Teacher librarian roles during COVID-19 study

 A recent study examined the nature and depth of school librarians’ involvement, in a position to “lead from the center,” a term used to describe the centrality of school librarians in school spaces, during the COVID-19 pandemic as schools moved from in-person to online contexts.

The research team used a qualitative design based on semi-structured focus groups, allowing researchers to examine participants’ perceptions of their involvement during the pandemic and their perception of the knowledge and skills in their job that could support teachers and students in online teaching and learning. The study found that school librarians’ involvement was not explicitly included in district/school initiatives; however, they voluntarily engaged in informal actions aligned with the CoP framework and worked independently outside district direction to support students and teachers.

The study concludes that schools/districts can and should include school librarians in planning for technology use in teaching and learning and position them as leaders in this work. Additionally, there is evidence that online teaching and learning competencies should be intentionally embedded in preparation programs.

Wake, d., Hu, H., & Shaw, Erin. (2022). School Librarians Leading from the Center in Online Learning Contexts: Informal Communities of Practice Creating Space for Connection and Collaboration. School Library Research. https://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/pubs/slr/wake-hu-shaw.pdf

Online vs F2F learning and stress study

 High-school students who have at least some amount of in-classroom learning are less likely to report stress and worry than their peers who are learning fully online, according to a recent study. The survey of 10,000 students at 12 high schools also found that remote students were more likely to worry about their grades and less likely to have an adult to speak with about a personal issue.

Challenge Success and NBC News. (2021). Kids under pressure. Challenge Success.

https://www.challengesuccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CS-NBC-Study-Kids-Under-Pressure-PUBLISHED.pdf

Research on K12 educational practices during the pandemic

To determine effective ways to deliver education during the pandemic, agent-based computational models ran thousands of simulations of infection spread across more than 100 different school situations, varying by school level, school size, operating strategy, approach to quarantines and closures, and the local community’s COVID-19 infection rate. The results offer educators and civic leaders a set of comparable schools to their own, and provide insights beyond the heated political rhetoric about the best approaches for individual communities and schools to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 while providing meaningful learning opportunities. Key findings include:

• Precautions such as requiring masks and limiting the mixing of students outside of classes can measurably reduce infection spread in schools.
• Hybrid approaches where smaller groups of students wearing masks attend in person part time dramatically reduce the total number of likely infections in a school.
• Infection rates in elementary schools are likely to be lower than in secondary schools employing the same operating strategies.
• Part-time hybrid operation is far more effective at reducing infections than temporarily closing the school building each time an infection is detected.
• In schools that are using a part-time hybrid approach, quarantining close contacts of individuals with detected infections is sufficient to keep the school’s infection rate low, while closing entirely reduces the number of days that students can attend with no demonstrable benefit in further reducing infections.
• Schools using a hybrid approach in a community with a moderate infection rate are likely to experience little or no unplanned disruption in the number of days students can come to school.
• Regardless of precautions taken, there is a chance that a school could have an infection on its first day of operation.

Gill, B., Goyal, R., & Hotchkiss, J. (2020).  Operating schools in a pandemic.  Princeton, NJ: Mathematica.

https://mathematica.org/our-publications-and-findings/publications/operating-schools-in-a-pandemic-predicted-effects-of-opening-and-quarantining-strategies

Pandemic impact on students

 Some high-school students feel more motivated to learn in school than online and do not have equal access to remote instruction, according to a national survey administered in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, from March 26 to April 1. Results also show the toll of the pandemic on students' mental health, with one sharing it felt like life was in chaos. "Most, but not all, students had access to the technology needed for online learning; however, many found it difficult to adapt." The study recommends addressing inequities of access to technology and Internet, addressing food insecuriy, considering the whole student, improving online instruction and materials.

Croft, M. et al. (2020). HIgh school students' experiences in March during the coronavirus pandemic. Iowa City, IA: ACT Center for Equity in Learning.  https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/R1841-covid-insights.pdf 

K-12 Online Education Report

“After years of rapid growth, full-time online education for K-12 students appears to be plateauing amid ongoing concerns about poor performance, financial mismanagement, and inadequate regulation and accountability structures. A collection of reports released by the group this week says that as of the 2017-18 school year, there were 501 full-time virtual K-12 schools in the U.S., enrolling more than 297,000 students. That represents less than 1 percent enrollment growth over the previous year.” (Education Week, June 7, 2019).
Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2019. By Alex Molnar. National Education Policy Center. May 2019. 125 p.