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Best Essays of 2020: The 15 Most Shared (and Debated) Columns About Students, Schools & Remote Learning We Published This Year

L earning loss. Virtual instruction. Family stress. Student supports. As the nation’s schools shuttered this spring, and then restructured operations for a second disrupted school year, it led to a wave of memorable essays here at The 74 about the challenges being faced by districts, the innovations being tried by teachers and the difficult reality of what it was like to be a public school student in 2020. As we then reached September, and it became apparent that the disruptions caused by coronavirus would also extend well into 2021, a new series of essays took the longer view, of how school leaders, parents and state policymakers should brace for continued hardships. Below are our 15 most memorable essays of the year; you can our latest commentary and analysis delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for The 74 Newsletter .

Student Voice: Two Weeks, Five Siblings and One Working Laptop. How I Navigated the Nation’s Largest School System in Search of an iPad — and What It Taught Me About America’s Digital Divide

Pandemic Notebook: Back in March, Brandon Yam woke up and dialed the tech department of the nation’s largest school system in New York City. For two weeks, he writes in this addition to the “Pandemic Notebook” series, Yam fruitlessly pursued the district to learn the status of his application for one of 300,000 devices available for students who lack them. Yam is a junior at highly selective Francis Lewis High School. But he also comes from a poor immigrant family in the city’s Flushing neighborhood, where his parents, a chef and a postal employee, are essential workers and he shares the family’s 10-year-old laptop with five siblings. He writes: “My siblings and I butted heads to get to the router at the center of our living room for a bar of internet connection. … I often pinched the corners of my iPhone 6 screen wide, squinting to see my trigonometry and physics teachers doing practice problems on paper.” Along the way, he learned some sobering lessons about privilege and navigating the digital divide. Now, he writes, “I sit here wondering how many other children have had to act on their own with parents at work — playing the roles of traffic cop, translator and support system.” Read Yam’s full reflection here .

“Pandemic Notebook” registered as The 74’s most read and shared essay series of the year — and we now plan on extending the effort into 2021 as the classroom disruptions caused by coronavirus continue through a second school year. A few other memorable entries from 2020:

• Student Safety: ‘A bird trapped in a golden cage’ — Amid the pandemic, one student’s story of abuse during quarantine ( Read the full essay )
• Remote Learning: Part staycation, part home detention, my life during pandemic is a study in contrasts ( Read the full essay )
• Family Stress: My mom Is 55, Black, and just returned to work in a doctor’s office in New York City. That’s why I’m scared ( Read the full essay )
• Go Deeper: See our full “Pandemic Notebook” archive

An Open Letter to Parents From a National Teacher of the Year on Tips for Remote Learning and How to Support Your School Community

Resilience: “Dear Parents/Guardians, I know that, amid all the uncertainty and fear right now, it’s overwhelming to suddenly take over as your children’s teacher. Don’t worry — they’re going to learn just fine with you in charge.” So begins an open letter from Rodney Robinson , 2019 National Teacher of the Year and a 20-year veteran educator. “But we could all use a little extra help at the moment, so here are some tips to help you get through the next few months while the education system adjusts.” From self-care for parents and patience in making decisions to academic and social-emotional support, he writes, “Remind yourself that although we are experiencing perhaps the greatest challenge since World War II, everything is going to work out. Love, empathy and compassion will get us through this pandemic… We can’t wait to see you when school opens.” Read the full letter .

Open Letter to Joe Biden — The Votes of Black and Brown Charter School Parents Matter. Ignore Us at Your Own Peril

Politics: This past spring, the Democrats formed six so-called Unity Task Forces intended to give hope and unification to the party. They may do so for some forces within the party, writes contributor Howard Fuller, but to Black and brown families who have chosen public charter schools to ensure their children get the best education possible, the makeup of the Task Force on Education is an insult . “What is grossly obvious when looking at the list of advisers creating educational policy for the Democratic Party platform is that the 3.3 million students and over 219,000 teachers attending and working in public charter schools have not been considered at all. … Joe Biden, you and your Democratic Party are sending a message to the families of public charter schools that we don’t matter because our educational choices go against the status quo … you are sending the message that you do not support the right of Latino and Black parents to make these critically important, and potentially lifesaving, choices for their children. We demand to be seen, valued and heard. We want to be more than photo ops to be used in your campaign literature. We will not accept second-class citizenship. We demand our seat at the table so you can hear and learn from our collective expertise and experiences, which come out of rich histories of struggle against oppression in this country. … You cannot ignore us and expect us to march blindly to the ballot box to support you.” Read Fuller’s open letter .

Chad Aldeman: How Much Learning Time Are Students Getting? In 7 Large School Districts, Less Than Normal — and in 3, They’re Getting More

Remote Learning: Back in August, contributor Chad Aldeman calculated that the remote learning schedule for his local public school district of Fairfax, Virginia, was offering less than half of a typical school year to his first-grade son. This trend is not unique to Fairfax: The majority of American students are experiencing either a partial school day or week, or fully virtual classes. While Aldeman doesn’t question the logic of district decisions in this regard, he wondered — collectively, how much learning time will these policies cost students? To find out, he compared the number of hours of live instruction planned this year for 5th-, 8th- and 11th-graders in 10 large districts with their state’s requirement for the amount of school time students should normally receive. Seven of the 10 — Los Angeles; Clark County, Nevada; Wake County, North Carolina; New York City; Montgomery Country, Maryland; Fairfax; and Chicago — are planning to deliver far less instructional time to students than normal. But Houston; Gwinnett County, Georgia; and Miami-Dade, Florida, are on track to surpass the minimal state requirements for instructional hours. Read the full analysis .

Derrell Bradford: Black Lives Matter and Black Education Matters Because Freedom Matters. Only When Black Folks Are Safe to Both Learn and Live Will America Be Free

Equity: The killing of George Floyd and subsequent calls to action by the Black Lives Matter movement drove home some long-ago lessons for contributor Derrell Bradford about the continuum on which race, the police and education interact. “If you think about race and education and policing as intertwined, there is also no moment when you do not see how they conspire for the betterment or detriment of the country’s children; and, for much of my adult life, the country’s Black children. … And at this moment, the overlap could not be clearer. You cannot solve a problem of Black lives with an all-lives solution. We can’t have an ‘all education matters’ approach to the challenges of Black education . One that doesn’t require states or districts to meet the needs of kids who, too, are fighting to be free and equal, but instead demands they conform to systems that have not historically worked for them in the name of the public good. All education cannot matter until Black education does. … As the only people in this nation’s history who have been both physically enslaved and intellectually starved as a result of not just sentiment, or economics, but public policy, no solution that requires the sacrifice of Black people to be successful will be a solution that works for Black people. The story of Black people is the story of our country’s efforts to live up to its founding values. Black lives matter, and Black education matters, because everyone’s freedom matters. And only when Black folks are safe to both learn, and live, will all Americans be free.” Read the full essay .

A Teacher’s View: 2020 Can Be an Opportunity for Us to Hone Our Craft and Become Better Educators. We Must Not Waste It

Instruction: In just a few short months, contributor Mandy Peyrani’s city of Houston has experienced massive challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as nurses work on the front lines battling the coronavirus, educators are on the front lines of a battle against learning loss. Teachers have always been heroes — and this moment, she writes, presents an opportunity like never before to show the world why that’s true . Despite unprecedented instructional challenges, distance learning can be viewed as a once-in-a-generation chance for teachers to hone their craft. In virtual classrooms, instructional coaches can efficiently dip in and out of lessons, offering immediate feedback, and in schools where the best educator on a given topic delivers the lesson, colleagues can witness that educator’s pedagogical techniques, gauge the response from the class and then integrate them into their own toolkits — a kind of real-time professional development. “Teachers everywhere can and should meet this moment to show just how important we are to eventually achieving normalcy amid a pandemic — and to exemplify the difference we can make, particularly for kids who need our support most.” Read the full essay .

Andrew Rotherham: From Homeschooling to the Digital Divide to Philanthropy, 10 Questions About COVID-19 and the Future of Education

2021 and Beyond: Considering how little we knew about coronavirus in May, it was striking to contributor Andrew Rotherham how much certainty there was about different aspects of the crisis playing out in real time. The education world was no exception; despite a generally haphazard response, a surprising certitude about what would work and not work or happen or not happen was pervasive . Whether it was ed tech boosters or teachers union leaders, everyone’s take seemed to line up with their priors from before the novel coronavirus struck, even as the situation seems to call for radical pragmatism. But working with stakeholders around the country made Rotherham certain only about the uncertainty. From homeschooling and the digital divide to the quality of curriculum, real estate and education philanthropy, here were 10 questions he started asking during the first wave of the pandemic. Read the full essay .

John Bailey & Olivia Shaw: How Are Families Navigating COVID-19? This Week-by-Week Survey of 500 Parents Has Some Answers

Parent Perceptions: The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the lives of millions of Americans, but for parents, it has created a unique set of challenges . Many suddenly found themselves homeschooling their kids, working from home, facing reduced hours at their jobs or, in some cases, unemployed. To better understand how parents are navigating these challenges, the American Enterprise Institute is analyzing weekly surveys, conducted by Echelon Insights, of 500 public school parents. The results of these surveys, which began in April, provide a unique insight into the concerns and experiences of parents through their evolving responses to COVID-19, and can help leaders with their plans for reopening schools. Contributors John Bailey and Olivia Shaw break down the top findings. Read the full analysis .

Marguerite Roza & Katie Silberstein: Pandemic-Fueled Financial Turbulence Is Hitting School Districts Across the Country. 5 Big Things to Watch For

School Finances: It’s tough to overstate just how much the pandemic is asking of school districts and their financial leaders, write contributors Marguerite Roza and Katie Silberstein of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab. They’re being asked to budget in the face of whiplash-inducing on-again, off-again reopening scenarios — all set against a backdrop of collapsing state revenues for K-12 education. At Edunomics Lab, they’ve been tracking districts’ budget decisions in the wake of the pandemic-triggered financial upheaval, and while their effort doesn’t provide an exhaustive national picture, it does offer a snapshot of a fast-moving situation . What they’re seeing are some short-term district actions that could have significant — and, in some cases, troubling — long-term ramifications. Among these are awarding emergency financial powers, tapping reserve funds and locking in spending for services that students can’t access while learning at home. “While none of us wished for this wildly uncertain future,” they write, “here we are. The essential job description for district financial leaders continues to be one of leveraging limited resources to maximize student learning. But doing that job is now immensely more complicated than at any time in recent history.” Read the full analysis .

Conor Williams: Coronavirus Pandemic Reveals the Reality — and the Risk — of America’s Child Safety Net Being Its Public Schools

School Communities: The angst that accompanied the decision by many superintendents to close schools in the spring — especially in big urban centers like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles — was not all about lost learning. If the calculation were merely about missed classroom time vs. public health and safety, the choice would have been simpler. But as contributor Conor Williams explains, our public schools, which serve a majority of the nation’s low-income students, are much more than learning centers. They are where students are fed, receive medical, dental and mental health services and even wash their clothes . As Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a press conference in March, “Public education is also this state’s child care system. It is this nation’s child care system,” meaning schools allow parents to work and society to function. The coronavirus crisis, Williams writes, “illuminates just how much we now ask of our public education system. That’s the real question. As Americans spend the next few weeks managing their isolated, individual anxieties, it’s worth asking whether the cancellation of classes should mean that large numbers of children go without food.” Read the full essay .

David Steiner & Daniel Weisberg: When Students Go Back to School, Too Many Will Start the Year Behind. Here’s How to Catch Them Up — in Real Time

Learning Loss: It’s September 2021. You are a 10th-grade English teacher. Your curriculum says teach George Orwell’s novel 1984 , but half your class lacks the vocabulary and interpretive skills to read the book. So you ask those students to read Lois Lowry’s The Giver , a seventh-grade text, instead. Versions of this scene will play out in thousands of classrooms across the country next year, as students who have missed months of learning time finally return to classrooms far behind academically. Giving those students lower-level work to help them catch up — or, in the more extreme version, asking them to repeat an entire grade — has good intentions and a certain logic. It’s also largely ineffective, write contributors David Steiner and Daniel Weisberg; rather than delay access to grade-level material for students who’ve fallen behind, accelerate it, doing focused work with the less-prepared students before the whole class encounters the text. Done right, these interventions can give students who are lagging the ability to handle grade-level assignments at the same time as their peers. ”Even in the best-case scenario, mastering an entirely new approach to catching students up will take time. That’s okay. Just trying to give every child a real chance to do grade-level work, however imperfectly, will lead to far better results than picking and choosing who gets those opportunities. … In the aftermath of this crisis, schools will have an opportunity to provide students, especially marginalized students, with far better academic experiences than they did before. It starts with a commitment to accelerating learning instead of ratcheting it ever downward.” Read the full essay .

Morgan Polikoff & Daniel Silver: Getting Testy About Testing — K-12 Parents Support Canceling Standardized Testing this Spring. That Might Not Be a Good Idea

Accountability: In March, with students suddenly learning from home, the U.S. Department of Education granted states a blanket exemption from standardized testing. The decision was relatively straightforward, as there was virtually no infrastructure in place for securely administering high-stakes exams remotely. But with many schools at least partially reopening in the fall, deciding what to do about standardized testing this coming spring is anything but . It’s a complex issue, with historically stressful circumstances for students and teachers on one side and crucially important data on the other. One thing, though is clear, write contributors Daniel Silver and Morgan Polikoff of the University of Southern California: Parents want the tests canceled. The Understanding America Study, administered by the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research to a nationally representative sample of 1,335 U.S. K-12 households, found the proportion who “support” or “strongly support” such a move has risen steadily from 43 percent in mid-April to 64 percent in mid-October. Read their full analysis of why canceling exams, even with all their challenges, might not be a good idea .

