive reappraisal together explained 50% of the variance in SRG. Consequently, the findings of this model indicated the partial mediating effect of positive reappraisal in the relationship between positive education and student SRG.

The third model, which was carried out to examine the mediating effect of strengths use, indicated excellent data-model fit statistics ( χ 2 = 0.24, df = 1, p = 0.626, RMSEA = 0.00 [90% CI for RMSEA: 0.000–0.10], SRMR = 0.010, CFI = 1.00, and TLI = 1.00). Positive education significantly predicted strengths use and SRG. Strengths use also had a significant predictive effect on student SRG. The indirect effect of positive education on SRG through strengths use was significant, as seen in Table 2 . Positive education accounted for 16% of the variance in positive reappraisal, and positive education and strengths use together explained 40% of the variance in the SRG of youths. These results indicate the partial mediating effect of strengths on the association between positive education and student SRG.

The final and main model tested the mediating effects of emotional processing, positive reappraisal (see Figure 1 ), and strengths use yielded data-model fit statistics ( χ 2 = 5.37, df = 3, p = 0.146, RMSEA = 0.044 [90% CI = 0.00–0.10], SRMR = 0.012, CFI = 99, and TLI = 0.99). Standardized estimates showed that positive education had significant and positive predictive effect on emotional processing, positive reappraisal, strengths use, and SRG. Furthermore, SRG was significantly predicted by emotional processing, positive reappraisal, and strengths use. In this model, all variables together explained 56% of the variance in the SRG (before including mediators = 21%). The indirect effect of positive education on SRG through the mediators was significant, as shown in Table 2 . Taken together, the findings of this model demonstrate the partial mediating effect of emotional processing, positive reappraisal, and strengths use in the relationship between positive education and the SRG of students.

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Structural equation model indicating the relationship between the variables of the study. ** p < 0.001.

As the COVID-19 global health disaster continues to unfold across the world, researchers are rushing to quantify adolescent psychological distress ( Marques de Miranda et al., 2020 ). Such investigation is important because children and teenagers have been identified as a particularly vulnerable group within our society during the pandemic ( Guo et al., 2020 ). Research into teen distress is crucial but it need not come at the expense of learning about the positive outcomes that young people might experience in a pandemic. In this time of global crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, studies investigating how young people can come out stronger is vitally important given the findings from earlier pandemics that psychopathology and PTSD can last for up to 3 years post the pandemic ( Sprang and Silman, 2013 ).

The current study adopted a positive education approach, specifically a promotion-based orientation, to explore a range of factors that increase a student’s likelihood of experiencing SRG. Previous research has shown that young people can, and do, grow through adverse experiences ( Salter and Stallard, 2004 ). This same finding was shown in the current study where the mean score for cognitive/affective growth (e.g., “I learned not to let small hassles bother me the way they used to”) was 2.57 + 1.2 out of 5 and the mean score for social growth (e.g., “I have learned to appreciate the strength of others who have had a difficult life”) was 2.96 + 1.3. These scores are higher than other youth samples who have experienced minority stress (cognitive/affective growth 2.30 + 0.65/social growth 2.45 + 0.63; Vaughn et al., 2009 ) and those who reported on everyday stressors (cognitive/affective growth 2.10 + 0.60/social growth 2.15 + 0.63; Mansfield and Diamond, 2017 ).

In addition to demonstrating that teenagers can experience growth during the global pandemic, this study also sought to explore the degree to which a set of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral coping skills used during remote learning could predict SRG upon school re-entry. All three coping skills significantly predicted the degree to which students reported they had grown through COVID-19. Positive reappraisal had the strongest effect, followed by strengths use and then emotional processing.

Positive reappraisal is a meaning-based, cognitive strategy that allows an individual to “attach a positive meaning to the event in terms of personal growth” ( Garnefski and Kraaij, 2014 , p. 1154). This cognitive coping skill has been shown to be an adaptive way to help teenagers deal with a range of distressing situations, including being bullied ( Garnefski and Kraaij, 2014 ) and coping with loss, health threats, and relational stress ( Garnefski et al., 2003 ). Interestingly, Garnefski et al. (2002) found that adolescents did not use positive reappraisal as frequently as adults, suggesting that this is a skill that is worth teaching in the positive education curriculum in the future. To this end, Rood et al. (2012b , p. 83) explored whether positive reappraisal could be experimentally induced in teenagers and found that it could by asking them to think of stressful event in their lives and then “try to think about the positive side effects of the stressful event. Examine what you have learned, and how it has made you stronger.” Moreover, Rood et al. (2012b) found that of the four cognitive coping skills induced in teenagers (rumination, distancing, positive reappraisal, and acceptance), it was positive reappraisal that had the largest impact on well-being.

The degree to which students reported using their strengths during remote learning was also significantly, positively related to the amount of SRG they reported once back on campus. Strengths use has been positively associated with a host of well-being indicators for adolescents during mainstream times (i.e., non-crisis times) including life satisfaction ( Proctor et al., 2011 ), subjective well-being ( Jach et al., 2018 ), and hope ( Marques et al., 2011 ). In the context of adversity, strengths have also been shown to assist coping. For example, Shoshani and Slone (2016) found that strengths were inversely related to psychiatric symptoms and PTSD in teenagers experiencing war and political violence. In times of natural disaster, Southwick et al. (2016) argued that strengths help young people deal with the crisis adaptively and find solutions for the obstacles. In the COVID-19 pandemic, Bono et al. (2020) found that the strengths of grit and gratitude fostered resilience and impacted grades in university students. Our study found that strengths use was a significant predictor of the degree to which teenagers experienced SRG, suggesting that teaching students to identify and use their strengths will be beneficial in preparing them to grow through the current pandemic and in future times of adversity.

The third coping skill tested in this study was that of emotional processing, which is characterized by the conscious way a person acknowledges and handles intense emotions that come along with a distressing event or experience ( Stanton and Cameron, 2000 ). Park et al. (1996) found that seeking emotional support from others and venting one’s emotions were significantly related to SRG in university students. The intensity, uncertainty, and fear surrounding the global pandemic has triggered youth depression and anxiety ( Ellis et al., 2020 ) as well as heightened the experience of many, sub-clinical, negative emotions such as loneliness, frustration, anger, and hopelessness ( Garbe et al., 2020 ; Horita et al., 2021 ). With this in mind, it is easy to see why it is important for students to have the skills to adaptively work through their emotions each day. The degree to which students identified, validated, and expressed, their emotions was a significant predictor of SRG in the current study.

The positive education intervention tested in this study was a factor that significantly predicted the use of the three coping skills during remote learning. More specifically, the more that students reported they had been taught the skills for increasing their levels of “SEARCH” (strengths, emotional management, attention and awareness, relationships, coping, and habits and goals; Waters, 2019 ; Waters and Loton, 2019 ), the more they were likely to utilize adaptive coping skills during remote learning. The positive education intervention in this study predicted 15% of the variance in positive reappraisal, 7% of the variance in emotional processing, and 16% of the variance in strengths use. Additionally, the positive education intervention had an indirect effect on SRG through its impact on the three coping skills. The degree to which students felt they had learnt well-being skills prior to COVID-19 explained 21% of SRG (before including mediators) and 56% of the variance when including the three coping skills. In non-pandemic periods, positive education interventions have been shown to promote coping skills and well-being in students. The current study shows the value of positive education interventions during times of crisis suggesting that this field plays an important role in preparedness and prevention for future challenges ( Almazan et al., 2018 , 2019 ; Mohammadinia et al., 2019 ).

The role of positive education interventions for a student’s ability to grow from the adversity created by COVID-19 has important implications for schools moving forward in the pandemic. At the time of writing this paper, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and parts of Europe have all announced a second wave of lockdown ( Khan et al., 2020 ; Kupferschmidt, 2020 ; Once more with dread, 2020 ) and many schools are moving back into remote learning, with no certainty as to when students will be back on campus. Schools, through a positive education approach, can help students to enhance their psychological immunity and psychological flexibility to this virus in order to cope with the multiple stages of the pandemic they are cycling through ( Arslan et al., 2020 ; Arslan and Allen, 2021 ). Positive education interventions equip students with the vital skills that enable them to build healthy relationships with others – crucial for building social support networks, strong student-teacher alliances ( Allen et al., in press ), and fostering a sense of belonging to their school ( Frydenberg et al., 2012 ; Allen et al., 2017 , 2018 , 2019 ). Given the challenges of social connection occurring during the pandemic, and especially during remote learning, these skills are vital to retain that sense of social connection needed by teens.

Capurso et al. (2020 , p. 66) assert that it is important for schools “to instigate a sense-making process in children by providing an arena where they can process critical events connected to the COVID-19 pandemic at both an emotional and a cognitive level, thereby building up their resilience and minimize the risk of long-lasting trauma.” Several other authors have also called for the need for school-family/school-community partnerships to build “resilient systems” around young people during times of crisis ( Prinstein et al., 1996 ; Brock and Jimerson, 2004 ; Masten and Motti-Stefanidi, 2020 ). Dvorsky et al. (2020 , p. 1) call for “school-wide wellness supports” that promote “adaptive coping and resilience-promoting processes.” Findings from the current study suggest that teaching students how to engage in positive reappraisal, emotional processing, and strengths use will increase their chances of growing through the stress they are experiencing.

