scholarly journals Large Socio-Economic, Geographic, and Demographic Disparities Exist in Exposure to School Closures and Distance Learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Parolin ◽  
Emma Lee
Keyword(s):  
Distance Learning ◽  
Limited English Proficiency ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Closure ◽  
School Type ◽  
Educational Performance ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Math Scores

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many school districts to turn to distance or at-home learning. Studies are emerging on the negative effects of distance learning on educational performance. Less is known, however, about the socio-economic, geographic, and demographic characteristics of students exposed to distance-learning across the United States. We introduce a U.S. School Closure & Distance Learning Database that tracks in-person attendance across more than 100,000 schools from January through October 2020. We measure year-over-year change in in-person attendance for each school throughout 2020 to estimate whether the school is engaged in distance learning after the onset of the pandemic. Our findings reveal large socio-economic, geographic, and demographic disparities in exposure to distance learning. In October 2020, schools recording the lowest third-grade math scores are nearly twice as likely to be closed compared to schools recording the highest math scores. The average racial composition of closed schools is 25 percentage points less white compared to schools operating in-person (40% versus 65%). Moreover, closures are more common in schools with a higher share of students who experience homelessness, are of limited English proficiency, are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch, live in single-parent families, or are racial/ethnic minorities. Distance learning is more common in high schools and middle schools relative to elementary schools, but disparities in exposure to distance learning are comparable across school type. Given the potential negative consequences of school closures on educational performance, the vast inequalities in exposure to distance learning portend rising disparities in learning outcomes.

scholarly journals Large socio-economic, geographic and demographic disparities exist in exposure to school closures

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 522-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary Parolin ◽  
Emma K. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Distance Learning ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Limited English Proficiency ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
School Lunches ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Math Scores ◽  
Home Learning ◽  
Racial Ethnic

AbstractThe coronovirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has prompted many school districts to turn to distance or at-home learning. Studies are emerging on the negative effects of distance learning on educational performance, but less is known about the socio-economic, geographic and demographic characteristics of students exposed to distance learning. We introduce a U.S. School Closure and Distance Learning Database that tracks in-person visits across more than 100,000 schools throughout 2020. The database, which we make publicly accessible and update monthly, describes year-over-year change in in-person visits to each school throughout 2020 to estimate whether the school is engaged in distance learning. Our findings reveal that school closures from September to December 2020 were more common in schools with lower third-grade math scores and higher shares of students from racial/ethnic minorities, who experience homelessness, have limited English proficiency and are eligible for free/reduced-price school lunches. The findings portend rising inequalities in learning outcomes.

scholarly journals COVID-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, United States, February 18–June 30, 2020

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0248925
Author(s):  
Nicole Zviedrite ◽  
Jeffrey D. Hodis ◽  
Ferdous Jahan ◽  
Hongjiang Gao ◽  
Amra Uzicanin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
School Districts ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
School Closures ◽  
The Us ◽  
Meal Programs ◽  
K 12

Pre-emptive school closures are frontline community mitigation measures recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for implementation during severe pandemics. This study describes the spatiotemporal patterns of publicly announced school closures implemented in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and assesses how public K-12 districts adjusted their methods of education delivery and provision of subsidized meals. During February 18–June 30, 2020, we used daily systematic media searches to identify publicly announced COVID-19–related school closures lasting ≥1 day in the United States (US). We also collected statewide school closure policies from state government websites. Data on distance learning and subsidized meal programs were collected from a stratified sample of 600 school districts. The first COVID-19–associated school closure occurred on February 27, 2020 in Washington state. By March 30, 2020, all but one US public school districts were closed, representing the first-ever nearly synchronous nationwide closure of public K-12 schools in the US. Approximately 100,000 public schools were closed for ≥8 weeks because of COVID-19, affecting >50 million K-12 students. Of 600 districts sampled, the vast majority offered distance learning (91.0%) and continued provision of subsidized meal programs (78.8%) during the closures. Despite the sudden and prolonged nature of COVID-19–associated school closures, schools demonstrated flexibility by implementing distance learning and alternate methods to continue subsidized meal programs.

scholarly journals COVID-19-associated school closures and related efforts to sustain education and subsidized meal programs, United States, February 18–June 30, 2020