Mahnaz Charania & Julia Freeland Fisher: Mapping Students’ Support Networks Is Key to Supporting Their Remote Learning Success. How Schools Can Make That Happen

Student Supports: Despite educators’ valiant efforts this past spring, many students still struggled to connect to their peers, teachers and counselors. Some went missing from virtual classes altogether, leaving teachers and principals scrambling to find them. Others, particularly middle and high school students, reported a troubling lack of people to turn to for academic and emotional help . These levels of disconnection threaten both students’ well-being and their academic progress. Surrounding students with an interconnected web of positive relationships is the foundation of healthy youth development, write contributors Mahnaz Charania and Julia Freeland Fisher. And within that web, access to what researchers dub a “person on the ground” — a mentor, tutor, parent or neighbor who is physically present to offer support — is a proven, critical ingredient to successful distance learning. Schools that understand the quantity and quality of relationships at their students’ disposal will be well positioned to sustain their well-being and academic progress in the coming year, whether campuses open or remain closed. Read the full analysis .

Kimberly A. Smith: A Call to Action — Black Educators Need White Co-Conspirators to Combat Racism in Schools and Empower Our Students to Succeed

Racism: The image of George Floyd gasping for air held symbolic resonance for contributor Kimberly A. Smith — racism in America’s schools, she writes, is suffocating Black students. But as a Black woman working in education, she knows the system cannot be changed solely by Black leaders or educators; it is centered in whiteness, so transformation resides in the privilege afforded to white leaders, from policymakers to nonprofit executives to superintendents. Hence, the need for “co-conspirators” willing to be unapologetically anti-racist, committed to listening and learning, willing to cede power while using privilege to invite others to lead , uncompromising in providing high-quality education for Black children and prepared to take political risks to advance their needs. The work, she says, must be done in full and equitable partnership with Black leaders in order to shape the pillars of an education institution that values and celebrates Black students. “I seek to identify a national coalition of white education co-conspirators willing to use their privilege to catalyze anti-racist actions in partnership, advocacy and support of Black leaders, with the goal of creating the conditions for Black students to thrive.” Read the full essay .

A Principal’s View: Social-Emotional Learning Is More Important Than Ever. Here’s How We Do It Virtually at My School

Social-Emotional Learning: As Principal Sara Carlson Striegel prepared to launch the new virtual school year in August, they were working to ensure students have access to high-quality academic resources and teacher guidance. But just as important was for students and teachers to come together in support of their mental health. Last fall, the school launched a social-emotional learning program, Compass Circles, which provides a framework for teachers to host regular meetings with small groups of students. When in person, participants sit in a circle and go through structured rituals where they discuss how they are doing emotionally and support their peers and colleagues in doing the same. When schools began shutting down last spring, they moved their Circle practice online using video conferencing platforms . Once a week, third- through fifth-graders join a Zoom room with other members of their Circle and go through the same sequence they would have in person. From deep-breathing exercises and emotional check-ins to “badge work” and a closing cheer, Principal Striegel describes how this SEL practice works online and the benefits it provides in keeping the school community healthy and connected. Read the full essay .

Go Deeper: See all our top coverage from 2020 in The 74’s ‘Best Of’ Roundups . Get our latest news, commentary and exclusives delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for The 74 Newsletter .

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Covid-19’s Impact on Students’ Academic and Mental Well-Being

The pandemic has revealed—and exacerbated—inequities that hold many students back. Here’s how teachers can help.

The pandemic has shone a spotlight on inequality in America: School closures and social isolation have affected all students, but particularly those living in poverty. Adding to the damage to their learning, a mental health crisis is emerging as many students have lost access to services that were offered by schools.

No matter what form school takes when the new year begins—whether students and teachers are back in the school building together or still at home—teachers will face a pressing issue: How can they help students recover and stay on track throughout the year even as their lives are likely to continue to be disrupted by the pandemic?

New research provides insights about the scope of the problem—as well as potential solutions.

The Achievement Gap Is Likely to Widen

A new study suggests that the coronavirus will undo months of academic gains, leaving many students behind. The study authors project that students will start the new school year with an average of 66 percent of the learning gains in reading and 44 percent of the learning gains in math, relative to the gains for a typical school year. But the situation is worse on the reading front, as the researchers also predict that the top third of students will make gains, possibly because they’re likely to continue reading with their families while schools are closed, thus widening the achievement gap.

To make matters worse, “few school systems provide plans to support students who need accommodations or other special populations,” the researchers point out in the study, potentially impacting students with special needs and English language learners.

Of course, the idea that over the summer students forget some of what they learned in school isn’t new. But there’s a big difference between summer learning loss and pandemic-related learning loss: During the summer, formal schooling stops, and learning loss happens at roughly the same rate for all students, the researchers point out. But instruction has been uneven during the pandemic, as some students have been able to participate fully in online learning while others have faced obstacles—such as lack of internet access—that have hindered their progress.

In the study, researchers analyzed a national sample of 5 million students in grades 3–8 who took the MAP Growth test, a tool schools use to assess students’ reading and math growth throughout the school year. The researchers compared typical growth in a standard-length school year to projections based on students being out of school from mid-March on. To make those projections, they looked at research on the summer slide, weather- and disaster-related closures (such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina), and absenteeism.

The researchers predict that, on average, students will experience substantial drops in reading and math, losing roughly three months’ worth of gains in reading and five months’ worth of gains in math. For Megan Kuhfeld, the lead author of the study, the biggest takeaway isn’t that learning loss will happen—that’s a given by this point—but that students will come back to school having declined at vastly different rates.

“We might be facing unprecedented levels of variability come fall,” Kuhfeld told me. “Especially in school districts that serve families with lots of different needs and resources. Instead of having students reading at a grade level above or below in their classroom, teachers might have kids who slipped back a lot versus kids who have moved forward.” 

Disproportionate Impact on Students Living in Poverty and Students of Color

Horace Mann once referred to schools as the “great equalizers,” yet the pandemic threatens to expose the underlying inequities of remote learning. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center analysis , 17 percent of teenagers have difficulty completing homework assignments because they do not have reliable access to a computer or internet connection. For Black students, the number spikes to 25 percent.

“There are many reasons to believe the Covid-19 impacts might be larger for children in poverty and children of color,” Kuhfeld wrote in the study. Their families suffer higher rates of infection, and the economic burden disproportionately falls on Black and Hispanic parents, who are less likely to be able to work from home during the pandemic.

Although children are less likely to become infected with Covid-19, the adult mortality rates, coupled with the devastating economic consequences of the pandemic, will likely have an indelible impact on their well-being.

Impacts on Students’ Mental Health

That impact on well-being may be magnified by another effect of school closures: Schools are “the de facto mental health system for many children and adolescents,” providing mental health services to 57 percent of adolescents who need care, according to the authors of a recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics . School closures may be especially disruptive for children from lower-income families, who are disproportionately likely to receive mental health services exclusively from schools.

“The Covid-19 pandemic may worsen existing mental health problems and lead to more cases among children and adolescents because of the unique combination of the public health crisis, social isolation, and economic recession,” write the authors of that study.

A major concern the researchers point to: Since most mental health disorders begin in childhood, it is essential that any mental health issues be identified early and treated. Left untreated, they can lead to serious health and emotional problems. In the short term, video conferencing may be an effective way to deliver mental health services to children.

Mental health and academic achievement are linked, research shows. Chronic stress changes the chemical and physical structure of the brain, impairing cognitive skills like attention, concentration, memory, and creativity. “You see deficits in your ability to regulate emotions in adaptive ways as a result of stress,” said Cara Wellman, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University in a 2014 interview . In her research, Wellman discovered that chronic stress causes the connections between brain cells to shrink in mice, leading to cognitive deficiencies in the prefrontal cortex. 

While trauma-informed practices were widely used before the pandemic, they’re likely to be even more integral as students experience economic hardships and grieve the loss of family and friends. Teachers can look to schools like Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville, Tennessee, as a model for trauma-informed practices . 

3 Ways Teachers Can Prepare

When schools reopen, many students may be behind, compared to a typical school year, so teachers will need to be very methodical about checking in on their students—not just academically but also emotionally. Some may feel prepared to tackle the new school year head-on, but others will still be recovering from the pandemic and may still be reeling from trauma, grief, and anxiety. 

Here are a few strategies teachers can prioritize when the new school year begins:

• Focus on relationships first. Fear and anxiety about the pandemic—coupled with uncertainty about the future—can be disruptive to a student’s ability to come to school ready to learn. Teachers can act as a powerful buffer against the adverse effects of trauma by helping to establish a safe and supportive environment for learning. From morning meetings to regular check-ins with students, strategies that center around relationship-building will be needed in the fall.
• Strengthen diagnostic testing. Educators should prepare for a greater range of variability in student learning than they would expect in a typical school year. Low-stakes assessments such as exit tickets and quizzes can help teachers gauge how much extra support students will need, how much time should be spent reviewing last year’s material, and what new topics can be covered.
• Differentiate instruction—particularly for vulnerable students. For the vast majority of schools, the abrupt transition to online learning left little time to plan a strategy that could adequately meet every student’s needs—in a recent survey by the Education Trust, only 24 percent of parents said that their child’s school was providing materials and other resources to support students with disabilities, and a quarter of non-English-speaking students were unable to obtain materials in their own language. Teachers can work to ensure that the students on the margins get the support they need by taking stock of students’ knowledge and skills, and differentiating instruction by giving them choices, connecting the curriculum to their interests, and providing them multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning.

Coronavirus and schools: Reflections on education one year into the pandemic

Subscribe to the center for universal education bulletin, daphna bassok , daphna bassok nonresident senior fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy lauren bauer , lauren bauer fellow - economic studies , associate director - the hamilton project stephanie riegg cellini , stephanie riegg cellini nonresident senior fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy helen shwe hadani , helen shwe hadani former brookings expert michael hansen , michael hansen senior fellow - brown center on education policy , the herman and george r. brown chair - governance studies douglas n. harris , douglas n. harris nonresident senior fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy , professor and chair, department of economics - tulane university brad olsen , brad olsen senior fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education richard v. reeves , richard v. reeves president - american institute for boys and men jon valant , and jon valant director - brown center on education policy , senior fellow - governance studies kenneth k. wong kenneth k. wong nonresident senior fellow - governance studies , brown center on education policy.

March 12, 2021

• 11 min read

One year ago, the World Health Organization declared the spread of COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic. Reacting to the virus, schools at every level were sent scrambling. Institutions across the world switched to virtual learning, with teachers, students, and local leaders quickly adapting to an entirely new way of life. A year later, schools are beginning to reopen, the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill has been passed, and a sense of normalcy seems to finally be in view; in President Joe Biden’s speech last night, he spoke of “finding light in the darkness.” But it’s safe to say that COVID-19 will end up changing education forever, casting a critical light on everything from equity issues to ed tech to school financing.

Below, Brookings experts examine how the pandemic upended the education landscape in the past year, what it’s taught us about schooling, and where we go from here.

In the United States, we tend to focus on the educating roles of public schools, largely ignoring the ways in which schools provide free and essential care for children while their parents work. When COVID-19 shuttered in-person schooling, it eliminated this subsidized child care for many families. It created intense stress for working parents, especially for mothers who left the workforce at a high rate.

The pandemic also highlighted the arbitrary distinction we make between the care and education of elementary school children and children aged 0 to 5 . Despite parents having the same need for care, and children learning more in those earliest years than at any other point, public investments in early care and education are woefully insufficient. The child-care sector was hit so incredibly hard by COVID-19. The recent passage of the American Rescue Plan is a meaningful but long-overdue investment, but much more than a one-time infusion of funds is needed. Hopefully, the pandemic represents a turning point in how we invest in the care and education of young children—and, in turn, in families and society.

Congressional reauthorization of Pandemic EBT for  this school year , its  extension  in the American Rescue Plan (including for summer months), and its place as a  central plank  in the Biden administration’s anti-hunger agenda is well-warranted and evidence based. But much more needs to be done to ramp up the program–even  today , six months after its reauthorization, about half of states do not have a USDA-approved implementation plan.

In contrast, enrollment is up in for-profit and online colleges. The research repeatedly finds weaker student outcomes for these types of institutions relative to community colleges, and many students who enroll in them will be left with more debt than they can reasonably repay. The pandemic and recession have created significant challenges for students, affecting college choices and enrollment decisions in the near future. Ultimately, these short-term choices can have long-term consequences for lifetime earnings and debt that could impact this generation of COVID-19-era college students for years to come.

Many U.S. educationalists are drawing on the “build back better” refrain and calling for the current crisis to be leveraged as a unique opportunity for educators, parents, and policymakers to fully reimagine education systems that are designed for the 21st rather than the 20th century, as we highlight in a recent Brookings report on education reform . An overwhelming body of evidence points to play as the best way to equip children with a broad set of flexible competencies and support their socioemotional development. A recent article in The Atlantic shared parent anecdotes of children playing games like “CoronaBall” and “Social-distance” tag, proving that play permeates children’s lives—even in a pandemic.

Tests play a critical role in our school system. Policymakers and the public rely on results to measure school performance and reveal whether all students are equally served. But testing has also attracted an inordinate share of criticism, alleging that test pressures undermine teacher autonomy and stress students. Much of this criticism will wither away with  different  formats. The current form of standardized testing—annual, paper-based, multiple-choice tests administered over the course of a week of school—is outdated. With widespread student access to computers (now possible due to the pandemic), states can test students more frequently, but in smaller time blocks that render the experience nearly invisible. Computer adaptive testing can match paper’s reliability and provides a shorter feedback loop to boot. No better time than the present to make this overdue change.