The coping skills tested in this study could be seen to provide a “psychological formula” to help students validate the negatives (e.g., through emotional processing) and identify the positives (e.g., through positive reappraisal). Striking the balance between owning the pain and seeing the positives was a key factor in adversarial growth experienced by SARS patients ( Cheng et al., 2006 ). Adding strengths use to positive reappraisal and emotional processing provides the action element to round out a “cognitive-emotion-behavioral approach” recommended by Wang et al. (2020) and helps students to use their strengths to regain a sense of agency in a time of uncertainty. According to Rashid and McGrath (2020 , p. 119), focusing on strengths makes the negative “less powerful” and “reminds us that we have our personal strengths that can carry us through the crisis.”

Limitations

The results of this study must be considered within its limitations. First, the sample was obtained from only one school which was an independent grammar school in Australia (predominantly English speaking). This may limit the generalizability of the findings for students who attend schools from other sectors such as public/Government schools or other faith-based schools and for students in non-WEIRD 1 contexts. Second, the retrospective design means there is potential that the results were influenced by recall bias. Students were asked to complete a single survey recalling two previous time points (prior to the onset of the pandemic, during remote learning) and their SRG in the current return to campus. It is possible that some students either underrated or overrated the degree to which they learned positive education. Under ideal circumstances, student ratings of the skills they were learning through the positive education would have been collected prior to the pandemic; however, because the COVID-19 pandemic was not anticipated, the current design relied on retrospective recall.

Another consideration is the long-term duration of COVID-19 itself. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues through the time of writing this paper (December 2020), and is expected to go on for some time longer, the lasting effects of the pandemic may impact the nature of SRG experienced in students. The role that the duration of this crises plays on SRG is currently unknown, which means that there is benefit in exploring whether SRG grows, stalls, or reverses as the pandemic continues.

To assist adolescents during COVID-19, researchers need to provide a comprehensive and well-rounded understanding of their experiences. The addition of positive education science to the current COVID-19 research helps to provide researchers, teachers, and school psychologists with a deeper understanding of the factors that promote internal resources, strengths, and positive outcomes for teens.

Data Availability Statement

Ethics statement.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee. Implied consent was used and approved meaning that written informed consent from the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin was not required to participate in this study in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

Author Contributions

LW led the research, conceptualized the study, led the study design, sourced the bulk of the research measures, recruited the research site school, and wrote the abstract, introduction, discussion, and references. K-AA led the Ethics approval process, sourced some of the research measures, and wrote the materials and methods and limitations. GA sourced some of the research measures, led the statistical analysis, and wrote the results section. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

1 WEIRD: Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic.

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A Year of COVID-19: What It Looked Like for Schools

It started with the closure of a single high school in Washington state on Feb. 27, 2020.

A school employee’s relative had gotten sick and tested positive for the coronavirus. The school underwent a deep cleaning and reopened two days later.

One month later, nearly every school building in the United States was shut down, an unfathomable moment. Schools scrambled to stand up a remote learning program—some virtual, some by passing out packets of learning materials.

Most of us thought this disruption would last a few weeks, maybe a month.

Now, one year in, most of America’s schoolchildren still are not back in classrooms full-time, learning from teachers standing in front of them.

From the arrival of the coronavirus in the U.S. to the growing wave of teachers receiving their first doses of a vaccine, here’s a look at how a full year of living and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded.

Jan. 29, 2020: First U.S. cases emerge

There had only been five confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. when Education Week first reported on a handful of schools that were beginning to take precautions to limit their exposure to the virus.

Mid-February: Temporary school closures

Individual schools and districts begin temporary closings of a few days to allow for cleaning of their school buildings. Closings were concentrated in Washington state and New York.

Feb. 25: A CDC warning for schools

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns schools that they need to prepare for the coronavirus . “You should ask your children’s schools about their plans for school dismissals or school closures,” said Nancy Messonnier, a director at the CDC. “Ask about plans for teleschool.”

Feb. 27: Coronavirus scare prompts a school to shut down

The first school shuts down because of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Bothell High School in Washington state closes for two days for disinfection after an employee’s relative gets sick and is tested for the coronavirus.

A school janitor opens the door to a staff room inside Bothell High School, in the Northshore school district in Bothell, Wash.

March 3: Schools balance closure with disruption

Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director at the CDC, tells lawmakers at a Senate committee hearing that while federal agencies provide “guidance” on this issue, ultimately the decisions about things like school closures are made at the local level. “You have this balance between, the earlier you act the more impact it can have in slowing the spread, and the enormous disruption we see with school closures,” she says.

March 5: Shift to distance learning begins

The shift to remote learning begins with the 24,000-student Northshore district in Washington state announcing that it will close and shift to online learning for up to 14 days. It’s the first real test of prolonged distance learning to rise out of the arrival of COVID-19 in American communities. Many districts won’t be ready.

March 11: Pandemic declared

The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic.

March 11: School district closures compound

By this time, more than 1 million students have been impacted by school closures, a number that would continue to grow. Here’s a look at students impacted:

March 12: The first state closes schools

Ohio becomes the first state to announce a statewide closing. “We have a responsibility to save lives,” Gov. Mike DeWine says on Twitter . “We could have waited to close schools, but based on advice from health experts, this is the time to do it.” It only takes one day for 15 other states to follow.

Mid-March: Schools keep essential services going

Schools scramble to provide essential services amid closures . “Many families rely on the breakfast and lunch that’s provided at school,” says Christy Fiala, the executive director of the Fremont Area United Way in Fremont, Neb. “Making sure that when schools close unexpectedly that [families have] access to food is important.”

While their schools are shut down, children and families in Anne Arundel County, Md., received food through a special program.

March 16: 27 states and territories close their schools

At this point, 27 states and territories have issued orders or recommendations that all public schools cease in-person instruction and close school buildings. Here’s what those school closures looked like over time:

March 16: Most students impacted

By this time, more than half of all students in the U.S. have been impacted by school closures.

March 17: Kansas: students aren’t coming back this year

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announces that schools will not reopen during the 2019-20 school year . “The steps we’re announcing today will create the space we need at the state level ... so that we can get ahead of this threat and limit its long-term impact,” Kelly says. Kansas is the first state to close for the rest of the academic year. Many other states soon follow suit.

March 20: Schools begin to feel the loss

“She was really a bright star. She had this passion.” —Ernest Logan, the president of the American Federation of School Administrators, describing Dez-Ann Romain , a Brooklyn principal who died at the age of 36 from COVID-19.

Dez-Ann Romain was the principal of the Brooklyn Democracy Academy in New York, a school for students who had fallen behind in earning high school credits. She’s believed to be one of the first K-12 educators to die from COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

Related Story: ‘There Was a Better Fate for Her': 18-Year-Old Dies From Coronavirus

March 25: All U.S. public school buildings are closed

Idaho and The Department of Defense Education Activity are the last to close all their schools.

April 8: Teacher morale plummets

On March 25, 56 percent of teachers in a nationally representative survey conducted by the EdWeek Research Center said that their morale level is lower than prior to the coronavirus pandemic. By April 8, that number will reach 66 percent.

April 17: More states close schools for the academic year

More than half of all U.S. public school students now are shut out of their buildings by the COVID-19 pandemic for the rest of the 2019-20 school year.

May 6: Nearly all states close schools for the academic year

Maryland becomes the last state to announce that none of its schools would reopen for the 2019-20 school year. Only two states (Wyoming and Montana) did not close their schools for the remainder of the year.

May 7: Teachers face a dilemma over health

“Most teachers care about the kids and their learning—this is a huge priority for us, but we’re also individuals and have our own health concerns. We didn’t sign up to be nurses on the front lines.” —Dawn, a math teacher with asthma, on the dilemma facing teachers who are at higher risk of COVID-19.

May 7: Remote learning becomes commonplace

By early May, 80 percent of teachers report interacting with the majority of their students daily or weekly.

May 7: Remote learning is already exhausting teachers

“I probably send 500 emails a week right now, and I have a headache every day by 4 p.m. from staring into my computer screen. But I am doing my best—we all are—and that is all anyone can ask.” —Katie Kenahan, a math department coordinator and 8th grade teacher in East Providence, R.I., describing her remote-teaching experience.

May 19: Students start to really miss school

“She’s like, it’s silly but I miss the school mashed potatoes."—Ampy Moreno, a mother from Union, N.J., describing her daughter’s experience adapting to remote learning.

May 25: A reckoning over racial justice

A police officer kills George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis, setting off a tidal wave of protest across the country against police brutality. Students are among those who take to the streets, and some see parallels in the inequalities that people of color face in the greater world within their own school buildings. Teachers and district leaders struggle to respond to one crisis on top of another, figuring out how to discuss the protests with their communities virtually.

June: Student mental health deteriorates

By the summer, it’s clear that the pandemic has already affected students’ mental health. Surveys show that kids are growing depressed and disconnected from school, and pandemic-related youth suicides send communities reeling. The problems will continue into fall and winter, as students continue to say that online learning is worse than going to school in person .

