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Educating the Youngest Learners During the Pandemic: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Early Childhood Education

Fri, April 9, 2:45 to 4:15pm EDT (2:45 to 4:15pm EDT), Virtual

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the critical role early childhood education programs play for children, families, and broader society. At the same time, pandemic-induced program closures, safety regulations, and digital learning have posed serious challenges for early childhood education. The current symposium explores the multifaceted impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the early childhood education programs and educators across the United States. The first paper uses administrative data from a variety of sources to offer a macro-level perspective into the pandemic’s impacts on program finances and operations across Illinois. The second paper takes a detailed look at what these types of macro-level changes mean for early educators across the state of Louisiana. Leveraging two waves of survey data collected in April and October 2020, it documents the pandemic’s impacts on educators’ financial and emotional wellbeing, as well as on teaching and learning. The third paper similarly uses surveys conducted in Summer 2020 to consider how the COVID-19 pandemic affected program operations and the wellbeing of educators in Head Start and community-based childcare settings in Ohio, Indiana, California, and Missouri. The final paper zooms in on remote learning in early elementary school classrooms in Oklahoma to consider whether in-person classroom quality observed pre-pandemic predicted teachers’ remote learning practices. Findings from these studies will be discussed in light of their implications for ongoing relief and recovery efforts targeting the early childhood education sector.

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