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Zviedrite ◽  
Jeffrey D. Hodis ◽  
Ferdous Jahan ◽  
Hongjiang Gao ◽  
Amra Uzicanin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
School Districts ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Meal Programs ◽  
K 12

AbstractPre-emptive school closures are frontline community mitigation measures recommended by CDC for implementation during severe pandemics. This study describes the spatiotemporal patterns of publicly announced school closures implemented in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and assesses how public K-12 districts adjusted their methods of education delivery and provision of subsidized meals. During February 18–June 30, 2020, we used daily systematic media searches to identify publicly announced coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)–related school closures lasting ≥1 day in the United States (US). We also collected statewide school closure policies from state government websites. Data on distance learning and subsidized meal programs were collected from a stratified sample of 600 school districts. The first COVID-19–associated school closure occurred on February 27, 2020 in Washington state. By March 30, 2020, all but one US public school districts were closed, representing the first-ever nearly synchronous nationwide closure of public K-12 schools in the US. Approximately 100,000 public schools were closed for ≥8 weeks because of COVID-19, affecting >50 million K-12 students. Of 600 districts sampled, the vast majority offered distance learning (91.0%) and continued provision of subsidized meal programs (78.8%) during the closures. Despite the sudden and prolonged nature of COVID-19–associated school closures, schools demonstrated flexibility by implementing distance learning and alternate methods to continue subsidized meal programs.

Mass School Closures and the Politics of Race, Value, and Disposability in Philadelphia

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Julia A. McWilliams ◽  
Erika M. Kitzmiller
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Individual Case ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Urban District ◽  
School Closures ◽  
School Communities ◽  
State And Local

Background With the expansion of charter school networks, population losses in urban district schools and stretched budgets have encouraged struggling districts to adopt closure-as-reform. School closings have received considerable attention in the media as a controversial reform, reconfiguring the educational landscapes of over 70 post-industrial cities like Chicago, Detroit, and New Orleans. However, in the last decade, few scholars have considered the project of examining closures—their process and their effects—empirically. Purpose In this article, we examine the rollout of 30 school closures in Philadelphia in 2012 and 2013 to explain how school closures have become yet another policy technology of Black community and school devaluation in the United States. Moving beyond educational studies that have focused on the outcomes of mass school closures like student achievement and cost savings, we argue that a thorough theorization of how race, violence, and community values relate to school closure as process could help to explain the ways in which contemporary educational policy reforms are creating new modes of communal disposability in cities’ poorest zip codes. Setting/Participants Data collection occurred in two comprehensive high schools in Philadelphia slated for closure in 2012 and 2013: Johnson High and Franklin High. Participants at both schools included students, teachers, parents, community members, and district officials. Research Design The authors spent several years in their respective schools recording observations of instructional practice, community meetings, and district events and interviewing key informants such as students, teachers, administrators, and district officials. The first author spent three years at Johnson High School, from September 2011 to June 2013. The second author spent five years at Franklin High School, from September 2008 to June 2013. She also spent hundreds of hours at the high school examining archival materials and interviewing students, teachers, and alumni about their experiences in the school and community. In addition to their individual case studies, the authors jointly transcribed and coded over two dozen community and district meetings’ video recordings during the 2012 and 2013 closures. In the aftermath of the school closures process, we used a comparative ethnographic method to compare and contrast the events that occurred at these two schools. Findings Suturing anthropologies of violence and education to frame the analysis, we explore moments of collision between policy discourses deployed by state and local officials that crafted closures as inevitable and threatened school communities’ articulations of the racialized implications of the closures. We further localize our analysis to demonstrate how two school communities—one majority Asian and another majority Black—with similar performances and characteristics met dramatically different fates. Given the lack of transparency in how decisions were made around which schools to close, the ways in which these communities read and responded to the closure threat offer a window into the ways in which race informed the valuation process across schools. Conclusions/Recommendations We conclude with a plea to state and federal policymakers to consider the long-term ramifications of school choice expansion and state disinvestment for the health and stability of traditional public schools. We encourage policymakers to move in a more reparative direction, prioritizing the needs of those “unchosen” by choice and imagining a system that might serve all students more equitably.