June: Pandemic learning exacerbates the ‘digital divide’

A Common Sense Media report highlights the scale of the much-discussed but difficult to quantify “digital divide”: as many as 16 million K-12 students and 400,000 teachers prior to the pandemic weren’t adequately connected at home for remote learning. Education advocates have been raising concerns about the digital divide for years, but the pandemic made it impossible to ignore, and efforts to get students connected have become widespread in the ensuing months.

July 7: Trump administration makes the case to reopen schools

President Trump hosts a White House summit featuring Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos decrying remote learning as inherently inferior to in-person instruction, and urging schools nationwide to fully reopen buildings as soon as possible. The comments mark a striking reversal of DeVos’ longstanding support for online learning and innovation in K-12 schools. A wide range of district leaders, teachers, and lawmakers balk at the Trump administration’s position , arguing that the federal government’s lack of clear public health guidance and investment in robust mitigation strategies made full-fledged in-person learning inherently unsafe.

In the internet age, the tendency to equate ‘education’ with ‘specific school buildings’ is going to be greatly diminished.

July 28: Teachers, unions push back

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten says teacher strikes are an option to keep schools from reopening without what the union considers to be adequate safety measures in place. Later that day, Dr. Anthony Fauci tells teachers during a virtual town hall that they will be “part of the experiment” in reopening schools. Teachers are outraged, saying they didn’t sign up to be part of such an experiment.

Summer 2020: Parents left with few options

Anxious parents, worried that they may be looking at more months of remote learning without childcare options, start to form “learning pods.” The groups bring some certainty and relief to families unsure if their schools are going to open in person in the fall, but they also raise equity concerns: rich, white families will buy opportunities that low-income families and families of color won’t have access to.

Fall 2020: Back to school, but not really

Many parents and educators had hoped in the spring that the COVID-19 threat would diminish enough during the summer that school buildings could safely reopen. Instead, school leaders began acknowledging the reality that high levels of community spread would force many school buildings to remain closed as the new school year began.

Education Week tracked state decisions on opening and closing physical school buildings. At the start of the 2020-21 school year, 4 states required in-person instruction to be available in all or some grades.

And 74% of the 100 largest school districts chose remote learning only as their back-to-school instructional model, affecting over 9 million students.

September 23: At least 400 educators lost

Six months since the first known K-12 educator succumbed to the virus, at least 400 teachers, principals, bus drivers, custodians, paraprofessionals, coaches, superintendents, and other staff members have been lost to the pandemic.

Related Story: Elegy for the Educators

October: Hybrid learning dominates

The majority of U.S. school districts are in hybrid learning mode , with a mixture of in-person and remote learning. The approaches to hybrid learning vary widely . Some schools allow students to choose between full-time in-person and full-time remote instruction. Some schools welcome groups of students in shifts two or three days a week. Even for school buildings with open doors, many students opt to stay home full-time and learn online, sometimes from a teacher who is in the physical classroom juggling in-person and remote students and navigating unusually large class sizes .

Late October: Educator morale is at its lowest point

Teacher, administrator, and hourly employee morale hit their lowest points since the EdWeek Research Center first started tracking this metric on March 25.

November 2: Research supports safe reopening

As evidence mounts showing that schools can operate safely with vigilant mitigation measures, pressure to reopen builds outside the political arena with leading public health experts like Dr. Ashish Jha saying “schools need to be bolder.”

November 7: Joe Biden elected president

Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States.

Election 2020 Florida Voting 20308480211787

“Everyone wants our schools to reopen,” Biden had said while campaigning . “The question is how to make it safe, how to make it stick. Forcing educators and students back into the classroom in areas where the infection rate is going up or remaining very high is just plain dangerous.”

November: A teacher mass exodus does not materialize

For months, the specter that the pandemic would drive teachers to quit en masse fueled anxieties that the profession would be drained of talent. But an Education Week data analysis , published on Nov. 17, paints a different, less dire picture. The urgent predictions that COVID-19 was fueling a national surge of teachers leaving the classroom could not be validated.

November 19: With infections on the rise, schools pivot again

After a pitched battle to reopen some of its school buildings in October, New York City is forced to shift back to a fully remote model after infection rates in the city cracked a key benchmark. It’s a blow to the overall push for broader school reopening, as other districts that had reopened also begin to pull back from in-person learning.

In this Nov. 14, 2020, file photo, parents and students demonstrate during a rally in New York calling on New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to keep schools open. De Blasio announced on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020, that New York City will be shuttering schools to try to stop the renewed spread of the coronavirus. The nation's largest public school system will halt in-person learning on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020, sending more than 1 million children into all-online classes, the mayor said.

December 8: A reopening declaration

President-elect Joe Biden vows to open schools in the first 100 days of his presidency.

December 11: Vaccines become a beacon of hope

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issues the first emergency use authorization for a vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus disease, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.

EU Virus Outbreak EMA Explainer 20350401195535

End of December: Teachers start to get the shot

Teachers begin to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The Knox County health department in Indiana began vaccinating educators on Dec. 28.

Valerie Kelly, a 5th grade teacher in Vincennes, Ind., receives the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 28, 2020.

January 6, 2021: The insurrection at the U.S. Capitol

Educators, many teaching remotely, had to decide whether and how to teach the violent, historical moment. In the end, most teachers didn’t address it with their students.

Capitol Riot Disinformation Nation 21047771810756

A day later, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos submits her resignation.

January 20: Biden becomes president

President Joe Biden is inaugurated.

Pictures of the Month Religion Photo Gallery 21032549011843

The countdown begins on his promise to reopen schools in 100 days. Teacher vaccinations will be key to that goal, but in most states, teachers aren’t yet eligible to get the shot.

Related Interactive: Where Teachers Are Eligible for the COVID-19 Vaccine

February 7: Reopening tensions mount

The Chicago Teachers Union reaches an agreement with the school district about how to reopen schools, avoiding a potential strike. In big cities across the country, teachers’ unions have pushed their districts to delay reopening until educators are vaccinated and safety measures are in place.

Elementary 1 teacher Melissa Vozar sits outside of Suder Elementary in Chicago to teach a virtual class on Jan. 11, 2021. The Chicago Teachers Union said that its members voted to defy an order to return to the classroom before they are vaccinated against the coronavirus, setting up a showdown with district officials who have said such a move would amount to an illegal strike.

February: Teacher vaccinations ramp up

By Feb. 9, nearly a fifth of National Education Association members say they’ve been vaccinated, and another 18 percent say they’ve scheduled their shots.

Kentucky becomes the first state to finish the first round of teacher vaccinations. According to reports, about 70 percent of K-12 personnel in the state had agreed to take the vaccine.

February 21: Long-awaited CDC guidelines released

“I want to underscore that the safest way to open schools is to ensure that there is as little disease as possible in the community,” CDC Director Rochelle Walenksy said. “Thus, enabling schools to open and remain open is a shared responsibility.”

March 1: A new education secretary, with a daunting job ahead

The U.S. Senate confirms Miguel Cardona to serve as U.S. Secretary of Education, placing him in the role as the nation’s education system faces an unprecedented crisis.

March 1: A monumental loss to the field, and to thousands of families

As of March 1, 2021, at least 856 active and retired K-12 educators and personnel have died of COVID-19. Of those, 233 were active teachers.

Swim caps with messages of mourning for beloved coach Kerry Croswhite.

Related Story: 1 Swim Team, 3 COVID-19 Deaths: A Widow’s Story

March 2: A declaration on vaccinations

President Joe Biden directs states to prioritize educators for the coronavirus vaccine, saying that he’s using “the full authority of the federal government” to challenge them to get teachers and other school staff at least one dose by the end of this month.

Today, I am directing every state to prioritize educators for vaccination. We want every educator, school staff member, and child-care worker to receive at least one shot by the end of this month. It’s time to treat in-person learning like the essential service that it is. — President Biden (@POTUS) March 2, 2021

Stacey Decker, Deputy Managing Editor for Digital; Lesli A. Maxwell, Managing Editor; and Emma Patti Harris, Deputy Managing Editor, Visual and Immersive Experiences contributed to this article.

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A year later: Reflections on learning, adapting, and scaling education interventions during COVID-19

Subscribe to the center for universal education bulletin, tendekai mukoyi , tendekai mukoyi education program coordinator - youth impact molly curtiss wyss , and molly curtiss wyss senior project manager and senior research analyst - global economy and development , center for universal education jenny perlman robinson jenny perlman robinson nonresident senior fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education.

April 2, 2021

Already more than a full year into the COVID-19 pandemic, it is sobering to reflect on the ongoing responses to the global pandemic, as well as future disruptions to children’s learning. The past year has really put to the test scaling principles and elucidated important lessons about catalyzing and sustaining transformative change in rapidly evolving contexts. Many of these principles—such as adaptive learning and systems thinking—are being unpacked and explored in Real-time Scaling Labs (RTSL), a collaboration with the Center for Universal Education at Brookings and local institutions and governments around the world to learn from, document, and support education initiatives in the process of scaling.

In Botswana, Young 1ove and CUE have been partnering on an RTSL convened by the Ministry of Basic Education (MoBE) focused on scaling Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL). The experience of the Botswana scaling lab over the past year offers several important insights and reflections that may be useful more broadly for those working to affect large-scale improvements in children’s learning, particularly in low-resource environments.