A third push for change will come from the outside in. COVID-19 has reminded us not only of how integral schools are, but how intertwined they are with the rest of society. This means that upcoming schooling changes will also be driven by the effects of COVID-19 on the world around us. In particular, parents will be working more from home, using the same online tools that students can use to learn remotely. This doesn’t mean a mass push for homeschooling, but it probably does mean that hybrid learning is here to stay.

I am hoping we will use this forced rupture in the fabric of schooling to jettison ineffective aspects of education, more fully embrace what we know works, and be bold enough to look for new solutions to the educational problems COVID-19 has illuminated.

There is already a large gender gap in education in the U.S., including in  high school graduation rates , and increasingly in college-going and college completion. While the pandemic appears to be hurting women more than men in the labor market, the opposite seems to be true in education.

Looking through a policy lens, though, I’m struck by the timing and what that timing might mean for the future of education. Before the pandemic, enthusiasm for the education reforms that had defined the last few decades—choice and accountability—had waned. It felt like a period between reform eras, with the era to come still very unclear. Then COVID-19 hit, and it coincided with a national reckoning on racial injustice and a wake-up call about the fragility of our democracy. I think it’s helped us all see how connected the work of schools is with so much else in American life.

We’re in a moment when our long-lasting challenges have been laid bare, new challenges have emerged, educators and parents are seeing and experimenting with things for the first time, and the political environment has changed (with, for example, a new administration and changing attitudes on federal spending). I still don’t know where K-12 education is headed, but there’s no doubt that a pivot is underway.

• First, state and local leaders must leverage commitment and shared goals on equitable learning opportunities to support student success for all.
• Second, align and use federal, state, and local resources to implement high-leverage strategies that have proven to accelerate learning for diverse learners and disrupt the correlation between zip code and academic outcomes.
• Third, student-centered priority will require transformative leadership to dismantle the one-size-fits-all delivery rule and institute incentive-based practices for strong performance at all levels.
• Fourth, the reconfigured system will need to activate public and parental engagement to strengthen its civic and social capacity.
• Finally, public education can no longer remain insulated from other policy sectors, especially public health, community development, and social work.

These efforts will strengthen the capacity and prepare our education system for the next crisis—whatever it may be.

Higher Education K-12 Education

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Writing about COVID-19 in a college admission essay

by: Venkates Swaminathan | Updated: September 14, 2020

Print article

For students applying to college using the CommonApp, there are several different places where students and counselors can address the pandemic’s impact. The different sections have differing goals. You must understand how to use each section for its appropriate use.

The CommonApp COVID-19 question

First, the CommonApp this year has an additional question specifically about COVID-19 :

Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces. Please use this space to describe how these events have impacted you.

This question seeks to understand the adversity that students may have had to face due to the pandemic, the move to online education, or the shelter-in-place rules. You don’t have to answer this question if the impact on you wasn’t particularly severe. Some examples of things students should discuss include:

• The student or a family member had COVID-19 or suffered other illnesses due to confinement during the pandemic.
• The candidate had to deal with personal or family issues, such as abusive living situations or other safety concerns
• The student suffered from a lack of internet access and other online learning challenges.
• Students who dealt with problems registering for or taking standardized tests and AP exams.

Jeff Schiffman of the Tulane University admissions office has a blog about this section. He recommends students ask themselves several questions as they go about answering this section:

• Are my experiences different from others’?
• Are there noticeable changes on my transcript?
• Am I aware of my privilege?
• Am I specific? Am I explaining rather than complaining?
• Is this information being included elsewhere on my application?

If you do answer this section, be brief and to-the-point.

Counselor recommendations and school profiles

Second, counselors will, in their counselor forms and school profiles on the CommonApp, address how the school handled the pandemic and how it might have affected students, specifically as it relates to:

• Grading scales and policies
• Graduation requirements
• Instructional methods
• Schedules and course offerings
• Testing requirements
• Your academic calendar
• Other extenuating circumstances

Students don’t have to mention these matters in their application unless something unusual happened.

Writing about COVID-19 in your main essay

Write about your experiences during the pandemic in your main college essay if your experience is personal, relevant, and the most important thing to discuss in your college admission essay. That you had to stay home and study online isn’t sufficient, as millions of other students faced the same situation. But sometimes, it can be appropriate and helpful to write about something related to the pandemic in your essay. For example:

• One student developed a website for a local comic book store. The store might not have survived without the ability for people to order comic books online. The student had a long-standing relationship with the store, and it was an institution that created a community for students who otherwise felt left out.
• One student started a YouTube channel to help other students with academic subjects he was very familiar with and began tutoring others.
• Some students used their extra time that was the result of the stay-at-home orders to take online courses pursuing topics they are genuinely interested in or developing new interests, like a foreign language or music.

Experiences like this can be good topics for the CommonApp essay as long as they reflect something genuinely important about the student. For many students whose lives have been shaped by this pandemic, it can be a critical part of their college application.

Want more? Read 6 ways to improve a college essay , What the &%$! should I write about in my college essay , and Just how important is a college admissions essay? .

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Coronavirus: My Experience During the Pandemic

Anastasiya Kandratsenka George Washington High School, Class of 2021

At this point in time there shouldn't be a single person who doesn't know about the coronavirus, or as they call it, COVID-19. The coronavirus is a virus that originated in China, reached the U.S. and eventually spread all over the world by January of 2020. The common symptoms of the virus include shortness of breath, chills, sore throat, headache, loss of taste and smell, runny nose, vomiting and nausea. As it has been established, it might take up to 14 days for the symptoms to show. On top of that, the virus is also highly contagious putting all age groups at risk. The elderly and individuals with chronic diseases such as pneumonia or heart disease are in the top risk as the virus attacks the immune system. 

The virus first appeared on the news and media platforms in the month of January of this year. The United States and many other countries all over the globe saw no reason to panic as it seemed that the virus presented no possible threat. Throughout the next upcoming months, the virus began to spread very quickly, alerting health officials not only in the U.S., but all over the world. As people started digging into the origin of the virus, it became clear that it originated in China. Based on everything scientists have looked at, the virus came from a bat that later infected other animals, making it way to humans. As it goes for the United States, the numbers started rising quickly, resulting in the cancellation of sports events, concerts, large gatherings and then later on schools. 

As it goes personally for me, my school was shut down on March 13th. The original plan was to put us on a two weeks leave, returning on March 30th but, as the virus spread rapidly and things began escalating out of control very quickly, President Trump announced a state of emergency and the whole country was put on quarantine until April 30th. At that point, schools were officially shut down for the rest of the school year. Distanced learning was introduced, online classes were established, a new norm was put in place. As for the School District of Philadelphia distanced learning and online classes began on May 4th. From that point on I would have classes four times a week, from 8AM till 3PM. Virtual learning was something that I never had to experience and encounter before. It was all new and different for me, just as it was for millions of students all over the United States. We were forced to transfer from physically attending school, interacting with our peers and teachers, participating in fun school events and just being in a classroom setting, to just looking at each other through a computer screen in a number of days. That is something that we all could have never seen coming, it was all so sudden and new. 

My experience with distanced learning was not very great. I get distracted very easily and   find it hard to concentrate, especially when it comes to school. In a classroom I was able to give my full attention to what was being taught, I was all there. However, when we had the online classes, I could not focus and listen to what my teachers were trying to get across. I got distracted very easily, missing out on important information that was being presented. My entire family which consists of five members, were all home during the quarantine. I have two little siblings who are very loud and demanding, so I’m sure it can be imagined how hard it was for me to concentrate on school and do what was asked of me when I had these two running around the house. On top of school, I also had to find a job and work 35 hours a week to support my family during the pandemic. My mother lost her job for the time being and my father was only able to work from home. As we have a big family, the income of my father was not enough. I made it my duty to help out and support our family as much as I could: I got a job at a local supermarket and worked there as a cashier for over two months. 

While I worked at the supermarket, I was exposed to dozens of people every day and with all the protection that was implemented to protect the customers and the workers, I was lucky enough to not get the virus. As I say that, my grandparents who do not even live in the U.S. were not so lucky. They got the virus and spent over a month isolated, in a hospital bed, with no one by their side. Our only way of communicating was through the phone and if lucky, we got to talk once a week. Speaking for my family, that was the worst and scariest part of the whole situation. Luckily for us, they were both able to recover completely. 

As the pandemic is somewhat under control, the spread of the virus has slowed down. We’re now living in the new norm. We no longer view things the same, the way we did before. Large gatherings and activities that require large groups to come together are now unimaginable! Distanced learning is what we know, not to mention the importance of social distancing and having to wear masks anywhere and everywhere we go. This is the new norm now and who knows when and if ever we’ll be able go back to what we knew before. This whole experience has made me realize that we, as humans, tend to take things for granted and don’t value what we have until it is taken away from us. 

Articles in this Volume

[tid]: dedication, [tid]: new tools for a new house: transformations for justice and peace in and beyond covid-19, [tid]: black lives matter, intersectionality, and lgbtq rights now, [tid]: the voice of asian american youth: what goes untold, [tid]: beyond words: reimagining education through art and activism, [tid]: voice(s) of a black man, [tid]: embodied learning and community resilience, [tid]: re-imagining professional learning in a time of social isolation: storytelling as a tool for healing and professional growth, [tid]: reckoning: what does it mean to look forward and back together as critical educators, [tid]: leader to leaders: an indigenous school leader’s advice through storytelling about grief and covid-19, [tid]: finding hope, healing and liberation beyond covid-19 within a context of captivity and carcerality, [tid]: flux leadership: leading for justice and peace in & beyond covid-19, [tid]: flux leadership: insights from the (virtual) field, [tid]: hard pivot: compulsory crisis leadership emerges from a space of doubt, [tid]: and how are the children, [tid]: real talk: teaching and leading while bipoc, [tid]: systems of emotional support for educators in crisis, [tid]: listening leadership: the student voices project, [tid]: global engagement, perspective-sharing, & future-seeing in & beyond a global crisis, [tid]: teaching and leadership during covid-19: lessons from lived experiences, [tid]: crisis leadership in independent schools - styles & literacies, [tid]: rituals, routines and relationships: high school athletes and coaches in flux, [tid]: superintendent back-to-school welcome 2020, [tid]: mitigating summer learning loss in philadelphia during covid-19: humble attempts from the field, [tid]: untitled, [tid]: the revolution will not be on linkedin: student activism and neoliberalism, [tid]: why radical self-care cannot wait: strategies for black women leaders now, [tid]: from emergency response to critical transformation: online learning in a time of flux, [tid]: illness methodology for and beyond the covid era, [tid]: surviving black girl magic, the work, and the dissertation, [tid]: cancelled: the old student experience, [tid]: lessons from liberia: integrating theatre for development and youth development in uncertain times, [tid]: designing a more accessible future: learning from covid-19, [tid]: the construct of standards-based education, [tid]: teachers leading teachers to prepare for back to school during covid, [tid]: using empathy to cross the sea of humanity, [tid]: (un)doing college, community, and relationships in the time of coronavirus, [tid]: have we learned nothing, [tid]: choosing growth amidst chaos, [tid]: living freire in pandemic….participatory action research and democratizing knowledge at knowledgedemocracy.org, [tid]: philly students speak: voices of learning in pandemics, [tid]: the power of will: a letter to my descendant, [tid]: photo essays with students, [tid]: unity during a global pandemic: how the fight for racial justice made us unite against two diseases, [tid]: educational changes caused by the pandemic and other related social issues, [tid]: online learning during difficult times, [tid]: fighting crisis: a student perspective, [tid]: the destruction of soil rooted with culture, [tid]: a demand for change, [tid]: education through experience in and beyond the pandemics, [tid]: the pandemic diaries, [tid]: all for one and 4 for $4, [tid]: tiktok activism, [tid]: why digital learning may be the best option for next year, [tid]: my 2020 teen experience, [tid]: living between two pandemics, [tid]: journaling during isolation: the gold standard of coronavirus, [tid]: sailing through uncertainty, [tid]: what i wish my teachers knew, [tid]: youthing in pandemic while black, [tid]: the pain inflicted by indifference, [tid]: education during the pandemic, [tid]: the good, the bad, and the year 2020, [tid]: racism fueled pandemic, [tid]: coronavirus: my experience during the pandemic, [tid]: the desensitization of a doomed generation, [tid]: a philadelphia war-zone, [tid]: the attack of the covid monster, [tid]: back-to-school: covid-19 edition, [tid]: the unexpected war, [tid]: learning outside of the classroom, [tid]: why we should learn about college financial aid in school: a student perspective, [tid]: flying the plane as we go: building the future through a haze, [tid]: my covid experience in the age of technology, [tid]: we, i, and they, [tid]: learning your a, b, cs during a pandemic, [tid]: quarantine: a musical, [tid]: what it’s like being a high school student in 2020, [tid]: everything happens for a reason, [tid]: blacks live matter – a sobering and empowering reality among my peers, [tid]: the mental health of a junior during covid-19 outbreaks, [tid]: a year of change, [tid]: covid-19 and school, [tid]: the virtues and vices of virtual learning, [tid]: college decisions and the year 2020: a virtual rollercoaster, [tid]: quarantine thoughts, [tid]: quarantine through generation z, [tid]: attending online school during a pandemic.

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Essays reveal experiences during pandemic, unrest.

Field study students share their thoughts 

Members of Advanced Field Study, a select group of Social Ecology students who are chosen from a pool of applicants to participate in a year-long field study experience and course, had their internships and traditional college experience cut short this year. During our final quarter of the year together, during which we met weekly for two hours via Zoom, we discussed their reactions as the world fell apart around them. First came the pandemic and social distancing, then came the death of George Floyd and the response of the Black Lives Matter movement, both of which were imprinted on the lives of these students. This year was anything but dull, instead full of raw emotion and painful realizations of the fragility of the human condition and the extent to which we need one another. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for our students to chronicle their experiences — the good and the bad, the lessons learned, and ways in which they were forever changed by the events of the past four months. I invited all of my students to write an essay describing the ways in which these times had impacted their learning and their lives during or after their time at UCI. These are their voices. — Jessica Borelli , associate professor of psychological science

Becoming Socially Distant Through Technology: The Tech Contagion

The current state of affairs put the world on pause, but this pause gave me time to reflect on troubling matters. Time that so many others like me probably also desperately needed to heal without even knowing it. Sometimes it takes one’s world falling apart for the most beautiful mosaic to be built up from the broken pieces of wreckage. 

