President-elect Joe Biden has made reopening a majority of K–8 schools for in-person instruction a priority for his administration’s first 100 days, with the goal of getting more American students safely back into the classroom. Yet neither information gathered so far by researchers, nor data reported by the federal government and the states, can say where the nation stands with respect to that goal. While various organizations have tracked school districts’ stated policies on reopening, those policies defy easy categorization and may not capture reality on the ground. Many districts and schools offer parents some choice about how their child is educated, making it even harder to gauge who is entering schools. Nearly halfway through the 2020–21 school year, we remain in the dark about how American schools have adapted amid the pandemic—and what American families are experiencing as a result:
We set out to close this gap. In November and December 2020, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,155 American parents with children in kindergarten through 12th grade, including over samples of parents who identify as Hispanic and parents who identify as Black (see sidebar on survey methodology). We also over sampled parents with children in private and charter schools, making it possible to compare their experiences with those making use of the traditional district sector. Each parent we surveyed answered questions about the schooling experiences of each of their children in kindergarten through 12th grade, including 3,762 children in total. We also asked them a set of questions about schools and school policies in the United States in order to see if those experiences have altered parents’ views (see sidebar Gauging the Pandemic’s Effects on Parental Opinion):
Our data reveal that more than half of U.S. students are receiving instruction entirely remotely this school year, while 28% of students receive instruction that is fully in person. Of the 19% of students in hybrid models, in-person instruction varies from one to five days a week:
The parents of most students remain broadly satisfied with the instruction and activities available from their children’s schools, yet the parents of 60% of students report that their child is learning less than would be the case absent the pandemic. Satisfaction levels are highest—and reports of learning loss least common—for students attending school in person. The hybrid model appears to offer no advantage over fully remote instruction:
We document large differences across sectors in the frequency of in-person instruction. Well over half of students enrolled in district and charter schools receive all their instruction fully remotely, while less than one quarter receive all of their instruction in person. The percentages are nearly reversed for children attending private schools: 60% receive instruction in person and just 18% receive their instruction remotely:
We also provide the first evidence on the relationship between in-person instruction and the incidence of Covid. The availability and usage of in-person instruction is unrelated to Covid incidence at the start of the 2020–2021 school year, when most districts made their reopening plans. By November, however, students were most likely to be attending school fully in person in counties where the virus was spreading most rapidly:
Three Modes of Instruction
Schools adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic in multiple ways, but these approaches generally fall into one of three categories: 1) fully remote instruction, which is usually provided almost entirely over the Internet; 2) fully in-person instruction, which is essentially business as usual, but in most cases with the addition of Covid safety protocols; and 3) hybrid instruction, a mix of remote and in-person learning. This last category has many permutations, but all make partial use of the schoolhouse:
Remote instruction has spread nearly as far and wide as the coronavirus itself. School officials have successfully upgraded their use of the tool since the spring of 2020, when many were forced to scramble when ordered to close their doors. According to parental reports, though, remote instruction still falls short of in-person instruction at school. At some point in the future, children may learn as much or more if they are taught online, but that day has not yet come. Nor is the hybrid solution working any better; in fact, parents’ reports suggest that it may be the worst available option:
Prevalence. Remote learning dominates educational offerings in the 2020–2021 school year. According to parent reports, 53% of students are receiving instruction entirely remotely. Only 28% of students receive all their instruction in the classroom. Parents of another 19% say their children are learning via a hybrid model (see Figure 1). According to these parents, 49% of students in this model are at school just one or two days a week, 31% attend for three or four days, and 20% attend all five days (presumably for less than the full school day or on alternate weeks):
The younger the child, the more likely the instruction is to be delivered in person. According to parents, 37% of children in grades K–2 attend school in person, a percentage that declines to 34% for grades 3–5, 26% for grades 6–8, and 18% for those in high school. High schoolers, meanwhile, are roughly 10 percentage points more likely than the youngest learners to be in each of the other two models:
The parents of 72% of students say they have some choice as to how their child attends school, a percentage that does not vary much by grade level. The parents of 84% and 89% of those being taught in the in-person and hybrid models, respectively, say they have a choice in the matter, but parents of only 60% of the fully remote children say they have an option for their children to receive instruction differently:
As for the range of available choices, the parents of only 41% of students report that their child’s school offers a fully in-person option, suggesting that more than two-thirds of students who were presented that option took it. The parents of 48% of students say that their child has a hybrid option, and the parents of 77% say that their child can attend fully online:
Mode of instruction and Covid incidence. The fully remote and hybrid instructional models aim to limit the spread of Covid-19 among students, school staff, and the broader community. We might therefore expect the use of those models to be correlated with measures of the incidence of the virus, with greater use of the fully remote option in places the hardest hit by the virus: Yet, education officials’ reopening plans have also been shaped by political considerations that have little to do with public health concerns. In particular, research has shown that districts in which the 2016 Republican presidential candidate received more support and districts with weaker teachers unions were both more likely to offer in-person instruction in fall 2021. The severity of the public health crisis in the local community appears to have had little effect on districts’ decisions to open schools in person:
Our nationally representative data allow us to provide the first evidence on how the full range of options available to American parents—and the choices parents make in light of those options—vary with the incidence of the virus. We find no clear relationship between the availability of in-person instruction and Covid incidence as of the start of the school year. By November, the combination of district and parent decision-making had produced a troubling pattern: students are most likely to be attending school fully in person in school districts where the virus is spreading most rapidly:
First examine the relationship between Covid incidence as of the start of the school year, when most districts crafted their reopening plans, and the availability and use of each instructional model in November. To do so, we link each parent respondent to data on the cumulative number of confirmed Covid cases as a fraction of the local population in the respondent’s county as of September 1. We then group parents into quartiles based on this indicator of Covid incidence. Among parents in counties where Covid had its least cumulative impact, the parents of 39% of students report having the option of fully in-person instruction—essentially the same as the 42% of students who have the option where Covid’s impact was greatest (see Figure 2a). Nor do we see a relationship between virus counts and the share of students whose parents say they could choose the fully remote or the hybrid model:
The pattern is roughly the same when we look at actual use (as opposed to the availability) of the three instructional models: the parents of 26% of students in counties with the fewest Covid cases per capita as of September 1 report that their child is learning in person full time—as compared to 30% in counties with the most cases (see Figure 2b). Consistent with this, we find few differences across the groups of counties in the share of students whose parents selected fully in-person instruction when given the option to do so (see Figure 2c).
You must be logged in to post a comment.