Higher Rates of Proficiency, Lower Rates of Chronic Absenteeism: The Impact of Pandemic Era Family Engagement

• In Event: Family Engagement as an Equity-Driven Strategy for Improving Student Outcomes

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic produced an era of unprecedented learning loss and chronic absenteeism. Though all schools were affected, during the pandemic, we heard anecdotal stories from teachers and district leaders across the nation whose students were performing better than expected. We believed that by investing in equitable and effective family engagement strategies, these educators and practitioners were better able to navigate the pandemic, ultimately cultivating better outcomes for their students.

To test this hypothesis, two education-focused nonprofits – Learning Heroes and TNTP – collaborated on a three stage study of the relationship between pre-pandemic family engagement practices and post-pandemic student outcomes. In the first stage of our study, we found groundbreaking data connecting strong pre-pandemic family engagement to post-pandemic student outcomes. During the pandemic, schools with strong family engagement saw much smaller increases in chronic absenteeism, and smaller decreases in English and math proficiency rates.

In this paper, we overview our research methodology and outcomes. We describe our initial research process, which included a comprehensive literature review, along with in-depth interviews with leading experts in the field of family engagement. Through our initial research, we determined that the best data source for a comprehensive study was the publicly available UChicago 5Essentials™ survey, which has been administered every year in approximately 3,000 Illinois schools for the past ten years. The 5Essentials™ survey is backed by decades of rigorous research, and measures five fundamental supports that are necessary for school improvement: Effective Leaders, Collaborative Teachers, Supportive Environment, Ambitious Instruction, and Involved Families. Using a statistical model that allowed us to control for differences in poverty, prior achievement, and a host of school and community characteristics, we were able to isolate the effect of the Involved Families scores to assess its relationship to student outcomes.

The results were clear: while there have been tremendous increases in chronic absenteeism in most schools, those with strong pre-pandemic family engagement scores saw considerably lower increases. In fact, schools with a family engagement score in the 90th percentile saw an increase in chronic absenteeism that was 6.2 percentage points lower (39% smaller) than the increases seen by schools with a score in the 10th percentile. Additionally, while proficiency rates decreased across the board, we found that schools with strong family engagement saw a 27% smaller decrease in ELA proficiency, and a 37% smaller decline in math proficiency.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed glaring gaps between schools, families, and communities. The impact on student learning was devastating and remains evident across the educational sector today. During this panel session, we will provide a detailed overview of our findings and the significance of this study in both bridging the gap between families and schools, and improving student outcomes.

Authors

• Eyal Bergman, Learning Heroes

• Zenzile Saharee Riddick, Northwestern University