As the school year was coming to a close and summer was edging around the corner, I began reflecting on how people will spend their summer breaks if the country remains in its current state throughout the sunny season. Aside from living in the sunny beach state of California where people love their vitamin D and social festivities, I think some of the most damaging effects Covid-19 will have on us all has more to do with social distancing policies than with any inconveniences we now face due to the added precautions, despite how devastating it may feel that Disneyland is closed to all the local annual passholders or that the beaches may not be filled with sun-kissed California girls this summer. During this unprecedented time, I don’t think we should allow the rare opportunity we now have to be able to watch in real time how the effects of social distancing can impact our mental health. Before the pandemic, many of us were already engaging in a form of social distancing. Perhaps not the exact same way we are now practicing, but the technology that we have developed over recent years has led to a dramatic decline in our social contact and skills in general. 

The debate over whether we should remain quarantined during this time is not an argument I am trying to pursue. Instead, I am trying to encourage us to view this event as a unique time to study how social distancing can affect people’s mental health over a long period of time and with dramatic results due to the magnitude of the current issue. Although Covid-19 is new and unfamiliar to everyone, the isolation and separation we now face is not. For many, this type of behavior has already been a lifestyle choice for a long time. However, the current situation we all now face has allowed us to gain a more personal insight on how that experience feels due to the current circumstances. Mental illness continues to remain a prevalent problem throughout the world and for that reason could be considered a pandemic of a sort in and of itself long before the Covid-19 outbreak. 

One parallel that can be made between our current restrictions and mental illness reminds me in particular of hikikomori culture. Hikikomori is a phenomenon that originated in Japan but that has since spread internationally, now prevalent in many parts of the world, including the United States. Hikikomori is not a mental disorder but rather can appear as a symptom of a disorder. People engaging in hikikomori remain confined in their houses and often their rooms for an extended period of time, often over the course of many years. This action of voluntary confinement is an extreme form of withdrawal from society and self-isolation. Hikikomori affects a large percent of people in Japan yearly and the problem continues to become more widespread with increasing occurrences being reported around the world each year. While we know this problem has continued to increase, the exact number of people practicing hikikomori is unknown because there is a large amount of stigma surrounding the phenomenon that inhibits people from seeking help. This phenomenon cannot be written off as culturally defined because it is spreading to many parts of the world. With the technology we now have, and mental health issues on the rise and expected to increase even more so after feeling the effects of the current pandemic, I think we will definitely see a rise in the number of people engaging in this social isolation, especially with the increase in legitimate fears we now face that appear to justify the previously considered irrational fears many have associated with social gatherings. We now have the perfect sample of people to provide answers about how this form of isolation can affect people over time. 

Likewise, with the advancements we have made to technology not only is it now possible to survive without ever leaving the confines of your own home, but it also makes it possible for us to “fulfill” many of our social interaction needs. It’s very unfortunate, but in addition to the success we have gained through our advancements we have also experienced a great loss. With new technology, I am afraid that we no longer engage with others the way we once did. Although some may say the advancements are for the best, I wonder, at what cost? It is now commonplace to see a phone on the table during a business meeting or first date. Even worse is how many will feel inclined to check their phone during important or meaningful interactions they are having with people face to face. While our technology has become smarter, we have become dumber when it comes to social etiquette. As we all now constantly carry a mini computer with us everywhere we go, we have in essence replaced our best friends. We push others away subconsciously as we reach for our phones during conversations. We no longer remember phone numbers because we have them all saved in our phones. We find comfort in looking down at our phones during those moments of free time we have in public places before our meetings begin. These same moments were once the perfect time to make friends, filled with interactive banter. We now prefer to stare at other people on our phones for hours on end, and often live a sedentary lifestyle instead of going out and interacting with others ourselves. 

These are just a few among many issues the advances to technology led to long ago. We have forgotten how to practice proper tech-etiquette and we have been inadvertently practicing social distancing long before it was ever required. Now is a perfect time for us to look at the society we have become and how we incurred a different kind of pandemic long before the one we currently face. With time, as the social distancing regulations begin to lift, people may possibly begin to appreciate life and connecting with others more than they did before as a result of the unique experience we have shared in together while apart.

Maybe the world needed a time-out to remember how to appreciate what it had but forgot to experience. Life is to be lived through experience, not to be used as a pastime to observe and compare oneself with others. I’ll leave you with a simple reminder: never forget to take care and love more because in a world where life is often unpredictable and ever changing, one cannot risk taking time or loved ones for granted. With that, I bid you farewell, fellow comrades, like all else, this too shall pass, now go live your best life!

Privilege in a Pandemic 

Covid-19 has impacted millions of Americans who have been out of work for weeks, thus creating a financial burden. Without a job and the certainty of knowing when one will return to work, paying rent and utilities has been a problem for many. With unemployment on the rise, relying on unemployment benefits has become a necessity for millions of people. According to the Washington Post , unemployment rose to 14.7% in April which is considered to be the worst since the Great Depression. 

Those who are not worried about the financial aspect or the thought never crossed their minds have privilege. Merriam Webster defines privilege as “a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor.” Privilege can have a negative connotation. What you choose to do with your privilege is what matters. Talking about privilege can bring discomfort, but the discomfort it brings can also carry the benefit of drawing awareness to one’s privilege, which can lead the person to take steps to help others. 

I am a first-generation college student who recently transferred to a four-year university. When schools began to close, and students had to leave their on-campus housing, many lost their jobs.I was able to stay on campus because I live in an apartment. I am fortunate to still have a job, although the hours are minimal. My parents help pay for school expenses, including housing, tuition, and food. I do not have to worry about paying rent or how to pay for food because my parents are financially stable to help me. However, there are millions of college students who are not financially stable or do not have the support system I have. Here, I have the privilege and, thus, I am the one who can offer help to others. I may not have millions in funding, but volunteering for centers who need help is where I am able to help. Those who live in California can volunteer through Californians For All  or at food banks, shelter facilities, making calls to seniors, etc. 

I was not aware of my privilege during these times until I started reading more articles about how millions of people cannot afford to pay their rent, and landlords are starting to send notices of violations. Rather than feel guilty and be passive about it, I chose to put my privilege into a sense of purpose: Donating to nonprofits helping those affected by COVID-19, continuing to support local businesses, and supporting businesses who are donating profits to those affected by COVID-19.

My World is Burning 

As I write this, my friends are double checking our medical supplies and making plans to buy water and snacks to pass out at the next protest we are attending. We write down the number for the local bailout fund on our arms and pray that we’re lucky enough not to have to use it should things get ugly. We are part of a pivotal event, the kind of movement that will forever have a place in history. Yet, during this revolution, I have papers to write and grades to worry about, as I’m in the midst of finals. 

My professors have offered empty platitudes. They condemn the violence and acknowledge the stress and pain that so many of us are feeling, especially the additional weight that this carries for students of color. I appreciate their show of solidarity, but it feels meaningless when it is accompanied by requests to complete research reports and finalize presentations. Our world is on fire. Literally. On my social media feeds, I scroll through image after image of burning buildings and police cars in flames. How can I be asked to focus on school when my community is under siege? When police are continuing to murder black people, adding additional names to the ever growing list of their victims. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. David Mcatee. And, now, Rayshard Brooks. 

It already felt like the world was being asked of us when the pandemic started and classes continued. High academic expectations were maintained even when students now faced the challenges of being locked down, often trapped in small spaces with family or roommates. Now we are faced with another public health crisis in the form of police violence and once again it seems like educational faculty are turning a blind eye to the impact that this has on the students. I cannot study for exams when I am busy brushing up on my basic first-aid training, taking notes on the best techniques to stop heavy bleeding and treat chemical burns because at the end of the day, if these protests turn south, I will be entering a warzone. Even when things remain peaceful, there is an ugliness that bubbles just below the surface. When beginning the trek home, I have had armed members of the National Guard follow me and my friends. While kneeling in silence, I have watched police officers cock their weapons and laugh, pointing out targets in the crowd. I have been emailing my professors asking for extensions, trying to explain that if something is turned in late, it could be the result of me being detained or injured. I don’t want to be penalized for trying to do what I wholeheartedly believe is right. 

I have spent my life studying and will continue to study these institutions that have been so instrumental in the oppression and marginalization of black and indigenous communities. Yet, now that I have the opportunity to be on the frontlines actively fighting for the change our country so desperately needs, I feel that this study is more of a hindrance than a help to the cause. Writing papers and reading books can only take me so far and I implore that professors everywhere recognize that requesting their students split their time and energy between finals and justice is an impossible ask.

Opportunity to Serve

Since the start of the most drastic change of our lives, I have had the privilege of helping feed more than 200 different families in the Santa Ana area and even some neighboring cities. It has been an immense pleasure seeing the sheer joy and happiness of families as they come to pick up their box of food from our site, as well as a $50 gift card to Northgate, a grocery store in Santa Ana. Along with donating food and helping feed families, the team at the office, including myself, have dedicated this time to offering psychosocial and mental health check-ups for the families we serve. 

Every day I go into the office I start my day by gathering files of our families we served between the months of January, February, and March and calling them to check on how they are doing financially, mentally, and how they have been affected by COVID-19. As a side project, I have been putting together Excel spreadsheets of all these families’ struggles and finding a way to turn their situation into a success story to share with our board at PY-OCBF and to the community partners who make all of our efforts possible. One of the things that has really touched me while working with these families is how much of an impact this nonprofit organization truly has on family’s lives. I have spoken with many families who I just call to check up on and it turns into an hour call sharing about how much of a change they have seen in their child who went through our program. Further, they go on to discuss that because of our program, their children have a different perspective on the drugs they were using before and the group of friends they were hanging out with. Of course, the situation is different right now as everyone is being told to stay at home; however, there are those handful of kids who still go out without asking for permission, increasing the likelihood they might contract this disease and pass it to the rest of the family. We are working diligently to provide support for these parents and offering advice to talk to their kids in order to have a serious conversation with their kids so that they feel heard and validated. 

Although the novel Coronavirus has impacted the lives of millions of people not just on a national level, but on a global level, I feel that in my current position, it has opened doors for me that would have otherwise not presented themselves. Fortunately, I have been offered a full-time position at the Project Youth Orange County Bar Foundation post-graduation that I have committed to already. This invitation came to me because the organization received a huge grant for COVID-19 relief to offer to their staff and since I was already part-time, they thought I would be a good fit to join the team once mid-June comes around. I was very excited and pleased to be recognized for the work I have done at the office in front of all staff. I am immensely grateful for this opportunity. I will work even harder to provide for the community and to continue changing the lives of adolescents, who have steered off the path of success. I will use my time as a full-time employee to polish my resume, not forgetting that the main purpose of my moving to Irvine was to become a scholar and continue the education that my parents couldn’t attain. I will still be looking for ways to get internships with other fields within criminology. One specific interest that I have had since being an intern and a part-time employee in this organization is the work of the Orange County Coroner’s Office. I don’t exactly know what enticed me to find it appealing as many would say that it is an awful job in nature since it relates to death and seeing people in their worst state possible. However, I feel that the only way for me to truly know if I want to pursue such a career in forensic science will be to just dive into it and see where it takes me. 

I can, without a doubt, say that the Coronavirus has impacted me in a way unlike many others, and for that I am extremely grateful. As I continue working, I can also state that many people are becoming more and more hopeful as time progresses. With people now beginning to say Stage Two of this stay-at-home order is about to allow retailers and other companies to begin doing curbside delivery, many families can now see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Let’s Do Better

This time of the year is meant to be a time of celebration; however, it has been difficult to feel proud or excited for many of us when it has become a time of collective mourning and sorrow, especially for the Black community. There has been an endless amount of pain, rage, and helplessness that has been felt throughout our nation because of the growing list of Black lives we have lost to violence and brutality.

To honor the lives that we have lost, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Trayon Martin, and all of the other Black lives that have been taken away, may they Rest in Power.

Throughout my college experience, I have become more exposed to the various identities and the upbringings of others, which led to my own self-reflection on my own privileged and marginalized identities. I identify as Colombian, German, and Mexican; however navigating life as a mixed race, I have never been able to identify or have one culture more salient than the other. I am visibly white-passing and do not hold any strong ties with any of my ethnic identities, which used to bring me feelings of guilt and frustration, for I would question whether or not I could be an advocate for certain communities, and whether or not I could claim the identity of a woman of color. In the process of understanding my positionality, I began to wonder what space I belonged in, where I could speak up, and where I should take a step back for others to speak. I found myself in a constant theme of questioning what is my narrative and slowly began to realize that I could not base it off lone identities and that I have had the privilege to move through life without my identities defining who I am. Those initial feelings of guilt and confusion transformed into growth, acceptance, and empowerment.

This journey has driven me to educate myself more about the social inequalities and injustices that people face and to focus on what I can do for those around me. It has motivated me to be more culturally responsive and competent, so that I am able to best advocate for those around me. Through the various roles I have worked in, I have been able to listen to a variety of communities’ narratives and experiences, which has allowed me to extend my empathy to these communities while also pushing me to continue educating myself on how I can best serve and empower them. By immersing myself amongst different communities, I have been given the honor of hearing others’ stories and experiences, which has inspired me to commit myself to support and empower others.