Insight 1 : National scale can be pursued from the top down and bottom up

Expanding and deepening the impact of an education intervention requires nurturing partnerships from grassroots to national levels, with the understanding that buy-in and ownership for scale needs to involve players at all levels. Young 1ove has been collaborating closely with the MoBE at the central offices to support progress toward the ultimate goal of infusing TaRL into daily teaching practices in all primary school classrooms in Botswana. However, the past year has revealed significant potential for scaling via regional pathways, as many stakeholders at the highest levels of government have been consumed by national responses to COVID-19-related school closures and health crises.

For example, MoBE partners in the North East region took the lead in reinstating TaRL as schools reopened by mobilizing teachers and school-based youth volunteers to restart the program even amid shorter shift-system school days (where students attend classes in shift for half the day rather than for the full day). North East regional leaders also adapted TaRL delivery in response to COVID-19, including creating safety protocols that adhere to COVID-19 health protocols and taking full ownership of TaRL data collection and submission by utilizing existing school-based tablets. Student learning results from the region show a 79 percent decline in innumeracy, a near doubling of students who could perform all mathematical operations, and 57 percent of students learning a new operation, further evidencing how strong regional leadership can catalyze change that directly impacts children’s learning.

The success in North East illustrates how scale-up efforts can be made more powerful and sustainable when led by regional directors in the MoBE. The partnership between Young 1ove and the MoBE jointly supporting TaRL implementation prior to COVID-19 likely facilitated this approach, as regional stakeholders already had the tools and knowledge in place to take TaRL implementation and run with it.

Insight 2: Local champions leading the charge on the ground can be particularly important, even in a virtual world

Key to a regional scaling approach has been the role of a supportive and enthusiastic MOBE regional director. Young 1ove already knew that changemakers in bureaucracy are central to the scaling process, but this has proven especially true at the regional level, where an engaged director who champions TaRL can make significant progress in advancing and prioritizing TaRL within the region.

Further, Young 1ove has found that embedding a staff member in the regional government has been a particularly powerful scaling asset. Even as the world has shifted to virtual meetings and phone calls, having someone from Young 1ove physically present has helped the organization remain actively involved in and aware of conversations and schooling decisions. Moreover, the integration of this staff member in the regional government supports the shift to seeing TaRL as a sustainable government program led by strong regional champions. In regions where they do not have a staff member embedded, Young 1ove has found lapsed communication over the past year and faced more challenges “restarting” TaRL after COVID-19 school closures.

Insight 3 : Short-term shocks can lead to long-term learnings

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the absolute need to be flexible, adaptive, and responsive to changes in the education landscape in real-time. This experience has also underscored the importance of evidence and learning alongside adaptation and rapid response.

The TaRL implementation cycle in Botswana is typically designed to last 30 days. However, as a result of COVID-19, the implementation period was cut by over half during the first term of the 2020 school year with an average implementation period of eight days across schools. To understand the impact of this significant shift, Young 1ove collected data on student learning outcomes and discovered that despite the reduced intervention time, students demonstrated strong learning gains—almost equal to previous 30-day cycles as shown in Figure 1.

Learning gains from government-led intervention in North East with reduced implementation time

This finding not only suggests that even relatively short periods of high-quality implementation can improve student learning, but also underscores the importance of tracking results—even during unexpected adaptations. In this case, tight feedback loops provided evidence of possibilities for refining the TaRL model beyond this pandemic in ways that maximize effectiveness and scalability.

Learnings for beyond the pandemic

The RTSL experience adapting and scaling TaRL in Botswana in the midst of a global pandemic offers key insights that are applicable well beyond this immediate pandemic:

An orientation toward rapid learning and evidence generation is key to maintain alongside innovation and adaptation, especially in a crisis like COVID-19. Balancing the need for adjustments and iteration with the collection and use of timely data and learning can help respond to disruptions of scaling efforts.
Focusing on regional/grassroots partnerships for scaling can be particularly effective as those closest to the problems are most often best placed—and have the most incentive—to respond. Even where the ultimate goal is national scaling or ownership of the initiative by the central government, a more decentralized approach to scaling can be an effective way to make progress toward this goal, especially when national-level actors are consumed by crisis-response.
And, finally, even in a more virtual world, regional and local champions present on the ground are important for maintaining scaling momentum and expanding impact.

Photo credit: Thimonyo Karunga, Northeast Sub-Regional Coordinator at Young 1ove

Mission: Recovering Education in 2021

THE CONTEXT

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused abrupt and profound changes around the world. This is the worst shock to education systems in decades, with the longest school closures combined with looming recession. It will set back progress made on global development goals, particularly those focused on education. The economic crises within countries and globally will likely lead to fiscal austerity, increases in poverty, and fewer resources available for investments in public services from both domestic expenditure and development aid. All of this will lead to a crisis in human development that continues long after disease transmission has ended.

Disruptions to education systems over the past year have already driven substantial losses and inequalities in learning. All the efforts to provide remote instruction are laudable, but this has been a very poor substitute for in-person learning. Even more concerning, many children, particularly girls, may not return to school even when schools reopen. School closures and the resulting disruptions to school participation and learning are projected to amount to losses valued at $10 trillion in terms of affected children’s future earnings. Schools also play a critical role around the world in ensuring the delivery of essential health services and nutritious meals, protection, and psycho-social support. Thus, school closures have also imperilled children’s overall wellbeing and development, not just their learning.

It’s not enough for schools to simply reopen their doors after COVID-19. Students will need tailored and sustained support to help them readjust and catch-up after the pandemic. We must help schools prepare to provide that support and meet the enormous challenges of the months ahead. The time to act is now; the future of an entire generation is at stake.

THE MISSION

Mission objective: To enable all children to return to school and to a supportive learning environment, which also addresses their health and psychosocial well-being and other needs.

Timeframe : By end 2021.

Scope : All countries should reopen schools for complete or partial in-person instruction and keep them open. The Partners - UNESCO , UNICEF , and the World Bank - will join forces to support countries to take all actions possible to plan, prioritize, and ensure that all learners are back in school; that schools take all measures to reopen safely; that students receive effective remedial learning and comprehensive services to help recover learning losses and improve overall welfare; and their teachers are prepared and supported to meet their learning needs.

Three priorities:

1. All children and youth are back in school and receive the tailored services needed to meet their learning, health, psychosocial wellbeing, and other needs.

Challenges : School closures have put children’s learning, nutrition, mental health, and overall development at risk. Closed schools also make screening and delivery for child protection services more difficult. Some students, particularly girls, are at risk of never returning to school.

Areas of action : The Partners will support the design and implementation of school reopening strategies that include comprehensive services to support children’s education, health, psycho-social wellbeing, and other needs.

Targets and indicators

Enrolment rates for each level of school return to pre-COVID level, disaggregated by gender.

Proportion of schools providing any services to meet children’s health and psychosocial needs, by level of education.

2. All children receive support to catch up on lost learning.

Challenges : Most children have lost substantial instructional time and may not be ready for curricula that were age- and grade- appropriate prior to the pandemic. They will require remedial instruction to get back on track. The pandemic also revealed a stark digital divide that schools can play a role in addressing by ensuring children have digital skills and access.

Areas of action : The Partners will (i) support the design and implementation of large-scale remedial learning at different levels of education, (ii) launch an open-access, adaptable learning assessment tool that measures learning losses and identifies learners’ needs, and (iii) support the design and implementation of digital transformation plans that include components on both infrastructure and ways to use digital technology to accelerate the development of foundational literacy and numeracy skills. Incorporating digital technologies to teach foundational skills could complement teachers’ efforts in the classroom and better prepare children for future digital instruction.


	Proportion of schools offering remedial education by level of education.	or
	Proportion of schools offering instruction to develop children’s social-emotional skills by level of education.	or
	Proportion of schools incorporating digital technology to teach foundational literacy and numeracy skills, by level of education.	or

While incorporating remedial education, social-emotional learning, and digital technology into curricula by the end of 2021 will be a challenge for most countries, the Partners agree that these are aspirational targets that they should be supporting countries to achieve this year and beyond as education systems start to recover from the current crisis.

3. All teachers are prepared and supported to address learning losses among their students and to incorporate digital technology into their teaching.

Challenges : Teachers are in an unprecedented situation in which they must make up for substantial loss of instructional time from the previous school year and teach the current year’s curriculum. They must also protect their own health in school. Teachers will need training, coaching, and other means of support to get this done. They will also need to be prioritized for the COVID-19 vaccination, after frontline personnel and high-risk populations. School closures also demonstrated that in addition to digital skills, teachers may also need support to adapt their pedagogy to deliver instruction remotely.

Areas of action : The Partners will advocate for teachers to be prioritized in COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, after frontline personnel and high-risk populations, and provide capacity-development on pedagogies for remedial learning and digital and blended teaching approaches.


	Teachers are on priority list for vaccination.
	Proportion of teachers that have been offered training or other support for remedial education and social emotional learning, by level of education.	or Global Teachers Campus (link to come)
	Proportion of teachers that have been offered training or other support for delivering remote instruction, by level of education.	or Global Teachers Campus (link to come)

Country level actions and global support

UNESCO, UNICEF, and World Bank are joining forces to support countries to achieve the Mission, leveraging their expertise and actions on the ground to support national efforts and domestic funding.

