Will This School Year Be Another Casualty of the Pandemic? Key Findings from the American Educator Panels Fall 2020 COVID-19 Surveys. Data Note: Insights from the American Educator Panels. Research Report. RR-A168-4

• Published in: RAND Corporation
• Main Authors: Diliberti, Melissa, Kaufman, Julia H
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: RAND Corporation 2020
• Subjects: Access to Computers; Accountability; Administrator Attitudes; Barriers; Blended Learning; Coping; COVID-19; Curriculum; Decision Making; Disease Control; Distance Education; Educational Technology; Electronic Learning; Elementary Secondary Education; Institutional Characteristics; Job Satisfaction; Minority Group Students; Online Courses; Pandemics; Poverty; Principals; Public Health; Readiness; Rural Schools; School Closing; School Districts; Student Needs; Substitute Teachers; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Burnout; Teacher Competencies; Teacher Shortage; Teacher Student Relationship; Teaching Conditions; Teaching Methods; Urban Schools
• DOI: 10.7249/RRA168-4

School districts across the United States have had to make many difficult decisions to prepare for the 2020-2021 school year amid the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A seemingly impossible dilemma dominated planning: Should schools reopen buildings to provide much-needed in-person instruction but potentially risk the health of students and staff? Or should schools keep buildings closed to lower health risks but risk the most-vulnerable students falling even further behind? District decisions likely have hinged on numerous factors, including guidance from state officials, local COVID-19 infection rates, local population density, student needs, technology access, parent preferences, and state- and national-level political context. Until now little information has been gathered directly from teachers and principals about what is happening on the ground, their perceptions of how students are faring, and which students they feel are most at risk of falling behind. This Data Note summarizes selected findings on teaching and learning in the face of a pandemic by drawing on surveys administered via the RAND American Educator Panels (AEP) to nationally representative samples of K-12 teachers and principals in early October 2020. Findings are presented in three sections. First, the authors share principal and teacher reports of experiences at the start of the school year, including the use of different instructional models, levels of curriculum coverage, ability to make contact with students, and perceptions of student readiness to engage in grade-level curriculum. Second, they examine how teachers are coping with a rapidly changing educational environment, including work hours and concerns related to burnout. Lastly, they discuss some key challenges that principals and teachers face and the supports that they need to address these challenges. [For a related report, "COVID-19 and the State of K-12 Schools: Results and Technical Documentation from the Fall 2020 American Educator Panels COVID-19 Surveys. Research Report. RR-A168-5," see ED609436.]