The pandemic is not behind us. Delivery of education in schools continues to vary from state to state, district to district, and even school to school.
Research will be critical for figuring out what methods are working, how much learning is actually happening, and what innovations are showing early promise.
On October 5th, Bellwether Senior Adviser Allison Crean Davis gathered four accomplished education researchers to discuss how the pandemic has impacted education research, the emerging significant equity issues, and the future of education research. Complete captioned video is available here or below:
As researchers articulated how they are making sense of this moment, a few key themes emerged:
Missing Data — and Missing Students
Education researchers are already busy developing statistical models and simulations to account for “missing data,” i.e.,the lack of data from state assessments in spring 2020, which is typically used to measure student achievement from year to year. According to Megan Kuhfeld, Research Scientist at NWEA, researchers are discussing the multitudes of caveats and asterisks that will follow any conclusions based on what happened during the 2019-20 school year. The studies, models, and data will have to include significant nuance to capture the varied impact on students by subgroup, learning setting, access to technology, and attendance.
More pressing, though, than missing data is missing students. As Constance Lindsay, Assistant Professor at UNC School of Education pointed out, there are students who have not “shown up” since schools physically closed. We need to know where they are and who they are. From an equity perspective, it is important to understand the exacerbated effects of the pandemic on missing students’ learning and outcomes.
The 2019-20 and current school year are emerging as a new baseline to begin to capture “what happened.” Studies are being published, by Kuhfeld and others, with early estimates of learning loss in general and by some subgroups. Continue reading