Country Level Action

1. Mobilize team to support countries in achieving the three priorities

The Partners will collaborate and act at the country level to support governments in accelerating actions to advance the three priorities.

2. Advocacy to mobilize domestic resources for the three priorities

The Partners will engage with governments and decision-makers to prioritize education financing and mobilize additional domestic resources.

Global level action

1. Leverage data to inform decision-making

The Partners will join forces to conduct surveys; collect data; and set-up a global, regional, and national real-time data-warehouse. The Partners will collect timely data and analytics that provide access to information on school re-openings, learning losses, drop-outs, and transition from school to work, and will make data available to support decision-making and peer-learning.

2. Promote knowledge sharing and peer-learning in strengthening education recovery

The Partners will join forces in sharing the breadth of international experience and scaling innovations through structured policy dialogue, knowledge sharing, and peer learning actions.

The time to act on these priorities is now. UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank are partnering to help drive that action.

Last Updated: Mar 30, 2021

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Schools after COVID-19: From a teaching culture to a learning culture

Even before the pandemic, education was undergoing a transformation that will go on long after the virus threat subsides..

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The uniform is one size too big. The shoes need breaking in. The brand-new backpack hangs awkwardly off a pair of tiny shoulders. There’s a brave smile with a missing tooth or two, a final holding of hands, a hug, a kiss, a hesitant wave, and inevitable tears.

Before COVID-19 disrupted our lives and forced our kids to open their laptops and learn from home, the first day of school was a rite of passage — the start of a life-determining journey that has broadly followed the same shape and rhythm for generations.

From kindergarten to Year 12, classrooms are run by teachers who deliver lessons that start and end with a bell. They set tests, watch over examinations, and post grades that might delight, disappoint, or even surprise parents.

This one-size-fits-all approach to education has been in place for a couple of hundred years. Now, however, it is undergoing unprecedented change and not just because of COVID.

The response to the coronavirus has demonstrated how technology can help transform how we teach and learn. But the push for change started long before the pandemic struck, and it will go on long after the threat subsides. For years, policymakers have been exploring new transformative approaches to K-12 education that go far beyond just online lessons at home.

Rethinking learning

As lockdowns ease and schools start to reopen in some places across our region, it’s as good a time as any to take stock and look at the likely future of education.

Children who start school from now on will grow up to be workers and leaders in a digital-first world that will demand new skills and new ways of thinking.

To succeed in life and at work, they will need all the social, emotional, and academic support they can get via rich and flexible learning experiences that will differ vastly from the schooldays of their parents.

In short, education’s age-old three Rs – Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic – are being joined by a fourth: Rethink.

New data-based technologies are opening up ways to transform practices, structures, and even cultures in schools.

We have solutions with the potential to transform the system … the question for us now is: How can we use technology to rethink education?

“Technology has changed many aspects of our society over many years, but school structures have largely stayed the same,” says Sean Tierney , Microsoft’s Director for Teaching and Learning Strategy, Asia.

“Now, we have solutions that have the potential to transform and improve the system so students can achieve more and develop valuable skills with better outcomes. The question for us now is: How can we use technology to rethink education?”

Tierney and others want a systemic shift in which education will move away from “a teaching culture to a learning culture.”

COVID-19: L earning goes on by going remote

Schools, colleges, and universities around the world were closed when COVID-19 struck. But lessons didn’t stop when innovative educators turned to remote learning technologies.

Through the crisis, millions of students across Asia and the Pacific have been learning and studying using new collaborative digital tools and resources on a massive scale. They have been physically apart, but virtually together.

In Taiwan, 2.5 million students and 200,000 teachers have kept up with their lessons via Microsoft Teams. In South Korea, Microsoft Azure helped authorities to expand the country’s remote learning capacity by 500 times within two weeks so that more than 3 million students could access its online resources.

Education ministries in Malaysia and the Philippines have also turned Teams to conduct training sessions, share information, and check in regularly with thousands of teachers who have made the rapid transition to remote lessons.

Hong Kong’s Christian and Missionary Alliance Sun Kei Primary School switched to remote learning within a matter of days after the territory’s students were ordered to stay home. Its teachers conducted lessons in empty classrooms via their laptops (pictured above) while students remained safe in lockdown, watching, listening, interacting, and learning on their devices.

“Modern learning cannot be confined to the classroom, and it is more important than ever to empower our teachers to continuously guide and nurture students during this difficult time,” says the school’s principal, Kenneth Cheng.

Larry Nelson , Regional General Manager for Education, Microsoft Asia, has lauded “school, university, and government leaders across the Asia Pacific who made the early call and reacted swiftly. Protecting our students, educators, family, and friends is the highest priority.”

Students can be empowered to learn for themselves in flexible, often collaborative ways, both inside and outside classrooms at their own pace.

Tierney also sees the physical formality of classroom culture melting away. “The classroom was important when you had to broadcast a certain message at a certain time to a certain group of kids. You had to have them in proximity. But this management and teaching model doesn’t have to dominate anymore,” he explains.

“In many ways, the classroom has become a physical barrier and just a way of holding onto the past. We are no longer bound by limitations that used to require us to have 30 kids in a classroom with one teacher.

Beyond classroom walls

“Now we can rethink that model. It can be multiple teachers with multiple kids. They can be places where kids can move around more flexibly. They don’t have to do the same thing at the same time in the same way. Schools have been exploring this for some time – technology changes the success rate.”

Nonetheless, Tierney believes bricks-and-mortar schools will play a valuable role in the future. For instance, a school is a safe place for children to learn social skills while their parents are at work.

“That won’t change. But with data-based technologies, educators will also be able to create flexible learning spaces and continuous on-learning environments, which will spread across the home, schools, and communities.”

People-driven learning

Perhaps technology’s most direct impact will be the emergence of “personalized learning” where each student enjoys focused individual attention from teachers who will access real-time data on their progress and problems.

Tierney regards this as a fundamental breakthrough for learning. “Knowing what is happening in the lives of each student might spell the difference between a toxic path and a prosperous path in the future. With data-rich models, we can help support kids holistically.”

He further explains: “If I am one teacher and I have 30 kids in my class, I will only have the chance to have a cursory look at every child. But if I had ten really experienced teachers in that classroom, they could watch three kids each closely and look for problems and opportunities for each.

ALSO READ: Teaming up to transform education in Asia

“We now have technology that can act as those ten extra teachers. It can give me the ability to observe all kinds of details and to understand at a much deeper level what the needs of those kids are. Not just in regard to content, but also pastoral care and life in general.

“Technology can recognize patterns and certain conditions that might need intervention. We can become much better at supporting them. Some educators describe this as data-driven learning. But that is a horrible term. It’s really people-driven learning.”

Social and emotional well-being

Personalized learning is a holistic approach that must do more than only focus on academic progress.

“It will also help teachers stay on top of, and adjust to, factors that affect social and emotional well-being. Teachers will be able to ensure students feel inspired, safe, valued, and able to learn in ways previously not possible.”

New learning tools will also be able to adjust to the needs of individual students – without instructions or intervention from their teachers.

“It would be like one of those virtual ten teachers turning up the brightness of a screen without bothering to tell the teacher. The smarter the technology gets, the more the teacher is supported and empowered.”

Personalized learning and real-time data could also see an end to the current cycle of lessons and tests.

“A test gives a teacher a snapshot in time about a whole bunch of kids. But once you have the results, it can be very difficult to adjust your teaching to address shortfalls because it is too late,” he says.

“Whereas if we are measuring all the time in real time, we know exactly where every child is because each will be on a continuum at any point in time. So they will still be graded, but based on real-time assessment that looks at a much deeper range of intelligences.”

To make all this work, the profession of teaching must transform, and that will be a challenge for some, Tierney admits.

Teachers learning alongside students

“There are teachers who teach in the traditional way. And there are great teachers who are also model learners. They learn with the kids. They don’t feel like they have to know everything, but they have to show what great learning looks like,” he says.

“Overall, it means inspiring students onto a path of lifelong self-learning. And that can include learning about new technology, which they can learn with the kids. If they can explore new ways of doing things, they can all grow together.”

Tierney says some teachers might struggle with this cultural shift. “When traditional teaching is your paradigm, you can get trapped inside a rigid mindset of feeling that you must know everything about the subjects you teach and that you can’t show weakness.”

Instead, teachers of the future “may need to spend less time designing the content component (of their subjects) and more time around the learning experience so that kids can find and create their own meaning around that content.

A teacher watches over a row of students using computers

Great teachers are also model learners … and that can include learning about new technology, which they can learn with the kids.

“A teacher should be an expert in learning and demonstrate the habits of mind that require great learning. They should be a model on these things for their students.”

The ability of teachers to keep adapting and innovating will be crucial, according to Salcito.

“What we want educators to do is not be bound by the structure of a 40-minute lecture, classroom dynamic, or assessment that’s connected to a curriculum, but recognize their goal and mission to expand upon every student’s potential.

“The best innovation that inspires most young people is the teacher.”