Predicting School Closures in an Era of Austerity: The Case of Chicago

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 415-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Weber ◽  
Stephanie Farmer ◽  
Mary Donoghue
Keyword(s):  
Central Business District ◽  
Capital Budgeting ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Public Facilities ◽  
Rational Decision Making ◽  
Multinomial Logit Models ◽  
Business District ◽  
Closure Decisions

What factors do administrators consider when (dis)investing in public facilities? We model school closure decisions in Chicago from 2003 to 2013 with multinomial logit models that estimate the decision to close or “turnaround” schools as a function of building, student, geographic, political, and neighborhood factors during two mayoral administrations. The results from our specifications validate the “official” rationale for closures and turnarounds: Low test scores are associated with closures and turnarounds under Mayor Daley, and underutilization is associated with closures under Mayor Emanuel. However, our findings also reveal some distance between technical-rational decision making and the realities of capital budgeting under austerity. The race of students and proximity to both the Central Business District and charter schools also predicted closures. This suggests multiple, potentially conflicting, interests that school districts balance to serve the needs of school-age populations and taxpayers and also the potential for burdening already vulnerable populations with the negative effects of disinvestment.

scholarly journals The Use of Distance Learning and E-learning in Students with Learning Disabilities: A Review on the Effects and some Hint of Analysis on the Use during COVID-19 Outbreak

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-102
Author(s):  
Donatella Rita Petretto ◽  
Stefano Mariano Carta ◽  
Stefania Cataudella ◽  
Ilaria Masala ◽  
Maria Lidia Mascia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Students With Learning Disabilities ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The World ◽  
Open Debate ◽  
E Learning

Even if the use of distance learning and E-learning has a long tradition all over the world and both have been used to keep in contact with students and to provide lessons, support and learning materials, there is an open debate on the balance between advantages and disadvantages in the use of distance learning. This debate is even more central in their use to support students with Learning Disabilities (LDs), an overarching group of neurodevelopmental disorders that affect more than 5% of students. The current COVID-19 outbreak caused school closures and the massive use of E-learning all over the world and it put higher attention on the debate of the effects of E-learning. This paper aims to review papers that investigated the positive and negative effects of the use of Distance Learning and E-learning in students with LDs. We conducted a literature review on the relationship between Distance Learning, E-learning and Learning Disabilities, via Scopus, Eric and Google Scholar electronic database, according to Prisma Guidelines. The findings are summarized using a narrative, but systematic, approach. According to the data resulting from the papers, we also discuss issues to be analyzed in future research and in the use of E-learning during the current pandemic of COVID-19.

Rethinking the School Closure Research: School Closure as Spatial Injustice

2019 ◽  
Vol 89 (6) ◽  
pp. 917-953 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Casey Tieken ◽  
Trevor Ray Auldridge-Reveles
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Research School ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Community Institution ◽  
Communities Of Color ◽  
Community Protests

Recent mass closings of schools have rocked cities across the United States. Though these urban closures—and widespread community protests—have made headlines, rural schools have also long experienced and opposed the closure of their schools. A large body of research examines these urban and rural closures from a variety of perspectives, including their economic motivations and policy implications. This review reexamines this literature, looking across context to show how school closure can produce spatial injustice. Advocates argue that closures further academic opportunity, efficiency, and equality. But our analysis shows that closures are unevenly distributed, disproportionately affecting places where poor communities and communities of color live, and they can bring negative effects, harming students and adults and reducing their access to an important educational and community institution. We conclude with recommendations for research and practice.

scholarly journals Statewide Interventions and Covid-19 Mortality in the United States: An Observational Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadir Yehya ◽  
Atheendar Venkataramani ◽  
Michael O Harhay
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
State Level ◽  
Negative Binomial Regression ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Closure ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Test Model ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Social Distancing