I share my story of navigating through my privileged and marginalized identities in hopes that it encourages others to explore their own identities. This journey is not an easy one, and it is an ongoing learning process that will come with various mistakes. I have learned that with facing our privileges comes feelings of guilt, discomfort, and at times, complacency. It is very easy to become ignorant when we are not affected by different issues, but I challenge those who read this to embrace the discomfort. With these emotions, I have found it important to reflect on the source of discomfort and guilt, for although they are a part of the process, in taking the steps to become more aware of the systemic inequalities around us, understanding the source of discomfort can better inform us on how we perpetuate these systemic inequalities. If we choose to embrace ignorance, we refuse to acknowledge the systems that impact marginalized communities and refuse to honestly and openly hear cries for help. If we choose our own comfort over the lives of those being affected every day, we can never truly honor, serve, or support these communities.

I challenge any non-Black person, including myself, to stop remaining complacent when injustices are committed. We need to consistently recognize and acknowledge how the Black community is disproportionately affected in every injustice experienced and call out anti-Blackness in every role, community, and space we share. We need to keep ourselves and others accountable when we make mistakes or fall back into patterns of complacency or ignorance. We need to continue educating ourselves instead of relying on the emotional labor of the Black community to continuously educate us on the history of their oppressions. We need to collectively uplift and empower one another to heal and rise against injustice. We need to remember that allyship ends when action ends.

To the Black community, you are strong. You deserve to be here. The recent events are emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausting, and the need for rest to take care of your mental, physical, and emotional well-being are at an all time high. If you are able, take the time to regain your energy, feel every emotion, and remind yourself of the power you have inside of you. You are not alone.

The Virus That Makes You Forget

Following Jan. 1 of 2020 many of my classmates and I continued to like, share, and forward the same meme. The meme included any image but held the same phrase: I can see 2020. For many of us, 2020 was a beacon of hope. For the Class of 2020, this meant walking on stage in front of our families. Graduation meant becoming an adult, finding a job, or going to graduate school. No matter what we were doing in our post-grad life, we were the new rising stars ready to take on the world with a positive outlook no matter what the future held. We felt that we had a deal with the universe that we were about to be noticed for our hard work, our hardships, and our perseverance.

Then March 17 of 2020 came to pass with California Gov. Newman ordering us to stay at home, which we all did. However, little did we all know that the world we once had open to us would only be forgotten when we closed our front doors.

Life became immediately uncertain and for many of us, that meant graduation and our post-graduation plans including housing, careers, education, food, and basic standards of living were revoked! We became the forgotten — a place from which many of us had attempted to rise by attending university. The goals that we were told we could set and the plans that we were allowed to make — these were crushed before our eyes.

Eighty days before graduation, in the first several weeks of quarantine, I fell extremely ill; both unfortunately and luckily, I was isolated. All of my roommates had moved out of the student apartments leaving me with limited resources, unable to go to the stores to pick up medicine or food, and with insufficient health coverage to afford a doctor until my throat was too swollen to drink water. For nearly three weeks, I was stuck in bed, I was unable to apply to job deadlines, reach out to family, and have contact with the outside world. I was forgotten.

Forty-five days before graduation, I had clawed my way out of illness and was catching up on an honors thesis about media depictions of sexual exploitation within the American political system, when I was relayed the news that democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was accused of sexual assault. However, when reporting this news to close friends who had been devastated and upset by similar claims against past politicians, they all were too tired and numb from the quarantine to care. Just as I had written hours before reading the initial story, history was repeating, and it was not only I who COVID-19 had forgotten, but now survivors of violence.

After this revelation, I realize the silencing factor that COVID-19 has. Not only does it have the power to terminate the voices of our older generations, but it has the power to silence and make us forget the voices of every generation. Maybe this is why social media usage has gone up, why we see people creating new social media accounts, posting more, attempting to reach out to long lost friends. We do not want to be silenced, moreover, we cannot be silenced. Silence means that we have been forgotten and being forgotten is where injustice and uncertainty occurs. By using social media, pressing like on a post, or even sending a hate message, means that someone cares and is watching what you are doing. If there is no interaction, I am stuck in the land of indifference.

This is a place that I, and many others, now reside, captured and uncertain. In 2020, my plan was to graduate Cum Laude, dean's honor list, with three honors programs, three majors, and with research and job experience that stretched over six years. I would then go into my first year of graduate school, attempting a dual Juris Doctorate. I would be spending my time experimenting with new concepts, new experiences, and new relationships. My life would then be spent giving a microphone to survivors of domestic violence and sex crimes. However, now the plan is wiped clean, instead I sit still bound to graduate in 30 days with no home to stay, no place to work, and no future education to come back to. I would say I am overly qualified, but pandemic makes me lost in a series of names and masked faces.

Welcome to My Cage: The Pandemic and PTSD

When I read the campuswide email notifying students of the World Health Organization’s declaration of the coronavirus pandemic, I was sitting on my couch practicing a research presentation I was going to give a few hours later. For a few minutes, I sat there motionless, trying to digest the meaning of the words as though they were from a language other than my own, familiar sounds strung together in way that was wholly unintelligible to me. I tried but failed to make sense of how this could affect my life. After the initial shock had worn off, I mobilized quickly, snapping into an autopilot mode of being I knew all too well. I began making mental checklists, sharing the email with my friends and family, half of my brain wondering if I should make a trip to the grocery store to stockpile supplies and the other half wondering how I was supposed take final exams in the midst of so much uncertainty. The most chilling realization was knowing I had to wait powerlessly as the fate of the world unfolded, frozen with anxiety as I figured out my place in it all.

These feelings of powerlessness and isolation are familiar bedfellows for me. Early October of 2015, shortly after beginning my first year at UCI, I was diagnosed with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Despite having had years of psychological treatment for my condition, including Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Retraining, the flashbacks, paranoia, and nightmares still emerge unwarranted. People have referred to the pandemic as a collective trauma. For me, the pandemic has not only been a collective trauma, it has also been the reemergence of a personal trauma. The news of the pandemic and the implications it has for daily life triggered a reemergence of symptoms that were ultimately ignited by the overwhelming sense of helplessness that lies in waiting, as I suddenly find myself navigating yet another situation beyond my control. Food security, safety, and my sense of self have all been shaken by COVID-19.

The first few weeks after UCI transitioned into remote learning and the governor issued the stay-at-home order, I hardly got any sleep. My body was cycling through hypervigilance and derealization, and my sleep was interrupted by intrusive nightmares oscillating between flashbacks and frightening snippets from current events. Any coping methods I had developed through hard-won efforts over the past few years — leaving my apartment for a change of scenery, hanging out with friends, going to the gym — were suddenly made inaccessible to me due to the stay-at-home orders, closures of non-essential businesses, and many of my friends breaking their campus leases to move back to their family homes. So for me, learning to cope during COVID-19 quarantine means learning to function with my re-emerging PTSD symptoms and without my go-to tools. I must navigate my illness in a rapidly evolving world, one where some of my internalized fears, such as running out of food and living in an unsafe world, are made progressively more external by the minute and broadcasted on every news platform; fears that I could no longer escape, being confined in the tight constraints of my studio apartment’s walls. I cannot shake the devastating effects of sacrifice that I experience as all sense of control has been stripped away from me.

However, amidst my mental anguish, I have realized something important—experiencing these same PTSD symptoms during a global pandemic feels markedly different than it did years ago. Part of it might be the passage of time and the growth in my mindset, but there is something else that feels very different. Currently, there is widespread solidarity and support for all of us facing the chaos of COVID-19, whether they are on the frontlines of the fight against the illness or they are self-isolating due to new rules, restrictions, and risks. This was in stark contrast to what it was like to have a mental disorder. The unity we all experience as a result of COVID-19 is one I could not have predicted. I am not the only student heartbroken over a cancelled graduation, I am not the only student who is struggling to adapt to remote learning, and I am not the only person in this world who has to make sacrifices.

Between observations I’ve made on social media and conversations with my friends and classmates, this time we are all enduring great pain and stress as we attempt to adapt to life’s challenges. As a Peer Assistant for an Education class, I have heard from many students of their heartache over the remote learning model, how difficult it is to study in a non-academic environment, and how unmotivated they have become this quarter. This is definitely something I can relate to; as of late, it has been exceptionally difficult to find motivation and put forth the effort for even simple activities as a lack of energy compounds the issue and hinders basic needs. However, the willingness of people to open up about their distress during the pandemic is unlike the self-imposed social isolation of many people who experience mental illness regularly. Something this pandemic has taught me is that I want to live in a world where mental illness receives more support and isn’t so taboo and controversial. Why is it that we are able to talk about our pain, stress, and mental illness now, but aren’t able to talk about it outside of a global pandemic? People should be able to talk about these hardships and ask for help, much like during these circumstances.

It has been nearly three months since the coronavirus crisis was declared a pandemic. I still have many bad days that I endure where my symptoms can be overwhelming. But somehow, during my good days — and some days, merely good moments — I can appreciate the resilience I have acquired over the years and the common ground I share with others who live through similar circumstances. For veterans of trauma and mental illness, this isn’t the first time we are experiencing pain in an extreme and disastrous way. This is, however, the first time we are experiencing it with the rest of the world. This strange new feeling of solidarity as I read and hear about the experiences of other people provides some small comfort as I fight my way out of bed each day. As we fight to survive this pandemic, I hope to hold onto this feeling of togetherness and acceptance of pain, so that it will always be okay for people to share their struggles. We don’t know what the world will look like days, months, or years from now, but I hope that we can cultivate such a culture to make life much easier for people coping with mental illness.

A Somatic Pandemonium in Quarantine

I remember hearing that our brains create the color magenta all on their own. 

When I was younger I used to run out of my third-grade class because my teacher was allergic to the mold and sometimes would vomit in the trash can. My dad used to tell me that I used to always have to have something in my hands, later translating itself into the form of a hair tie around my wrist.

Sometimes, I think about the girl who used to walk on her tippy toes. medial and lateral nerves never planted, never grounded. We were the same in this way. My ability to be firmly planted anywhere was also withered. 

Was it from all the times I panicked? Or from the time I ran away and I blistered the soles of my feet 'til they were black from the summer pavement? Emetophobia. 

I felt it in the shower, dressing itself from the crown of my head down to the soles of my feet, noting the feeling onto my white board in an attempt to solidify it’s permanence.

As I breathed in the chemical blue transpiring from the Expo marker, everything was more defined. I laid down and when I looked up at the starlet lamp I had finally felt centered. Still. No longer fleeting. The grooves in the lamps glass forming a spiral of what felt to me like an artificial landscape of transcendental sparks. 

She’s back now, magenta, though I never knew she left or even ever was. Somehow still subconsciously always known. I had been searching for her in the tremors.

I can see her now in the daphnes, the golden rays from the sun reflecting off of the bark on the trees and the red light that glowed brighter, suddenly the town around me was warmer. A melting of hues and sharpened saturation that was apparent and reminded of the smell of oranges.

I threw up all of the carrots I ate just before. The trauma that my body kept as a memory of things that may or may not go wrong and the times that I couldn't keep my legs from running. Revelations bring memories bringing anxieties from fear and panic released from my body as if to say “NO LONGER!” 

I close my eyes now and my mind's eye is, too, more vivid than ever before. My inner eyelids lit up with orange undertones no longer a solid black, neurons firing, fire. Not the kind that burns you but the kind that can light up a dull space. Like the wick of a tea-lit candle. Magenta doesn’t exist. It is perception. A construct made of light waves, blue and red.

Demolition. Reconstruction. I walk down the street into this new world wearing my new mask, somatic senses tingling and I think to myself “Houston, I think we’ve just hit equilibrium.”

How COVID-19 Changed My Senior Year

During the last two weeks of Winter quarter, I watched the emails pour in. Spring quarter would be online, facilities were closing, and everyone was recommended to return home to their families, if possible. I resolved to myself that I would not move back home; I wanted to stay in my apartment, near my boyfriend, near my friends, and in the one place I had my own space. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened, things continued to change quickly. Soon I learned my roommate/best friend would be cancelling her lease and moving back up to Northern California. We had made plans for my final quarter at UCI, as I would be graduating in June while she had another year, but all of the sudden, that dream was gone. In one whirlwind of a day, we tried to cram in as much of our plans as we could before she left the next day for good. There are still so many things – like hiking, going to museums, and showing her around my hometown – we never got to cross off our list.

Then, my boyfriend decided he would also be moving home, three hours away. Most of my sorority sisters were moving home, too. I realized if I stayed at school, I would be completely alone. My mom had been encouraging me to move home anyway, but I was reluctant to return to a house I wasn’t completely comfortable in. As the pandemic became more serious, gentle encouragement quickly turned into demands. I had to cancel my lease and move home.

I moved back in with my parents at the end of Spring Break; I never got to say goodbye to most of my friends, many of whom I’ll likely never see again – as long as the virus doesn’t change things, I’m supposed to move to New York over the summer to begin a PhD program in Criminal Justice. Just like that, my time at UCI had come to a close. No lasts to savor; instead I had piles of things to regret. In place of a final quarter filled with memorable lasts, such as the senior banquet or my sorority’s senior preference night, I’m left with a laundry list of things I missed out on. I didn’t get to look around the campus one last time like I had planned; I never got to take my graduation pictures in front of the UC Irvine sign. Commencement had already been cancelled. The lights had turned off in the theatre before the movie was over. I never got to find out how the movie ended.

Transitioning to a remote learning system wasn’t too bad, but I found that some professors weren’t adjusting their courses to the difficulties many students were facing. It turned out to be difficult to stay motivated, especially for classes that are pre-recorded and don’t have any face-to-face interaction. It’s hard to make myself care; I’m in my last few weeks ever at UCI, but it feels like I’m already in summer. School isn’t real, my classes aren’t real. I still put in the effort, but I feel like I’m not getting much out of my classes.