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Safely back to school after coronavirus closures

Countries around the world remain at very different points of the COVID-19 pandemic, which means they face varying challenges, from overwhelmed healthcare systems to growing economic despair. In geographies beginning to emerge from the first wave of COVID-19 cases, the question of reopening schools is front of mind for many stakeholders. Schools provide not just learning and social support for students but also, crucially, childcare, without which many parents cannot return to work. However, reopening schools carries the public health risk of viral resurgence. Parents and teachers are understandably wary. How can education systems respond?

System leaders around the world—at the federal, state, and district levels—are grappling with three important questions related to getting students safely back into the classroom:

When should schools reopen?
For which segments of students and teachers (if not everyone) should schools reopen?
What health and safety measures should schools adopt on reopening?

Post-pandemic capabilities for school systems

Besides safely reopening schools, education systems will have a daunting task in reenrolling students, helping students recover lost learning, and preparing for viral resurgence. New partnerships may help build capabilities for these tasks.

Reenrollment. As schools reopen, some students may not return to class, for instance, because of parental concern about ongoing health risks, student leakage to the workforce to support financially struggling families, or student disengagement after frustrating remote learning experiences. Previous crises suggest that girls in developing countries are especially at risk of not returning to school.
Remediation. Students who do return to school may need significant work to catch up on academics, especially in school systems that struggled to roll out effective remote learning. Students who lacked devices, internet access, or parental support—or who were already behind when the crisis began—will likely need the most help.
Resurgence. Systems must also plan for local or national viral resurgence. Preparing means being ready for multiple waves of closures and reopening, which will entail blending remote and in-person learning.

These tasks will require resources and capabilities that many systems lack.

Maintaining a crisis nerve center through the process and beyond can enable a coordinated response through strong leadership, effective operations, and systems for ongoing data-processing and monitoring. New forms of collaboration and communication may also be needed with other government agencies, with nongovernmental organizations, and—importantly—with parents.

There isn’t one right set of answers to these questions. Infection rates fluctuate across communities, as does capacity of healthcare systems; education systems vary in both structure and performance; and different communities have distinct cultural values that inform decision making. Significantly, leaders will be making decisions based on limited and rapidly changing epidemiological evidence and will therefore be forced to make difficult trade-offs to reopen schools. Once schools are deemed safe for in-person instruction, addressing re-enrollment, academic remediation, and possible viral resurgence will require new capabilities (see sidebar, “Post-pandemic capabilities for school systems”).

When to reopen

Although most primary and secondary schools worldwide remain closed, some countries (most notably Sweden) have stayed open as of publication. Others, including China, Denmark, Japan, and Norway, recently reopened their schools, and many European countries have announced plans to reopen in the coming weeks or months. In the United States, 43 states and Washington, DC, have ordered or recommended keeping in-person schooling closed for the rest of the academic year. 1 “Map: Coronavirus and school closures,” Education Week , updated April 24, 2020, edweek.com.

As school-system leaders weigh possible timelines, they can consider four interlocking components of reopening: risks to public health, schools’ importance to economic activity, impacts on students’ learning and thriving, and safeguarding readiness.

Risks to public health

The most critical question is whether reopening schools will lead to a resurgence of infection among students, staff, and the broader community. The evidence here is still nascent. Children’s risk of contracting COVID-19 appears to be lower than that of adults. In China and the United States, the countries with the largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, children represent 2 percent of cases. 2 Jennifer M. McGoogan and Zunyou Wu, “Characteristics of and important lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in China: Summary of a report of 72 314 cases from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention,” Journal of the American Medical Association , February 24, 2020, Volume 323, Number 13, pp. 1,239–42; “Coronavirus disease 2019 in children—United States, February 12–April 2, 2020,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report , April 2020, Volume 69, pp. 422–26, cdc.gov. Emerging evidence also suggests that children are more likely to be asymptomatic, less likely to be hospitalized, and much less likely to die if they do develop COVID-19. 3 Yuanyuan Dong et al., “Epidemiology of COVID-19 among children in China,” Pediatrics , April 2020, pediatrics.aappublications.org. COVID-NET hospitalization data are preliminary and subject to change as more data become available; see COVID-NET: COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, updated April 18, 2020, gis.cdc.gov.

Although the risk to students themselves appears relatively low, reopening schools will also expose teachers to risk—especially those who are older or immune-compromised—and might contribute to higher risk for the larger community. Children’s role in transmitting the novel coronavirus is still unclear, making it difficult to estimate the extent to which reopening schools might contribute to resurgence. Potentially relaxed confinement measures outside the education sector add to the uncertainty. Decision makers will therefore need to determine when to reopen schools in the context of reopening society at large.

Importance to economic activity

A major part of the sequencing puzzle is the importance of schooling in providing childcare. Workers with children under 15 years old in their household who have no alternate caregiver will likely need childcare before being able to return fully to work. The proportion of workers who cannot return to work without childcare varies significantly across countries—and even within them. In the United States, 16 percent of the workforce—representing 26.8 million workers—are dependent on childcare to work (exhibit). In Europe, where there is a higher proportion of dual-income families, thus fewer stay-at-home parents to provide childcare, 20 to 30 percent of the workforce are likely dependent upon preschools and schools to resume work. 4 These estimates apply only to industrialized countries. In the United States, for example, 31 percent of households have at least one child at home. We assume that only children under 15 need an adult at home to provide care and that all workers in single-parent families require childcare, half of workers in dual-income families require childcare, and no workers in families with an existing stay-at-home parent require childcare.

These numbers do not represent the full complexity of individual workers’ family situations or obligations. While some workers, especially those with older children and who can fulfill their work responsibilities remotely, may be able to return part-time, their productivity will likely suffer. Conversely, the situation is much more challenging for those with younger children and who also cannot work remotely. While some families may lean on older siblings to provide childcare, doing so could significantly impair learning for those students. Other families may ask grandparents to watch children, but this solution puts one of the most vulnerable populations in this pandemic at risk. Our estimates may also underestimate the magnitude of the challenge. The proportion of workers under the age of 55 requiring childcare is even greater, as younger workers are the ones most likely to have dependent children. This poses a challenge for countries that wish to bring back younger workers first and protect older workers by keeping them safely at home. 5 See Jonathan Dingel, Christina Patterson, and Joseph Vavra, Childcare obligations will constrain many workers when reopening the US economy , Becker Friedman Institute for economics at The University of Chicago working paper, April 18, 2020, bfi.uchicago.edu; this paper includes an analysis of the impact on workers under the age of 55 but does assume that older siblings or grandparents could provide childcare to working parents.

Where a significant proportion of workers rely on schools for childcare, reopening schools (at least for younger children) might be a prerequisite to tapping into the full productive capacity of the workforce. However, if the majority of parents can work from home while fulfilling childcare responsibilities or can access alternative childcare, schools might be able to stay closed for longer.

Student learning and thriving

Every year, students in the United States lose a month’s worth of learning over the summer, with the sharpest learning declines in math, seen especially in low-income students. 6 David M. Quinn and Morgan Polikoff, “Summer learning loss: What is it, and what can we do about it?,” Brookings Institution, September 14, 2017, brookings.edu. Some researchers suggest that despite systems’ best efforts with remote learning, school closures caused by COVID-19 could be even more damaging. One recent analysis projects that students could return in the fall having progressed only 70 percent of a grade in reading and less than 50 percent of a grade in math during the 2019–20 school year. 7 Megan Kuhfeld and Beth Tarasawa, The COVID-19 slide: What summer learning loss can tell us about the potential impact of school closures on student academic achievement , NWEA, April 2020, nwea.org. If closures extend beyond the fall, this shortfall could be even greater, with negative consequences for individual students and society as a whole. If decision makers believe that their remote-learning offerings are effective and equitable enough to avoid learning shortfalls, then longer school closures may be feasible. However, an uneven rollout of remote learning represents lost learning for every day out of school.

Beyond academics, schools provide important social support, especially to vulnerable students. Indeed, 19 percent of reports of child abuse or neglect in the United States come through education personnel, and school closures have resulted in a steep drop in such reports. 8 Andrew M. Campbell, “An increasing risk of family violence during the Covid-19 pandemic: Strengthening community collaborations to save lives,” Forensic Science International: Reports , April 2020, Volume 2. This change suggests that school closures have shut down support sources for victims of abuse and neglect at the very moment that they are most vulnerable. And although abuse may be less visible to staff during school closures, governments and nonprofits worldwide have recorded higher rates of domestic violence since shutdowns began. Reports of domestic violence increased more than 30 percent in France, 9 Elena Berton, “France to put domestic abuse victims in hotels after jump in numbers,” Reuters, March 30, 2020, reuters.com. 50 percent in India, 10 Rukmini S, “Locked down with abusers: India sees surge in domestic violence,” Al Jazeera , April 17, 2020, aljazeera.com. and 60 percent in Mexico. 11 John Holman, “Domestic abuse spikes in Mexico amid virus outbreak,” Al Jazeera , April 10, 2020, aljazeera.com. With such high stakes, systems that can consistently deliver remote student services—nutrition, safety, and mental-health support—can likely weather longer closures than those who cannot.

Safeguarding readiness

The final consideration to weigh is school systems’ ability to create and consistently follow effective health and safety measures to mitigate the risk of infection. School systems’ infrastructure, budget, supply chains, policies, and culture all contribute to their ability to operate safely after reopening. For instance, a school with unused classroom space and enough classroom aides could stagger schedules, space desks at least six feet apart, and facilitate more but smaller classes. Conversely, schools with strapped budgets, overworked teachers, and crowded classes will have less flexibility. Furthermore, equipping or retrofitting schools for optimal hygiene and sanitation won’t be effective if student behavior cannot or does not adhere to health and safety protocols.

