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What would schools need to do to stem learning losses experienced by students with disabilities? In a recent policy brief I co-authored with Sharon Vaughn and Lynn Fuchs, written as part of the EdResearch for Recovery series, we tried to answer this question. We reviewed the most rigorous evidence we could find from special education research, drawing on a series of meta-analyses and systematic reviews, as well as reviews conducted by the What Works Clearinghouse.

As part of a pledge made after its groundbreaking 2006 report on the University’s historic ties to slavery, Brown University has fully funded a commitment to establish $10 million in endowed funds to support current and future generations of Pre-K-12 students in Providence.

Brown’s governing board, the Corporation of Brown University, authorized this month the designation of $8.1 million in unrestricted University-endowed funds to complement $1.9 million raised over the years from donor support, achieving full funding for the Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence.

Washington, DC - Today, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and Results for America released four new EdResearch for Recovery briefs from some of the country's leading researchers to help policymakers, educators, parents and others respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic:

The average student will likely return to school having retained only 63 percent to 68 percent of learning gains in reading and as little as 37 percent to 50 percent of learning gains in math compared to a typical year, according to projections in a working paper from NWEA, a nonprofit organization formerly known as the Northwest Evaluation Association, and scholars at Brown University and the University of Virginia.

The gap widens along racial and socioeconomic lines.

In-person education is crucial for so many reasons. Students attending virtual school have lower test scores and are less likely to graduate high school—and the evidence comes from planned virtual schooling. Outcomes from emergency online education may be worse. Schools provide vital social-emotional support and safety-net policies such as food access, health clinics, and washing machines. Schools help detect child abuse and neglect. A virtual alternative risks exacerbating inequalities, such as access to devices, internet connections, quiet places to work, and adults to assist children in staying on task. The difficulties are greatest for younger children: They are at a higher risk of learning loss, are in a key period for learning how to read, are less able to have online social interactions, and need more supervision at home. School is important for the careers and sanity of parents. Many essential workers must work outside the home, and need school to help care for their children.

In recent months, as schools nationwide scrambled to respond to the challenges posed by COVID-19, state and local education leaders have reached out to ask us: What does research say about how to prevent learning loss? About how to prepare teachers for distance learning? About how to address the mental health and other needs of students and educators during a crisis? About how to reduce the impact of budget cuts?

We’ve fielded dozens of questions like these from state education agencies, school districts, education organizations and advocacy groups. Education leaders and practitioners are under enormous pressure, facing some of the most complex decisions of their careers. They want to ground their decisions in the best available evidence and data but don’t have time to wade through peer-reviewed papers and randomized controlled trials to find evidence-based answers to these questions.

Illness. Family emergencies. In-service training requirements. On average, classroom teachers in the U.S. are absent for these and other reasons nearly eleven days out of a given school year. That’s between 5 and 6 percent of the school year in which coverage is needed—usually in the form of substitute teachers. The ways in which school districts handle these absences matter greatly, given observed productivity losses, lower student achievement, and discipline problems associated with substitute teaching. A new study from a trio of scholars at Brown and Syracuse Universities asks a plethora of mostly descriptive yet informative questions about this understudied area of K–12 education.

Nate Schwartz, an associate professor of the practice at the Annenberg Institute and one of the project’s lead coordinators, the partnership has already yielded three briefs advising on how to address learning loss, how to support students with disabilities, and how to provide guidance and support for students moving into post-secondary education.

“This project responds to a direct ask from education decision-makers to better synthesize research in ways that respond to the needs of the moment,” Schwartz said. “Starting with a series of crowd-sourced questions from leaders at the state and district levels, we enlisted some of the nation’s leading researchers to develop rapid-response briefs that clearly lay out the evidence base to guide current decision-making.”