With teachers suddenly thrust into remote learning last spring, what impact did that have on their sense of success and their students’ engagement? Researchers Matthew Kraft of Brown University and FutureEd, Nicole Simon of CUNY, and Melissa Arnold Lyon of Brown University explored the work-from-home conditions during COVID-19 in a new working paper, Sustaining a Sense of Success: The Importance of Teacher Working Conditions During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The researchers compare survey results from the fall and spring of the 2019 and 2020 school year for over 7,800 teachers across 10 districts and five charter school networks.
The authors found a number of troubling trends, providing additional evidence that remote learning only magnifies existing inequities. Learning opportunities have been significantly limited for students from low-income and Black communities. Teachers also reported that, on average, only 60 percent of their students were engaged during remote classes. Teachers in schools with concentrated poverty and a majority of Black students also reported that their students did not have adequate access to technology, making it even harder for them to engage in class.
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