If decision makers believe schools can realistically adopt health and safety protocols that can lower the risk of infection, schools can open earlier. However, if system leaders believe schools are unlikely to be able to limit transmission because they are, by definition, high-contact zones, then schools are likely to remain closed or to open later.

For whom to reopen

Reopening doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing decision. Schools could selectively reopen, making it easier to keep student groups small and dispersed. Countries are taking varied approaches in deciding which students should return to school first. Denmark and Norway have prioritized reopening pre-primary and primary schools to address childcare for parents who need to return to work. Such an approach can be appealing to decision makers who believe young children are among the lowest-risk groups for both infection and transmission.

Other countries have prioritized students in important transitional years. For example, final-year students in Germany have returned to school to take their final examinations. Physical distancing is easier—and in fact typical—in examination halls, and older students are more likely than younger ones to follow health and safety protocols.

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Alternatively, schools can consider identifying student segments with specific needs and reopening for them. For instance, low-income students, who are less likely to have reliable internet service and devices equipped to support remote learning and who are more likely to rely on school for nonacademic support, may gain academic and wellness benefits (including nutrition) from returning to school. Similarly, students with disabilities (especially ones that make remote learning particularly difficult) might be better served with educational specialists at school. Finally, the children of essential workers might return to school earlier since their parents may not have the option of staying home.

Just as it may be beneficial for some students to return to school, some teachers might be better served working from home. Teachers who are at a higher risk of developing COVID-19 can be identified in advance of school reopening and provide remote instruction to students who are also still at home.

These possibilities are uncharted for many school systems and may require adjustments in both logistics (especially for staffing) and mindsets. For instance, reopening schools for only some students may mean reframing or redefining truancy, especially if a significant number of families opt out of sending their children back to school due to safety concerns. As of publication, Australia’s Northern Territory is letting families opt out of sending children back to school. 12 Judith Aisthorpe and Natasha Emeck, “NT schools stay open but optional for parents to send children to classes now: Chief Minister,” NT News , March 23, 2020, ntnews.com.au. Such examples suggest that school systems may need to continue to offer some level of remote learning, even after most students are back in the classroom.

Health and safety measures to adopt

Like workplaces around the world, schools will need to adopt and enforce heightened health and sanitation protocols. However, schools will likely confront trade-offs between effectiveness and feasibility in implementing such measures.

Measures that can reduce viral spread may be less effective at providing childcare or optimizing learning. For example, alternating school days for different groups of students may facilitate physical distancing but may not fully meet parents’ childcare needs and may create inconsistent learning environments for students. Limited budgets, infrastructure, and supplies of critical health and safety equipment may further complicate these challenges. Most importantly, some measures that are appropriate for adults will be difficult if not impossible to enforce in a school setting, especially for younger students.

Each school system will therefore need to evaluate its health and safety measures to fit its resources and capabilities across four major categories: physical infrastructure, scheduling and staffing, transportation and food service, and health and behavioral policies. Some example health and safety considerations can illustrate how systems can consider feasibility in a school environment.

School infrastructure can facilitate both physical distancing and hygiene protocols. For instance, designated entrances and exits for different student cohorts, sectioned off common spaces, and floor markings to direct foot-traffic flows can help students and staff maintain distance. Similarly, portable hand-sanitizing stations at entrances and common areas can promote regular hygiene—and all of these changes may be made at a reasonable cost. However, permanent changes to the physical environment, such as no-touch bathrooms or upgraded ventilation, may be unrealistic for many school systems’ budgets—especially given the short time frames involved.

School-system priorities in the age of coronavirus

Outside of no-regrets decisions (such as canceling large gatherings), changes in scheduling and staffing are the most likely to affect student learning. For example, while staggered or part-time schedules can help reduce the number of people on campus at a given time, making it easier to maintain a safe distance, these schedules also reduce instructional time. An alternative approach is to divide students into cohorts—for example, by grade or floor—to reduce the level of contact among students and staff to only those within their cohort. 13 Working and learning cohorts are already in use in the private sector; for an example, see Will Anderson, “How Austin factories are practicing social distancing,” Austin Business Journal , March 23, 2020, bizjournals.com. Secondary schools, where students tend to go to subject-specialist teachers’ classrooms, could explore ways to keep consistent groups of students together and trade off some subject-specific learning for more safety.

Transportation and food service, which historically brought students and staff into close physical contact, can adapt to support the school community’s health and safety—though the cost could be high. Increasing the number of bus routes, for instance, or organizing routes by cohort would reduce proximity and exposure but would require more drivers, funding, and sanitization between routes. School systems may instead offer incentives for private transport, but parents may be logistically or financially unable to take their children to school. Food service will also become more complicated: even with pre-boxed lunches and staggered lunch times, full compliance with physical distancing and hygiene may not be attainable, especially for young children.

Finally, systems need to consider which behavioral policies and norms are enforceable during the school day. Temperature checks for anyone entering a school campus may be sensible, yet contactless thermometers are expensive and may be in short supply. Schools will therefore need to decide whether to require everyone to check their temperature at home daily or have school personnel administer checks using standard thermometers. Schools can set up quarantine facilities for students with fevers, but if insufficient coronavirus tests are available it will complicate decisions on when entire student cohorts (or even the entire school) should be sent home.

Consistently wearing masks might also be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce among students. However, frequent scheduled campuswide handwashing and sanitation can help keep the environment and hands relatively clean. Enhanced cleaning of surfaces after the school day can be another vital element of promoting hygiene. Training and frequent reinforcement can help staff, parents, students, and entire communities stay updated on important health and sanitation practices.

As school-system leaders consider a dizzying array of decisions, they will have to make difficult trade-offs using the best and most recent—but still incomplete—available evidence and the knowledge of their own resources and constraints. They will also have to involve parents, teachers, and students in the decision-making process.

As schools reopen under appropriate health and safety protocols, school leaders will then confront a new set of challenges, including reenrollment, remedial academic support, and possibly closing schools again in response to public-health needs. None of this work is easy, but the prize—students learning, parents working, and a virus in retreat—is worth fighting for.

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12 Ideas for Writing Through the Pandemic With The New York Times

A dozen writing projects — including journals, poems, comics and more — for students to try at home.

By Natalie Proulx

The coronavirus has transformed life as we know it. Schools are closed, we’re confined to our homes and the future feels very uncertain. Why write at a time like this?

For one, we are living through history. Future historians may look back on the journals, essays and art that ordinary people are creating now to tell the story of life during the coronavirus.

But writing can also be deeply therapeutic. It can be a way to express our fears, hopes and joys. It can help us make sense of the world and our place in it.

Plus, even though school buildings are shuttered, that doesn’t mean learning has stopped. Writing can help us reflect on what’s happening in our lives and form new ideas.

We want to help inspire your writing about the coronavirus while you learn from home. Below, we offer 12 projects for students, all based on pieces from The New York Times, including personal narrative essays, editorials, comic strips and podcasts. Each project features a Times text and prompts to inspire your writing, as well as related resources from The Learning Network to help you develop your craft. Some also offer opportunities to get your work published in The Times, on The Learning Network or elsewhere.

We know this list isn’t nearly complete. If you have ideas for other pandemic-related writing projects, please suggest them in the comments.

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New research finds that pandemic learning loss impacted whole communities, regardless of student race or income.

Analysis of prior decade shows that learning loss will become permanent if schools and parents do not expand learning time this summer and next year

(May 11, 2023) – Today, The Education Recovery Scorecard , a collaboration with researchers at the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University (CEPR) and Stanford University’s Educational Opportunity Project, released 12 new state reports and a research brief to provide the most comprehensive picture yet of how the pandemic affected student learning. Building on their previous work, their findings reveal how school closures and local conditions exacerbated inequality between communities — and how little time school leaders have to help students catch up.

The research team reviewed data from 8,000 communities in 40 states and Washington, D.C., including 2022 NAEP scores and Spring 2022 assessments, COVID death rates, voting rates and trust in government, patterns of social activity and survey data from Facebook/Meta on family activities and mental health during the pandemic.

They found that where children lived during the pandemic mattered more to their academic progress than their family background, income, or internet speed. Moreover, after studying instances where test scores rose or fell in the decade before the pandemic, the researchers found that the impacts lingered for years.

“Children have resumed learning, but largely at the same pace as before the pandemic. There’s no hurrying up teaching fractions or the Pythagorean theorem,” said CEPR faculty director Thomas Kane. “The hardest hit communities—like Richmond, VA, St. Louis, MO, and New Haven, CT, where students fell behind by more than 1.5 years in math—would have to teach 150 percent of a typical year’s worth of material for three years in a row—just to catch up. That is simply not going to happen without a major increase in instructional time. Any district that lost more than a year of learning should be required to revisit their recovery plans and add instructional time—summer school, extended school year, tutoring, etc.—so that students are made whole. ”

“It’s not readily visible to parents when their children have fallen behind earlier cohorts, but the data from 7,800 school districts show clearly that this is the case,” said Sean Reardon, Professor of Poverty and Inequality, Stanford Graduate School of Education. “The educational impacts of the pandemic were not only historically large, but were disproportionately visited on communities with many low-income and minority students. Our research shows that schools were far from the only cause of decreased learning—the pandemic affected children through many ways – but they are the institution best suited to remedy the unequal impacts of the pandemic.”

