Ever since the pandemic closed the nation's schools in March 2020, there has been no official national source for understanding where schools have reopened, how many hours of live instruction students are getting online and just how unequal the access to learning has been over the past 11 months.
On Friday, the National Center for Education Statistics, at the U.S. Department of Education, announced a new survey to answer all these questions and more. The survey will be administered to approximately 7,000 nationally representative elementary and middle schools across the country. It follows an executive order from President Biden.
Schools will be surveyed on, among other things:
- Whether they are fully remote, hybrid or fully in-person
- How full-time, remote and hybrid enrollment varies by student race/ethnicity, income, English learner status and disability status
- Attendance rates, whether online or in-person, and by each subgroup listed above
- If hybrid, how often students are learning in person
- If remote, how many hours of live instruction are offered
- Whether certain students, such as younger students or those with disabilities, are being prioritized for in-person classes
Results will be collected monthly from February through at least June 2021, and reported to the public. To get up and running quickly, the survey will rely on some of the existing data collection systems of the "Nation's Report Card" testing program, and the results will be used to help contextualize the results of that test when it is CONTINUE READING: Education Dept. Launches First Federal Effort To Track School Reopening | 89.3 KPCC