The things I had been looking forward to this quarter are gone; there will be no Undergraduate Research Symposium, where I was supposed to present two projects. My amazing internship with the US Postal Inspection Service is over prematurely and I never got to properly say goodbye to anyone I met there. I won’t receive recognition for the various awards and honors I worked so hard to achieve.

And I’m one of the lucky ones! I feel guilty for feeling bad about my situation, when I know there are others who have it much, much worse. I am like that quintessential spoiled child, complaining while there are essential workers working tirelessly, people with health concerns constantly fearing for their safety, and people dying every day. Yet knowing that doesn't help me from feeling I was robbed of my senior experience, something I worked very hard to achieve. I know it’s not nearly as important as what many others are going through. But nevertheless, this is my situation. I was supposed to be enjoying this final quarter with my friends and preparing to move on, not be stuck at home, grappling with my mental health and hiding out in my room to get some alone time from a family I don’t always get along with. And while I know it’s more difficult out there for many others, it’s still difficult for me.

The thing that stresses me out most is the uncertainty. Uncertainty for the future – how long will this pandemic last? How many more people have to suffer before things go back to “normal” – whatever that is? How long until I can see my friends and family again? And what does this mean for my academic future? Who knows what will happen between now and then? All that’s left to do is wait and hope that everything will work out for the best.

Looking back over my last few months at UCI, I wish I knew at the time that I was experiencing my lasts; it feels like I took so much for granted. If there is one thing this has all made me realize, it’s that nothing is certain. Everything we expect, everything we take for granted – none of it is a given. Hold on to what you have while you have it, and take the time to appreciate the wonderful things in life, because you never know when it will be gone.

Physical Distancing

Thirty days have never felt so long. April has been the longest month of the year. I have been through more in these past three months than in the past three years. The COVID-19 outbreak has had a huge impact on both physical and social well-being of a lot of Americans, including me. Stress has been governing the lives of so many civilians, in particular students and workers. In addition to causing a lack of motivation in my life, quarantine has also brought a wave of anxiety.

My life changed the moment the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the government announced social distancing. My busy daily schedule, running from class to class and meeting to meeting, morphed into identical days, consisting of hour after hour behind a cold computer monitor. Human interaction and touch improve trust, reduce fear and increases physical well-being. Imagine the effects of removing the human touch and interaction from midst of society. Humans are profoundly social creatures. I cannot function without interacting and connecting with other people. Even daily acquaintances have an impact on me that is only noticeable once removed. As a result, the COVID-19 outbreak has had an extreme impact on me beyond direct symptoms and consequences of contracting the virus itself.

It was not until later that month, when out of sheer boredom I was scrolling through my call logs and I realized that I had called my grandmother more than ever. This made me realize that quarantine had created some positive impacts on my social interactions as well. This period of time has created an opportunity to check up on and connect with family and peers more often than we were able to. Even though we might be connecting solely through a screen, we are not missing out on being socially connected. Quarantine has taught me to value and prioritize social connection, and to recognize that we can find this type of connection not only through in-person gatherings, but also through deep heart to heart connections. Right now, my weekly Zoom meetings with my long-time friends are the most important events in my week. In fact, I have taken advantage of the opportunity to reconnect with many of my old friends and have actually had more meaningful conversations with them than before the isolation.

This situation is far from ideal. From my perspective, touch and in-person interaction is essential; however, we must overcome all difficulties that life throws at us with the best we are provided with. Therefore, perhaps we should take this time to re-align our motives by engaging in things that are of importance to us. I learned how to dig deep and find appreciation for all the small talks, gatherings, and face-to-face interactions. I have also realized that friendships are not only built on the foundation of physical presence but rather on meaningful conversations you get to have, even if they are through a cold computer monitor. My realization came from having more time on my hands and noticing the shift in conversations I was having with those around me. After all, maybe this isolation isn’t “social distancing”, but rather “physical distancing” until we meet again.

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Read these 12 moving essays about life during coronavirus

Artists, novelists, critics, and essayists are writing the first draft of history.

by Alissa Wilkinson

The world is grappling with an invisible, deadly enemy, trying to understand how to live with the threat posed by a virus . For some writers, the only way forward is to put pen to paper, trying to conceptualize and document what it feels like to continue living as countries are under lockdown and regular life seems to have ground to a halt.

So as the coronavirus pandemic has stretched around the world, it’s sparked a crop of diary entries and essays that describe how life has changed. Novelists, critics, artists, and journalists have put words to the feelings many are experiencing. The result is a first draft of how we’ll someday remember this time, filled with uncertainty and pain and fear as well as small moments of hope and humanity.

• The Vox guide to navigating the coronavirus crisis

At the New York Review of Books, Ali Bhutto writes that in Karachi, Pakistan, the government-imposed curfew due to the virus is “eerily reminiscent of past military clampdowns”:

Beneath the quiet calm lies a sense that society has been unhinged and that the usual rules no longer apply. Small groups of pedestrians look on from the shadows, like an audience watching a spectacle slowly unfolding. People pause on street corners and in the shade of trees, under the watchful gaze of the paramilitary forces and the police.

His essay concludes with the sobering note that “in the minds of many, Covid-19 is just another life-threatening hazard in a city that stumbles from one crisis to another.”

Writing from Chattanooga, novelist Jamie Quatro documents the mixed ways her neighbors have been responding to the threat, and the frustration of conflicting direction, or no direction at all, from local, state, and federal leaders:

Whiplash, trying to keep up with who’s ordering what. We’re already experiencing enough chaos without this back-and-forth. Why didn’t the federal government issue a nationwide shelter-in-place at the get-go, the way other countries did? What happens when one state’s shelter-in-place ends, while others continue? Do states still under quarantine close their borders? We are still one nation, not fifty individual countries. Right?

• A syllabus for the end of the world

Award-winning photojournalist Alessio Mamo, quarantined with his partner Marta in Sicily after she tested positive for the virus, accompanies his photographs in the Guardian of their confinement with a reflection on being confined :

The doctors asked me to take a second test, but again I tested negative. Perhaps I’m immune? The days dragged on in my apartment, in black and white, like my photos. Sometimes we tried to smile, imagining that I was asymptomatic, because I was the virus. Our smiles seemed to bring good news. My mother left hospital, but I won’t be able to see her for weeks. Marta started breathing well again, and so did I. I would have liked to photograph my country in the midst of this emergency, the battles that the doctors wage on the frontline, the hospitals pushed to their limits, Italy on its knees fighting an invisible enemy. That enemy, a day in March, knocked on my door instead.

In the New York Times Magazine, deputy editor Jessica Lustig writes with devastating clarity about her family’s life in Brooklyn while her husband battled the virus, weeks before most people began taking the threat seriously:

At the door of the clinic, we stand looking out at two older women chatting outside the doorway, oblivious. Do I wave them away? Call out that they should get far away, go home, wash their hands, stay inside? Instead we just stand there, awkwardly, until they move on. Only then do we step outside to begin the long three-block walk home. I point out the early magnolia, the forsythia. T says he is cold. The untrimmed hairs on his neck, under his beard, are white. The few people walking past us on the sidewalk don’t know that we are visitors from the future. A vision, a premonition, a walking visitation. This will be them: Either T, in the mask, or — if they’re lucky — me, tending to him.

Essayist Leslie Jamison writes in the New York Review of Books about being shut away alone in her New York City apartment with her 2-year-old daughter since she became sick:

The virus. Its sinewy, intimate name. What does it feel like in my body today? Shivering under blankets. A hot itch behind the eyes. Three sweatshirts in the middle of the day. My daughter trying to pull another blanket over my body with her tiny arms. An ache in the muscles that somehow makes it hard to lie still. This loss of taste has become a kind of sensory quarantine. It’s as if the quarantine keeps inching closer and closer to my insides. First I lost the touch of other bodies; then I lost the air; now I’ve lost the taste of bananas. Nothing about any of these losses is particularly unique. I’ve made a schedule so I won’t go insane with the toddler. Five days ago, I wrote Walk/Adventure! on it, next to a cut-out illustration of a tiger—as if we’d see tigers on our walks. It was good to keep possibility alive.

At Literary Hub, novelist Heidi Pitlor writes about the elastic nature of time during her family’s quarantine in Massachusetts:

During a shutdown, the things that mark our days—commuting to work, sending our kids to school, having a drink with friends—vanish and time takes on a flat, seamless quality. Without some self-imposed structure, it’s easy to feel a little untethered. A friend recently posted on Facebook: “For those who have lost track, today is Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.” ... Giving shape to time is especially important now, when the future is so shapeless. We do not know whether the virus will continue to rage for weeks or months or, lord help us, on and off for years. We do not know when we will feel safe again. And so many of us, minus those who are gifted at compartmentalization or denial, remain largely captive to fear. We may stay this way if we do not create at least the illusion of movement in our lives, our long days spent with ourselves or partners or families.

• What day is it today?

Novelist Lauren Groff writes at the New York Review of Books about trying to escape the prison of her fears while sequestered at home in Gainesville, Florida:

Some people have imaginations sparked only by what they can see; I blame this blinkered empiricism for the parks overwhelmed with people, the bars, until a few nights ago, thickly thronged. My imagination is the opposite. I fear everything invisible to me. From the enclosure of my house, I am afraid of the suffering that isn’t present before me, the people running out of money and food or drowning in the fluid in their lungs, the deaths of health-care workers now growing ill while performing their duties. I fear the federal government, which the right wing has so—intentionally—weakened that not only is it insufficient to help its people, it is actively standing in help’s way. I fear we won’t sufficiently punish the right. I fear leaving the house and spreading the disease. I fear what this time of fear is doing to my children, their imaginations, and their souls.

At ArtForum , Berlin-based critic and writer Kristian Vistrup Madsen reflects on martinis, melancholia, and Finnish artist Jaakko Pallasvuo’s 2018 graphic novel Retreat , in which three young people exile themselves in the woods:

In melancholia, the shape of what is ending, and its temporality, is sprawling and incomprehensible. The ambivalence makes it hard to bear. The world of Retreat is rendered in lush pink and purple watercolors, which dissolve into wild and messy abstractions. In apocalypse, the divisions established in genesis bleed back out. My own Corona-retreat is similarly soft, color-field like, each day a blurred succession of quarantinis, YouTube–yoga, and televized press conferences. As restrictions mount, so does abstraction. For now, I’m still rooting for love to save the world.

At the Paris Review , Matt Levin writes about reading Virginia Woolf’s novel The Waves during quarantine:

A retreat, a quarantine, a sickness—they simultaneously distort and clarify, curtail and expand. It is an ideal state in which to read literature with a reputation for difficulty and inaccessibility, those hermetic books shorn of the handholds of conventional plot or characterization or description. A novel like Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is perfect for the state of interiority induced by quarantine—a story of three men and three women, meeting after the death of a mutual friend, told entirely in the overlapping internal monologues of the six, interspersed only with sections of pure, achingly beautiful descriptions of the natural world, a day’s procession and recession of light and waves. The novel is, in my mind’s eye, a perfectly spherical object. It is translucent and shimmering and infinitely fragile, prone to shatter at the slightest disturbance. It is not a book that can be read in snatches on the subway—it demands total absorption. Though it revels in a stark emotional nakedness, the book remains aloof, remote in its own deep self-absorption.

• Vox is starting a book club. Come read with us!

In an essay for the Financial Times, novelist Arundhati Roy writes with anger about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anemic response to the threat, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future:

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

From Boston, Nora Caplan-Bricker writes in The Point about the strange contraction of space under quarantine, in which a friend in Beirut is as close as the one around the corner in the same city:

It’s a nice illusion—nice to feel like we’re in it together, even if my real world has shrunk to one person, my husband, who sits with his laptop in the other room. It’s nice in the same way as reading those essays that reframe social distancing as solidarity. “We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know what we don’t do is also brilliant and full of love,” the poet Anne Boyer wrote on March 10th, the day that Massachusetts declared a state of emergency. If you squint, you could almost make sense of this quarantine as an effort to flatten, along with the curve, the distinctions we make between our bonds with others. Right now, I care for my neighbor in the same way I demonstrate love for my mother: in all instances, I stay away. And in moments this month, I have loved strangers with an intensity that is new to me. On March 14th, the Saturday night after the end of life as we knew it, I went out with my dog and found the street silent: no lines for restaurants, no children on bicycles, no couples strolling with little cups of ice cream. It had taken the combined will of thousands of people to deliver such a sudden and complete emptiness. I felt so grateful, and so bereft.

And on his own website, musician and artist David Byrne writes about rediscovering the value of working for collective good , saying that “what is happening now is an opportunity to learn how to change our behavior”:

In emergencies, citizens can suddenly cooperate and collaborate. Change can happen. We’re going to need to work together as the effects of climate change ramp up. In order for capitalism to survive in any form, we will have to be a little more socialist. Here is an opportunity for us to see things differently — to see that we really are all connected — and adjust our behavior accordingly. Are we willing to do this? Is this moment an opportunity to see how truly interdependent we all are? To live in a world that is different and better than the one we live in now? We might be too far down the road to test every asymptomatic person, but a change in our mindsets, in how we view our neighbors, could lay the groundwork for the collective action we’ll need to deal with other global crises. The time to see how connected we all are is now.

The portrait these writers paint of a world under quarantine is multifaceted. Our worlds have contracted to the confines of our homes, and yet in some ways we’re more connected than ever to one another. We feel fear and boredom, anger and gratitude, frustration and strange peace. Uncertainty drives us to find metaphors and images that will let us wrap our minds around what is happening.

Yet there’s no single “what” that is happening. Everyone is contending with the pandemic and its effects from different places and in different ways. Reading others’ experiences — even the most frightening ones — can help alleviate the loneliness and dread, a little, and remind us that what we’re going through is both unique and shared by all.

