The Center for Disease Control (CDC) did not allow elementary aged students to receive the vaccination for COVID-19 (which will be referred to as the pandemic) until the Spring of 2021. This created two environments: the face-to-face learning environment and the virtual learning environment. Teachers were thrown into a situation in which they had…

The purpose of this ex-post facto quantitative study was to compare English Language Arts (ELA) and math Tennessee Compressive Assessment Program (TCAP) scores of students in grades four through eight who attended school virtually or in-person during the 2020-2021 school year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the school district in this study allowed…

Access to drinking water is becoming more limited as drought persists across continents. This article highlights a particularly impacted group of students due to increasing drought conditions and upstream river pollution near their reservation. While there are related water and modeling standards across the K-12 Next Generation Science Standards…

The current study aimed to explore the COVID-19 impact on reading achievement growth by Grade 3-5 students in a large urban school district in the U.S. and whether the impact differed by students' demographic characteristics and instructional modality. Specifically, using administrative data from the school district, we investigated to what extent…

This explanatory mixed-methods study explored if there was a change in student progress as measured by STAR percentile rank due to the multiple instructional modalities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Educational institutions had to shift to distance learning in March of 2020 due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The return to school for the 2020-2021…

The current study aimed to explore the COVID-19 impact on the reading achievement growth of Grade 3-5 students in a large urban school district in the U.S. and whether the impact differed by students' demographic characteristics and instructional modality. Specifically, using administrative data from the school district, we investigated to what…

The spread of the COVID-19 all over the world have negatively affected many areas, leading to a number changes throughout the world. Being one of these areas, education had to undergone some changes and shifted to distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, distance education has also brought some discussions and problems. This study…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the effect of learner-centered pedagogy on student engagement in a virtual elementary instrumental music program. Eleven fourth- and fifth-grade students from an elementary school in the Southeastern United States worked remotely toward creating a virtual performance over 28 weeks. All…

The purpose of this study was to examine how growth mindset strategies enhance academic achievement for English learners in 5th grade from low socio-economic areas. Secondary data was available through (MAP) Measures of Academic Progress and surveys (Panorama and PACE/CORE) to analyze students' use of strategies from Fall to Winter of 2019 and…

We examine the relationship between absenteeism and achievement since the onset of COVID-19. Applying first-differences models to North Carolina administrative data, we estimate that each absence was associated with a 0.0032 standard deviation (SD) decline in math achievement in 2022-23. As students averaged 3.3 more absences in 2022-23 than…

The problem addressed in this research study involves lower student achievement on the i-Ready Reading Diagnostic test for fifth grade students that received reading instruction in the virtual setting during the COVID-19 pandemic than their peers that received in-person reading instruction. In this qualitative study, five teachers were interviewed…

The disruptions to schooling created by the COVID-19 pandemic prompted nationwide concern about negative impacts on academic proficiency, particularly for vulnerable student populations. Pennsylvania's 2021 statewide assessments offered the first opportunity since the pandemic began to assess how students across the Commonwealth were faring,…

In March of 2020, in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state of Illinois mandated the transition to remote instruction for all schools. Although schools had the option to resume in-person instruction during the 2020-21 school year (SY21), the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) acknowledged that in-person instruction may not…

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 was marked by a transition to remote learning in Illinois schools and nationwide. The following school year, schools and families faced difficult decisions about how and when to return to in-person learning. School leaders, parents and caregivers, and students considered how to balance…

For over two years, schools, teachers, students, and families across Illinois have worked to adapt instruction and learning under the ever-changing conditions wrought by COVID-19. This report, the third and final in the Learning During the Pandemic in Illinois series, investigates how much time students spent learning in-person and/or remotely…