Framing the Pandemic: Tracking Educational Sensemaking Processes, Spring 2020–Fall 2021

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Policy Adoption and Implementation in School Districts (Table 34)

Abstract

We use applications for ESSER funding as well as interviews with state and district officials to understand how educational leaders framed the pandemic as a set of evolving problems and formulated strategies to address those problems. We have gathered and systematically coded ESSER applications from all North Carolina public school districts and charter school operators that applied to receive ESSER funds. In these documents, district officials articulate descriptions of evidence gathering, statements of need, and justifications for planned expenditures, providing a window into organizational thinking and learning during the pandemic and early recovery period. Using these applications and interviews, we examine how districts employed problem framings that emphasize, to different extents, learning loss, public health, human capital, and student well-being.

Authors

• Thurston Domina, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Ethan L. Hutt, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Nell Williams, EdFund