September 24, 2020
GSE&IS Ampersand
New findings note that despite efforts to meet basic needs, disadvantaged students are impeded by transition to online learning.
A survey of high school principals nationwide led by UCLA Professor of Education John Rogers has revealed new findings on schools’ and communities’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the inequality that the pandemic has all too starkly exposed.
“The results of this survey make two things very clear, says John Rogers, education professor and director of the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access at UCLA who led the survey. “Public schools have responded heroically, playing a critical role in supporting students and sustaining communities threatened by the deadly virus and economic shutdown. But the inequities that plague our schools have been exacerbated by the pandemic, impeding learning for those students in communities already greatly challenged by economic and social inequalities.”
The survey, “Learning Lessons: U.S. Public High Schools and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Spring 2020,” reports the responses of a nationally representative sample of 344 high school principals interviewed in May and June 2020 after schools closed and transitioned to distance learning.