The new research includes:

A research brief that offers insights into why students in some communities fared worse than others.
An update to the Education Recovery Scorecard, including data from 12 additional states whose 2022 scores were not available in October. The project now includes a district-level view of the pandemic’s effects in 40 states (plus DC).
A new interactive map that highlights examples of inequity between neighboring school districts.

Among the key findings:

Within the typical school district, the declines in test scores were similar for all groups of students, rich and poor, white, Black, Hispanic. And the extent to which schools were closed appears to have had the same effect on all students in a community, regardless of income or race.
Test scores declined more in places where the COVID death rate was higher, in communities where adults reported feeling more depression and anxiety during the pandemic, and where daily routines of families were most significantly restricted. This is true even in places where schools closed only very briefly at the start of the pandemic.
Test score declines were smaller in communities with high voting rates and high Census response rates—indicators of what sociologists call “institutional trust.” Moreover, remote learning was less harmful in such places. Living in a community where more people trusted the government appears to have been an asset to children during the pandemic.
The average U.S. public school student in grades 3-8 lost the equivalent of a half year of learning in math and a quarter of a year in reading.

The researchers also looked at data from the decade prior to the pandemic to see how students bounced back after significant learning loss due to disruption in their schooling. The evidence shows that schools do not naturally bounce back: Affected students recovered 20-30% of the lost ground in the first year, but then made no further recovery in the subsequent 3-4 years.

“Schools were not the sole cause of achievement losses,” Kane said. “Nor will they be the sole solution. As enticing as it might be to get back to normal, doing so will just leave the devastating increase in inequality caused by the pandemic in place. We must create learning opportunities for students outside of the normal school calendar, by adding academic content to summer camps and after-school programs and adding an optional 13th year of schooling.”

The Education Recovery Scorecard is supported by funds from Citadel founder and CEO Kenneth C. Griffin , Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Walton Family Foundation.

About the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University The Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, based at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, seeks to transform education through quality research and evidence. CEPR and its partners believe all students will learn and thrive when education leaders make decisions using facts and findings, rather than untested assumptions. Learn more at cepr.harvard.edu.

Contact: Jeff Frantz, [email protected] , 614-204-7438 (mobile)

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Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

by Alissa Wilkinson

The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

The Vox guide to navigating the coronavirus crisis

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?

A syllabus for the end of the world

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.

What day is it today?

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.

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In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

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Safety tips for attending school during COVID-19

As with other illnesses that spread from person to person, COVID-19 outbreaks can happen in schools. There are ways your child's school can help prevent or stop infections. And there are ways you can help your family avoid getting sick.

Kids have about the same chance as adults of catching the virus that causes COVID-19. How often kids keep their germs to themselves is not clear. But there's at least some risk of a child bringing COVID-19 home from school and passing it to family members.

The good news is that schools and families can take actions to protect students' health, both every day and during illness outbreaks.

COVID-19 vaccines

In the U.S., everyone age 6 months and older can get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines helps prevent serious COVID-19 illness, the need for hospital care due to COVID-19 and death from COVID-19. That's true for both adults and children.

To make sure all children have the chance to get a COVID-19 vaccine, your school may host a vaccine clinic. Or the school might send information on where to get a vaccine.

The virus that causes COVID-19 spreads on the breath of people who are infected. When you're outside, the natural airflow makes it less likely the virus a person breathes out will infect you.

When you're inside, or in a vehicle, keeping fresh air moving into the space lowers the amount of germs in the air.

Opening windows can help, along with using fans to pull outside air into rooms. If you're in spaces where you can't open windows or if your outside air quality is bad, using an air purifier may be an option.

Hand-washing

Hand-washing with soap and water for at least 20 seconds can help stop the spread of germs at home and in school. For kids and adults who tend to hurry, keep washing until you sing the entire "Happy Birthday" song twice, which takes about 20 seconds.

Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol if soap and water aren't available.

Have your child cover the mouth and nose with an elbow or a tissue when coughing or sneezing. Then throw the tissue in the trash and wash the hands right away. Remind your child to avoid touching the eyes, nose and mouth.

Schools can make hand-washing easier by making sure all the supplies are ready for use.

Also, schools can build in time for kids and staff to wash hands. It's time well spent before eating, after going to the bathroom, or after coughing, sneezing or blowing the nose.

Wearing face masks

Face masks can protect you from breathing in germs. Face masks also can protect others from breathing in your germs if you're sick.

Wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth, fits your face without gaps, and is comfortable for you to wear all day.

When the germs that cause COVID-19 are spreading in your area, masks can lower the risk of infection. But some people may choose to wear masks at other times.

Schools can support masking in a few ways.

Teach students and staff about why people may choose to wear a face mask.
Accommodate people who can't wear masks due to a disability.
Provide access to clear masks that allow for lip reading.

Don't place a face mask on a child younger than age 2 or a person with a disability who can't safely wear a mask. It can be hard to find a mask that fits a child's face so be prepared to try more than one if needed.

Some masks may have instructions on how to make them fit without gaps. And you may need to teach your child how to put the mask on or take it off correctly.

When the COVID-19 virus spread is high

Getting a vaccine, having good airflow and following good hygiene habits such as washing hands are basic steps to protect from infection. Wearing a face mask also may be part of your typical response.

But other actions may be needed during an outbreak of COVID-19. If the level of illness in the community is high, other steps can help manage the risk of getting sick.

Schools and health agencies may communicate actions parents and caregivers can expect schools to take during this time.
Schools may ask parents to look for certain symptoms.
Schools may change the policy for when a person who is ill can come back to school. Some schools may test people who don't have symptoms to screen for COVID-19.
Schools may put teachers and kids into separate groups, called cohorting. That way even if people in one group get sick, those in other groups may not.
Schools may change where classes are held, focus on being outside or increase space between kids within the classroom.

What to do if your child has COVID-19

Your child's school likely has a policy about illness and school attendance, but in general, there are some symptoms that are best managed at home. This includes fever, vomiting and loose stools, also called diarrhea. People with these symptoms are likely able to spread whatever germ they have.

If your child has COVID-19, talk to your child's healthcare professional. Most children recover quickly without serious illness.

Also, contact the school. Make sure you understand the school's policy on when your child can return to school.

Once your child is feeling better, the policy for getting back in the classroom may be clarified by the school. But generally, people can get back to their daily activities if the following are true.

They haven't had a fever for 24 hours without taking medicine for fever.
Respiratory symptoms are getting better.
They can eat and drink without throwing up.
Stools are back to what are typical.

Preventing illness in schools

No one can avoid all germs, but there are ways to help lower the risk of illness.

Teaching good hygiene helps keep your child from missing school due to illness and helps keep your family safe from germs that could travel home.

Another option may be to get involved at your child's school. Learn about the school's policies on how to manage illnesses so you understand the risks and how to lessen them.

Information for pediatric healthcare providers. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/pediatric-hcp.html. Accessed June 13, 2024.
Stay up to date with your vaccines. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html. Accessed June 13, 2024.
Goldman L, et al., eds. COVID-19: Epidemiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, community prevention, and prognosis. In: Goldman-Cecil Medicine. 27th ed. Elsevier; 2024. https://www.clinicalkey.com. Accessed June 13, 2024.
Everyday actions for schools to prevent and control the spread of infections. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/orr/school-preparedness/infection-prevention/actions.html. Accessed June 13, 2024.
Taking steps for cleaner air for respiratory virus prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/prevention/air-quality.html. Accessed June 13, 2024.
How to protect yourself and others. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html. Accessed June 13, 2024.
About handwashing. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/clean-hands/about/. Accessed June 13, 2024.
Additional strategies that may be used to minimize infectious disease transmission in schools during times of elevated illness activity. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/orr/school-preparedness/infection-prevention/strategies.html. Accessed June 13, 2024.
Community respirators and masks. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/publicppe/community-ppe.html. Accessed June 13, 2024.
When students or staff are sick. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/orr/school-preparedness/infection-prevention/when-sick.html. Accessed June 13, 2024.

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'America's Got Talent' alum Jay Jay Phillips dies after battle with COVID-19, band says

"America's Got Talent" alum Jay Jay Phillips died after becoming ill with COVID-19, his band said in an Instagram statement Friday.

"It is with great sadness we inform you all of the loss of our bandmate/brother/and friend @jayjayrocks. It still doesn’t feel real and we would give anything to change it," the message from Mettal Maffia read.

"Please respect the family, as well as our wishes as we take our time to grieve and process this detrimental loss. We miss you brother, every second of every minute, of every day. Thank you for teaching us all to laugh a little more. Rock in Paradise."

Deadline and other outlets have reported that the heavy-metal keyboardist was not vaccinated against COVID-19.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CW5k6nuLH-u

Phillips appeared on season four in 2009 of the television competition series, which airs on NBC. He was eliminated and then came back for season 12 in 2017 but was cut before the quarterfinals.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com .

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