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Educational inequality: post-pandemic patterns and trends.

Pandemic-related learning loss has been a hot-button issue for educators, parents, and students as researchers work to navigate its consequences. Part of the recovery process means identifying how far-reaching the effects of learning loss are, what can be done about it, and who was hardest hit. 

“Declines in test scores were more than twice as big in the poorest communities in the country than they were in the most affluent,” said Sean Reardon, Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education at Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE).

“And so that means that kids in those communities are much, much further behind.”

On this episode of School’s In, Reardon joins hosts GSE Dean Dan Schwartz and Senior Lecturer Denise Pope as they discuss educational inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic and what’s needed to chart a path forward.

Reardon’s research sheds light on key issues including the impact of poverty and inequality on educational opportunities and how parents can work with teachers to advocate for their children.

“I think we owe some gratitude to teachers and principals who I think really have helped students out a lot post-pandemic, and we've made real progress,” Reardon said.

To keep up with our research, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram , LinkedIn , and Threads .

Never miss an episode! Subscribe to School’s In on Spotify , Apple Podcasts , or wherever you get your podcasts.

Sean Reardon (00:00):

Declines in test scores were more than twice as big in the poorest communities in the country than they were in the most affluent. And so that means that kids in those communities are much, much further behind. They already were further behind, and now they're even more behind. So there's sort of a widening inequality as a result of the pandemic, not just an overall decline.

Dan Schwartz (00:23):

Today we're discussing the impact of poverty and inequality on educational opportunities, specifically focusing on learning loss during the pandemic and the gains, or not, that we've made since.

Denise Pope (00:34):

It's kind of crazy that we are still talking about the impacts of the pandemic. And that's the main reason why we're tackling it in several episodes. The data is coming in and it's sobering. The pandemic impacted all learners no matter the income level, and the recovery has been uneven at best. It's more important than ever to address these gaps and find ways to support all learners. So let's dive in.

Welcome to School's In, your go-to podcast for cutting edge insights in learning. Each episode, we dive into the latest trends, innovations, and challenges facing learners.

I'm Denise Pope, senior lecturer at Stanford GSE and co-founder of Challenge Success. And I am here with my wonderful co-host, Dan Schwartz, dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning.

Dan Schwartz (01:30):

Hi, Denise. It's good to see you again. One of our big questions today is, what happened with learning loss since COVID?

Now, when we talk about learning loss, we're not talking about forgetting some things over the summer; what's typically called "summer melt." What we're talking about is students not having a chance to learn, and that's what happened in COVID.

We're incredibly fortunate to have a leading scholar on this topic join us today. It is Professor Sean Reardon. He's a professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education at Stanford. He looks at causes, patterns, trends, consequences of educational inequality across the nation. He has a very unique database that basically has the standardized tests of every child,, and so he's been the go-to researcher on pandemic recovery.

So Sean, welcome. Thank you for joining us.

Denise Pope (02:19):

Sean, we would love to start by having you walk us through exactly how we measure learning loss in the first place and recovery.

Sean Reardon (02:27):

Yeah. First what we do is we look at ... For example, we look at eighth graders in 2019 before the pandemic, and we see across the country and in every school district in the country, "What was their average scores in math and reading?" And then we're able to look again at eighth graders three years later, after the pandemic, spring of 2022, and see what their average scores are in math and reading. And then we can compare where the eighth graders were in 2022; those kids were in fifth, sixth, seventh grade through the pandemic and so didn't have the opportunity often to learn all the material that one would typically learn; and we compare them to what the eighth graders three years before knew who went through fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth grade under normal conditions.

And what we find and what all the national data shows is that in 2022, students were about a half grade further behind in math and about a third of a grade further behind in reading than where their counterparts were in 2022. What that means is that over those three years of the pandemic period, kids missed out on a half year of instruction of math essentially. They just didn't get the opportunity to learn as much math as they would've without the pandemic.

Dan Schwartz (03:46):

So Denise, would that have been your prediction? That of all the disciplines that we measure, math would take the biggest hit?

Denise Pope (03:53):

I think that would have been. A half year is a lot. That's bigger than I would've guessed. A half year ... I mean, that's a half a year, right? That's a lot. I was thinking a couple months maybe, but six months?

Well, how do you measure a year? Is it six months? Because it's a nine-month school year.

Sean Reardon (04:12):

It's half of a nine-month school year. So think of it as four and a half months. It was really a little more than a half, so call it five months.

Denise Pope (04:19):

Okay. That's a lot. That's higher than I thought.

But yeah, I would've thought math because that's what empties out of my brain the quickest, so ...

Dan Schwartz (04:26):

No, no, that's not the reason.

Sean, do you have a good theory for why math?

Sean Reardon (04:32):

Yeah, I mean, I think the reason is likely that during the pandemic when kids weren't getting as much instruction in school, either they weren't in school or they couldn't concentrate as much, or there's a lot obviously else going on in the world, that at home kids are more likely to read, or if they're young kids, their parents might read to them, but it's much less common for kids to sort of sit down and do some algebra in their spare time at home or have their parents sit down and work through multiplication tables with them at home.

And so most math learning typically happens in school as a result of what happens in math classrooms, but kids learn to read both at school and at home. And so I think that's why we saw a little bit less of a hit in reading than in math, because the missing out on school hurts math more.

Dan Schwartz (05:23):

I have to describe this study, because it's sort of outrageous.

So there was someone who took five-year olds, English speaking five-year olds, and they had them memorize a passage in Greek from Homer.

Denise Pope (05:36):

Oh my ... These poor babies.

Dan Schwartz (05:38):

Yeah, they just memorized the Greek. You know, just meaningless symbols.

Denise Pope (05:42):

Dan Schwartz (05:42):

And 10 years later, he came back and he had two conditions, and in both of them, he tried to teach the same poem in Greek. In one condition was these kids who had learned it when they were five and probably had no memory that they ever learned it. The other condition were kids who had never been exposed to it. So the ones who had been exposed and memorized it when they were five learned it like five times faster than the ones who had never been exposed.

What does this have to do with learning loss? You never really lose it. It's just sort of there waiting for you to come back and get it.

Denise Pope (06:15):

So that gives me a little bit of hope. Right?

But I will tell you, there are some things that I still remember from high school that I have no need for whatsoever. I mean, "Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote," right? Like Chaucer, the first lines of Chaucer. What is that doing in my head? I have all the kings and queens of England memorized in order. Willie, Willie, Harry, Steve, Harry, Dick, John, Harry 3, 1, 2, 3 Ned, Richard 2, Henry 4, 5, 6, then who. Why is that in my brain?

Dan Schwartz (06:43):

I don't know.

Denise Pope (06:43):

It's like that guy with the Greek. They put that in there and I can't get it out now.

Dan Schwartz (06:47):

I don't know, but just hearing you do that, I like you more. That's why.

Denise Pope (06:56):

And obviously there are other subjects that you learn in school, but you only have data for math and reading. Is that right?

Sean Reardon (07:03):

That's right. For the last 20 years, we have tested in this country every third through eighth grader every year in math and reading. So yeah, we have data going back to 2009. So we have about 500 million test scores from every kid in the country over that time period. That tells us a lot about math and reading. But we don't test how well kids are doing in the arts or in history or things like that, and so we don't know as much about what the pandemic did to kids' other sets of skills.

Denise Pope (07:37):

And we may never know.

Part of that is what you assess is what you care about too. So that also says something about sort of the lower level status of some of these subjects that don't get assessed.

Dan, you don't think that's lower level ... I'm not saying they do have lower level status.

Dan Schwartz (07:53):

They're so special that we don't bother to measure them.

Denise Pope (07:56):

Okay, you could look at it that way too, but we still won't know what got lost.

Dan Schwartz (08:00):

Okay, Sean, so your database tells me something about the regions the tests are coming from, the social status, the economic status.

Sean Reardon (08:09):

Dan Schwartz (08:10):

Before we talk about the bounce back, like how people are coming back, did the hit to math and English, was it even?

Sean Reardon (08:18):

No, that's maybe the biggest concern. I mean, obviously the kids didn't learn as much is a concern, but that fell disproportionately on kids in the lowest income communities in the country. And so the declines in test scores were more than twice as big in the poorest communities in the country than they were in the most affluent. And so that means that kids in those communities are much, much further behind. They already were further behind, and now they're even more behind. So there's sort of a widening inequality as a result of the pandemic, not just an overall decline. That's particularly concerning.

Dan Schwartz (08:54):

Sometimes people bash schools, but when I hear that, I realize how important school is as a lever of equity, and when it gets disrupted, the inequities really ... They get bigger, more rampant. Is that a fair conclusion on this, or ...

Sean Reardon (09:11):

Yeah. I mean, it's interesting. We often hear that schools are unequal, that schools in poor communities don't have the same resources or don't have the ability to attract skilled or experienced teachers, they don't have as good facilities, and so schools are worse in poorer communities and better in affluent communities. And so people say, "Oh, the schooling system's really unequal." Which there's some truth to that, but schools aren't nearly as unequal as families. The difference in growing up in a poor family and in a rich family is an orders of magnitude of income difference. And the differences between schools in rich and poor communities aren't nearly that big.

So while schools might be somewhat unequal, they're much more equal than family environments are in terms of the kinds of resources available. So schools tend to act like an equalizing force in society even though they're not completely equal. Sort of an interesting paradox.

Denise Pope (10:05):

Sean, what did you find out when you looked post 2022, I guess that's what it was, at how kids were doing now?

Sean Reardon (10:13):

What we found was actually pretty surprising, I think, and better news than I would've expected or many would've expected. What we found was that even though there had been a half grade of lost learning in math, kids recovered a third of that loss in just one year; which might not sound like a lot, but what it means is that the average student learned about 15 to 20% more in the '22 to '23 school year than a typical student learned before the pandemic. If we could increase national productivity or GDP by 20% in a year, we'd be bouncing off the walls, right? So a 20% increase in how much kids learn in one year is big.

It's also really big in historical terms. If you look back over the last 30 years at the rates at which scores have improved nationally, and they have improved nationally a lot over the last 30 years, the rate at which they improved in this last year was as big or bigger than in any time in the last 30 years.

So the good news is, while there was a big decline, the first year after the pandemic shows real signs of a strong recovery. We're not all the way back, but we made really good progress, and I think a surprising amount.

Dan Schwartz (11:28):

Is that because people are just pedaling faster, or ...

Denise Pope (11:33):

You mean teachers are working harder?

Dan Schwartz (11:35):

And students.

Denise Pope (11:36):

Dan Schwartz (11:37):

Do we have some explanation for how this happened?

Sean Reardon (11:40):

So I think what likely accounts for it is that school systems and teachers really focused on helping kids catch up with some of the material they lost. And not just in their regular math class, but a lot of school districts invested in extra tutoring programs for kids, after school academic programs for kids, extended summer school programs. So a lot of extra resources went in to try to help kids recover.

Some of that was funded by funds from the federal government that were intended to help school districts recover. But in fact, the recovery was much larger than you would've guessed just based on the amount of money that the federal government put in. I think we owe some gratitude to teachers and principals who I think really have helped students out a lot post-pandemic, and we've made real progress.

Denise Pope (12:31):

No, agreed. Shout out to all the educators and teachers out there who are working their butts off. Oh my gosh. It is so great to hear that all those efforts have really affected the students so positively. Yay.

Okay, now I'm curious, because we've discussed learning loss in the under-resourced schools; please tell us, what about the recovery?

Sean Reardon (12:52):

Recovery hasn't been unequal. That is kids in poor districts and rich districts have recovered about as much as each other. But that's not enough to undo the inequality that was exacerbated by the pandemic. So kids in low-income districts fell behind further during the pandemic, and then everyone recovered about the same amount during the pandemic. So the kids in the low-income districts are still further behind.

In lots of affluent districts, test scores are back up equal to or above where they were before the pandemic. So there's been near complete recovery in the richest places, but because the poor places saw such a large decline, the recovery hasn't yet been enough to kind of get them back up to where they were before the pandemic.

Dan Schwartz (13:39):

My biggest concern on COVID was actually for the youngest kids, that this is an important window for social emotional development, for developing a taste for what schools have to offer. Are they sort of starting to show up in your database? I heard you started with third grade, but are they beginning to show up and can you get a fix on it?

Sean Reardon (14:01):

So far, we haven't seen much difference across grades and how big the lost learning was, and not much difference in the size of the recovery. But those third graders were kids who were sort of coming into kindergarten or just in kindergarten at the beginning of the pandemic. The other group of kids that I worry about are the kids even younger than that who were sort of in early childhood, in preschool during the pandemic. And we don't know a whole lot about what's happened to those kids. My team and I are starting some research, we're collecting data that's going to help us to answer what happened to those very young kids during the pandemic, but we'll have to come back and talk about that another time.

Dan Schwartz (14:40):

They're going to start showing up in your database next year, is that right?

Sean Reardon (14:44):

They're starting to come into third grade, and so we'll be able to see more of them over the next few years.

Dan Schwartz (14:50):

Do you have a prediction, Denise?

Denise Pope (14:51):

Well, I was just going to say, are you worried? Because we know there's certain windows where ... Even language learning, for instance, there's a certain window where it gets much harder as you get older to start something new. Is that why you both are holding this tight with the young kids and worried?

Sean Reardon (15:06):

I'm worried about it for a couple reasons. One is, yeah, there's sort of critical periods in early childhood, and early elementary school are key periods, but also, places that were not in-person schooling for a while, that's particularly hard for a first grader. First grade Zoom school is not super effective, both at socialization into how to be in school and also just in terms of learning. You can't do all the stuff and you can't have the one-on-one attention from the teacher. So I think it's likely that remote learning was more harmful to the very young kids than it was to the older kids who could adapt more easily to the Zoom modality.

