The Great American School Tragedy: The Coronavirus and Students

“So while parents are generally satisfied with what schools did under trying and unprecedented circumstances, they have good reason to be worried about the pandemic’s effects on their children’s academic and emotional well-being.”

The world’s school routines of 1.6 billion students and their parents were disrupted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, with 48 countries not yet reopening schools. In the United States, nearly 52 million public school students and their parents experienced this disruption, provoking a great American school tragedy.

Surprisingly, nearly 73% of American parents report they are completely or somewhat satisfied with their child’s school and other local schools, just below the 75% historical average. But parents’ reluctance to blame schools for the disruption that families experienced is only part of the story. The other part is that parents are worried about their children’s academic and emotional well-being, leading a significant number of them to exit traditional K-12 district public schools and choose other educational options for their children.

Currently, more than two-thirds (69%) are worried their child is not on track in school, far surpassing the 35% who were concerned pre-pandemic. Their worry is confirmed by recent analyses of student academic achievement before and during the pandemic.

The most recent study is by Harvard University economist Thomas Kane and colleagues at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), using reading and mathematics test score results from 2.1 million students in grades three to eight from 9,692 schools across 49 states (plus Washington, D.C.). They investigated the impact of remote and in-person instruction on widening achievement gaps by race and school poverty.