ABSTRACT Background Social distancing is encouraged to mitigate viral spreading during outbreaks. However, the association between distancing and patient-centered outcomes in Covid-19 has not been demonstrated. In the United States social distancing orders are implemented at the state level with variable timing of onset. Emergency declarations and school closures were two early statewide interventions. Methods To determine whether later distancing interventions were associated with higher mortality, we performed a state-level analysis in 55,146 Covid-19 non-survivors. We tested the association between timing of emergency declarations and school closures with 28-day mortality using multivariable negative binomial regression. Day 1 for each state was set to when they recorded ≥ 10 deaths. We performed sensitivity analyses to test model assumptions. Results At time of analysis, 37 of 50 states had ≥ 10 deaths and 28 follow-up days. Both later emergency declaration (adjusted mortality rate ratio [aMRR] 1.05 per day delay, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.09, p=0.040) and later school closure (aMRR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.09, p=0.008) were associated with more deaths. When assessing all 50 states and setting day 1 to the day a state recorded its first death, delays in declaring an emergency (aMRR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.09, p=0.020) or closing schools (aMRR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.09, p<0.001) were associated with more deaths. Results were unchanged when excluding New York and New Jersey. Conclusions Later statewide emergency declarations and school closure were associated with higher Covid-19 mortality. Each day of delay increased mortality risk 5 to 6%.

scholarly journals Distance Learning Effects Among Italian Children and Parents During COVID-19 Related School Lockdown

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Crisci ◽  
Irene C. Mammarella ◽  
Ughetta M. M. Moscardino ◽  
Maja Roch ◽  
Lisa B. Thorell
Keyword(s):  
Distance Learning ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Italian Children ◽  
Child Age

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, both children and their parents experienced consequences related to distance learning (DL). However, positive and negative effects have varied greatly among families, and the specific factors explaining these differences in experiences are still underexplored. In this study, we examined children's executive functions (EF) and parents' psychological well-being in relation to negative and positive effects of DL on both children and their parents.Method: Participants were 637 Italian parents (92% mothers) with a child (48% male) aged between 6 and 19 years involved in DL due to school closures during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using an online survey. We performed three fixed-order hierarchical multiple regression analyses with child age and sex, children's EF deficits, and parents' psychological well-being as independent variables, and DL-related negative effects (on the child and on the parent) and DL-related positive effects as dependent variables.Results: The results of the regression analyses showed that for negative effects of DL, younger age and greater EF deficits explained most part of the variance. Specifically, regarding negative effects on children, the most important factor was EF deficits, whereas regarding negative effects on parents, child age was the most important factor. For positive effects of DL, all variables explained only a small part of the variance. Child age was the most important factor, but EF deficits and parents' psychological well-being also had a significant impact.Conclusions: The effects of DL during school closures vary widely across families. Our findings indicate that intervention efforts need to consider background variables, child factors, as well as parent factors when supporting families with homeschooling in times of pandemic.

scholarly journals Governance Indicators and Responsiveness to Population Decline: School Closures in Practice and Discourse in Saxony-Anhalt

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Bartl ◽  
Reinhold Sackmann
Keyword(s):  
School System ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Population Decline ◽  
Transformation Process ◽  
School Closure ◽  
School Type ◽  
Welfare Regimes ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
School Closures ◽  
Spatial Inequalities

The subject of this analysis is the practice of school closures, since it constitutes a key response to demographic decline and is usually hotly disputed in regional discussions on demographic change. Our research is guided by two questions: How do political and administrative responses to demographic decline emerge? How is the practice of school closure publicly portrayed and discussed in the newspapers? We assume that in democratic welfare regimes, the spatial allocation of school infrastructures is mediated by the use of key administrative indicators allowing the calculation and public deliberation of questions related to education infrastructure policy. However, in transformation societies, a democratic political culture of “governing by numbers” only develops as a result of collective learning processes in which the participants acquire what we refer to as “democratic numeracy”. In the stratified German school system, social prestige is conferred unequally among the different school types, with the grammar school (Gymnasium) being the most prestigious school type. It is therefore likely that the elements of the school system are not affected equally by policy responses to demographic decline and public attention, which results in spatial inequalities. Empirically, the article follows a mixed-methods approach, whilst emphasising a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of school closures in the regional press of Saxony-Anhalt from 1990 to 2014. The results show that, in the transformation process, the relevance of indicator-based governance of the school infrastructure increases both in practice and in discourse. However, as the participants gain in democratic numeracy, the use of numbers becomes politicised. With respect to the pattern of school closures, grammar schools receive a disproportionately large share of public attention. This has a positive effect on their survival chances and diminishes differences in spatial distances between grammar schools and integrated secondary schools.

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