Grade Band Trends in the Relationship Between Pandemic-Related Instructional Modality and Student Achievement

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Fourteen
  In Roundtable Session: Lessons Learned Through COVID-19: Understanding the Long-Term Impacts and Leader Responses (Table 2)

Abstract

Existing research suggests that remote learning during the pandemic may have been especially difficult for younger students, but little work has compared the relationship between remote learning and student achievement across different grade levels. We grouped Illinois public schools serving grades 3-8 and/or 11 into four modality pathways based on their patterns of instructional modality at four key time points over the course of the 2020-21 school year (SY21). Using a difference-in-differences approach, we found that schools serving grades 3-5 performed worse in ELA and math when they spent more time in remote instruction. However, relationships between modality and achievement were smaller and mixed among schools serving grades 6-8, and there were no consistent relationships among schools serving grade 11.

Authors

• Sarah E. Cashdollar, University of Illinois System
  Presenting Author

• Mariana Barragan Torres, University of Illinois System
  Presenting Author

• Meg Bates, University of Illinois System
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yi Wang, Hunter College - CUNY
  Non-Presenting Author