Denise Pope (15:49):

So I'm a parent, I'm listening to this. I want to do something to help, right? This is making me very sad. What can an average person do in terms of helping, advocating? What can we do?

Sean Reardon (16:02):

I think one of the things, we looked at survey data, and we found that a lot of parents during and right after the pandemic period didn't really have a sense of how far behind their kids were. Most parents sort of said, "I think my kid's doing fine." And the reason why they say that is because imagine that you have an eighth grader in 2022; well, you don't really know what an eighth grader in 2019 knew in terms of math unless you happen to have a child three years older, right? So it's very hard for a parent to sort of know from their one child, "What does a typical eighth grader know and can do in terms of math or other subjects?" So it's very hard for a parent to assess whether their kid's on track or behind where they should be.

The school district is in a better position, and teachers and the data the district has is in a better position to sort of help parents do that. But I don't think there was a lot of communication always of that. And so I think one of the things parents can do is really talk to the teachers and the principals to sort of understand where is their child at and where are kids at in their community? And then think about, what resources can they bring? How can they advocate for their child? How can they advocate for another child to make sure that the kids who are behind are really getting the resources they need?

Denise Pope (17:18):

I know there's also ... You talked about the federal funding, right? ESSR, other funds like that. And I know that they're ending right now. But it sounds like even though you said it wasn't all about money, some of it was about money. So is there a way that an individual can rally their congressperson, or ... I don't know. How can we get this money back?

Sean Reardon (17:40):

Yeah. The federal government provided school districts with 190 billion dollars starting early in the pandemic, and it'll end this year. That sounds like a lot of money, but that actually is only about less than one third of the annual budget we spend on education. So spread out over four years or so, it's not a ton of money per child. And that money has mostly been spent, and the rest of it needs to be spent in the next six to nine months, and we're not going to be fully recovered in lots of these districts, particularly the low income districts, by then.

So I think it's important for states to step in and fill the void a little bit, carry the baton, and figure out how to provide extra targeted resources to those kids and those schools and districts that still have a long way to catch up. And parents can really help advocate for that because they can talk to their state congressperson, they can talk to their superintendent, and they can help keep the pressure on to make sure that people are paying attention to those kids who need it the most.

Dan Schwartz (18:42):

So Sean, there's probably a lot of people who want to know which state's approach to shutting schools work the best; at least for educational outcomes, maybe not for mortality rates. So do you know this?

Sean Reardon (18:57):

Well, we have data actually for every school and school district in the country. And what we generally find, and other research has shown, is that the longer a school district was in a remote or hybrid instruction mode, the further behind kids fell.

But really, remote schooling only explains a small part of the learning losses. I mean, you have to remember, the pandemic was an all encompassing global event. It wasn't just that kids were suddenly learning on Zoom. They were also not able to see their friends, not able to participate in extracurriculars.

Denise Pope (19:32):

Yes, exactly. These kids' lives really were disrupted in every way possible during the pandemic, and it's all playing a part in where we are today.

Thank you so much, Sean, for being here. We learned so much. Thank you, thank you. We learned so much about learning loss, and we're really glad to hear about the recovery underway.

Dan Schwartz (19:52):

Yes. Thank you, Sean. Your research makes it clear that the most vulnerable students are also the ones who suffered the most during this time. It's a stark reminder of how crucial it is to address inequality and educational opportunity.

Denise Pope (20:07):

Agreed, Dan. Agreed. But all hope isn't lost here. And I think there is a lot we as educators and as parents can do to help. For parents, get involved as much as you can; connect with teachers to see how your kid is doing, offer resources if you have that ability, and ultimately just continue to advocate for your child.

Dan Schwartz (20:26):

And for educators, keep showing up for the kids like you have been. I know this is a lot of extra work, it's hard work, but it makes a difference. So connect with parents, keep them informed as much as we can, have patience, and help these kids climb back.

Denise Pope (20:42):

100%, Dan. I could not agree more.

Thank you again to our guest, Sean Reardon for this really enlightening conversation. And thank all of you for joining us on this episode of School's In. Remember to subscribe to our show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in.

I'm Denise Pope.

Dan Schwartz (20:59):

I'm Dan Schwartz.

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Research Article

Distance learning in higher education during COVID-19: The role of basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation for persistence and procrastination–a multi-country study

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – original draft

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Methodology, Project administration, Writing – review & editing

Roles Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Roles Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Roles Data curation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology

Affiliation Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education, Aleksandër Moisiu University, Durrës, Albania

Affiliation Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Philology and Education, Bedër University, Tirana, Albania

Affiliation Xiangya School of Nursing, Central South University, Changsha, China

Affiliations Xiangya School of Nursing, Central South University, Changsha, China, Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

Affiliation Study of Nursing, University of Applied Sciences Bjelovar, Bjelovar, Croatia

Affiliation Baltic Film, Media and Arts School, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

Affiliation Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Affiliation Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Affiliation Chair of Educational Psychology, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Affiliation Department of Educational Studies, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

Affiliation Faculty of Education, University of Akureyri, Akureyri, Iceland

Affiliation Department of Global Education, Tsuru University, Tsuru, Japan

Affiliation Career Center, Osaka University, Osaka University, Suita, Japan

Affiliation Graduate School of Education, Osaka Kyoiku University, Kashiwara, Japan

Affiliation Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Prishtina ’Hasan Prishtina’, Pristina, Kosovo

Affiliation Department of Social Work, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Pristina ’Hasan Prishtina’, Pristina, Kosovo

Affiliation Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Klaipėda University, Klaipėda, Lithuania

Affiliation Geography Department, Junior College, University of Malta, Msida, Malta

Affiliation Institute of Family Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Skopje, North Macedonia

Affiliation Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Science, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland

Affiliation Faculty of Historical and Pedagogical Sciences, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland

Affiliation Faculty of Educational Studies, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

Affiliation CERNESIM Environmental Research Center, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iași, România

Affiliation Social Sciences and Humanities Research Department, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Iași, România

Affiliation Department of Informatics, Örebro University School of Business, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

Affiliation Faculty of Social Studies, Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania, United States of America

•  [ ... ],

Affiliations Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Department for Teacher Education, Centre for Teacher Education, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

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• Elisabeth R. Pelikan, 
• Selma Korlat, 
• Julia Reiter, 
• Julia Holzer, 
• Martin Mayerhofer, 
• Barbara Schober, 
• Christiane Spiel, 
• Oriola Hamzallari, 
• Ana Uka, 

• Published: October 6, 2021
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257346
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher educational institutions worldwide switched to emergency distance learning in early 2020. The less structured environment of distance learning forced students to regulate their learning and motivation more independently. According to self-determination theory (SDT), satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and social relatedness affects intrinsic motivation, which in turn relates to more active or passive learning behavior. As the social context plays a major role for basic need satisfaction, distance learning may impair basic need satisfaction and thus intrinsic motivation and learning behavior. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between basic need satisfaction and procrastination and persistence in the context of emergency distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in a cross-sectional study. We also investigated the mediating role of intrinsic motivation in this relationship. Furthermore, to test the universal importance of SDT for intrinsic motivation and learning behavior under these circumstances in different countries, we collected data in Europe, Asia and North America. A total of N = 15,462 participants from Albania, Austria, China, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Poland, Malta, North Macedonia, Romania, Sweden, and the US answered questions regarding perceived competence, autonomy, social relatedness, intrinsic motivation, procrastination, persistence, and sociodemographic background. Our results support SDT’s claim of universality regarding the relation between basic psychological need fulfilment, intrinsic motivation, procrastination, and persistence. However, whereas perceived competence had the highest direct effect on procrastination and persistence, social relatedness was mainly influential via intrinsic motivation.

Citation: Pelikan ER, Korlat S, Reiter J, Holzer J, Mayerhofer M, Schober B, et al. (2021) Distance learning in higher education during COVID-19: The role of basic psychological needs and intrinsic motivation for persistence and procrastination–a multi-country study. PLoS ONE 16(10): e0257346. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257346

Editor: Shah Md Atiqul Haq, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, BANGLADESH

Received: March 30, 2021; Accepted: August 29, 2021; Published: October 6, 2021

Copyright: © 2021 Pelikan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: Data is now publicly available: Pelikan ER, Korlat S, Reiter J, Lüftenegger M. Distance Learning in Higher Education During COVID-19: Basic Psychological Needs and Intrinsic Motivation 2021. doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/8CZX3 .

Funding: This work was funded by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) [ https://www.wwtf.at/ ] and the MEGA Bildungsstiftung [ https://www.megabildung.at/ ] through project COV20-025, as well as the Academy of Finland [ https://www.aka.fi ] through project 308351, 336138, and 345117. BS is the grant recipient of COV20-025. KSA is the grant recipient of 308351, 336138, and 345117. Open access funding was provided by University of Vienna. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Introduction

In early 2020, countries across the world faced rising COVID-19 infection rates, and various physical and social distancing measures to contain the spread of the virus were adopted, including curfews and closures of businesses, schools, and universities. By the end of April 2020, roughly 1.3 billion learners were affected by the closure of educational institutions [ 1 ]. At universities, instruction was urgently switched to distance learning, bearing challenges for all actors involved, particularly for students [ 2 ]. Moreover, since distance teaching requires ample preparation time and situation-specific didactic adaptation to be successful, previously established concepts for and research findings on distance learning cannot be applied undifferentiated to the emergency distance learning situation at hand [ 3 ].

Generally, it has been shown that the less structured learning environment in distance learning requires students to regulate their learning and motivation more independently [ 4 ]. In distance learning in particular, high intrinsic motivation has proven to be decisive for learning success, whereas low intrinsic motivation may lead to maladaptive behavior like procrastination (delaying an intended course of action despite negative consequences) [ 5 , 6 ]. According to self-determination theory (SDT), satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and social relatedness leads to higher intrinsic motivation [ 7 ], which in turn promotes adaptive patterns of learning behavior. On the other hand, dissatisfaction of these basic psychological needs can detrimentally affect intrinsic motivation. According to SDT, satisfaction of the basic psychological needs occurs in interaction with the social environment. The context in which learning takes place as well as the support of social interactions it encompasses play a major role for basic need satisfaction [ 7 , 8 ]. Distance learning, particularly when it occurs simultaneously with other physical and social distancing measures, may impair basic need satisfaction and, in consequence, intrinsic motivation and learning behavior.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between basic need satisfaction and two important learning behaviors—procrastination (as a consequence of low or absent intrinsic motivation) and persistence (as the volitional implementation of motivation)—in the context of emergency distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with SDT [ 7 ] and previous studies (e.g., [ 9 ]), we also investigated the mediating role of intrinsic motivation in this relationship. Furthermore, to test the universal importance of SDT for intrinsic motivation and learning behavior under these specific circumstances, we collected data in 17 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America.

The fundamental role of basic psychological needs for intrinsic motivation and learning behavior

SDT [ 7 ] provides a broad framework for understanding human motivation, proposing that the three basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and social relatedness must be satisfied for optimal functioning and intrinsic motivation. The need for autonomy refers to an internal perceived locus of control and a sense of agency. In an academic context, students who learn autonomously feel that they have an active choice in shaping their learning process. The need for competence refers to the feeling of being effective in one’s actions. In addition, students who perceive themselves as competent feel that they can successfully meet challenges and accomplish the tasks they are given. Finally, the need for social relatedness refers to feeling connected to and accepted by others. SDT proposes that the satisfaction of each of these three basic needs uniquely contributes to intrinsic motivation, a claim that has been proved in numerous studies and in various learning contexts. For example, Martinek and colleagues [ 10 ] found that autonomy satisfaction was positively whereas autonomy frustration was negatively related to intrinsic motivation in a sample of university students during COVID-19. The same held true for competence satisfaction and dissatisfaction. A recent study compared secondary school students who perceived themselves as highly competent in dealing with their school-related tasks during pandemic-induced distance learning to those who perceived themselves as low in competence [ 11 ]. Students with high perceived competence not only reported higher intrinsic motivation but also implemented more self-regulated learning strategies (such as goal setting, planning, time management and metacognitive strategies) and procrastinated less than students who perceived themselves as low in competence. Of the three basic psychological needs, the findings on the influence of social relatedness on intrinsic motivation have been most ambiguous. While in some studies, social relatedness enhanced intrinsic motivation (e.g., [ 12 ]), others could not establish a clear connection (e.g., [ 13 ]).

Intrinsic motivation, in turn, is regarded as particularly important for learning behavior and success (e.g., [ 6 , 14 ]). For example, students with higher intrinsic motivation tend to engage more in learning activities [ 9 , 15 ], show higher persistence [ 16 ] and procrastinate less [ 6 , 17 , 18 ]. Notably, intrinsic motivation is considered to be particularly important in distance learning, where students have to regulate their learning themselves. Distance-learning students not only have to consciously decide to engage in learning behavior but also persist despite manifold distractions and less external regulation [ 4 ].

Previous research also indicates that the satisfaction of each basic need uniquely contributes to the regulation of learning behavior [ 19 ]. Indeed, studies have shown a positive relationship between persistence and the three basic needs (autonomy [ 20 ]; competence [ 21 ]; social relatedness [ 22 ]). Furthermore, all three basic psychological needs have been found to be related to procrastination. In previous research with undergraduate students, autonomy-supportive teaching behavior was positively related to satisfaction of the needs for autonomy and competence, both of which led to less procrastination [ 23 ]. A qualitative study by Klingsieck and colleagues [ 18 ] supports the findings of previous studies on the relations of perceived competence and autonomy with procrastination, but additionally suggests a lack of social relatedness as a contributing factor to procrastination. Haghbin and colleagues [ 24 ] likewise found that people with low perceived competence avoided challenging tasks and procrastinated.

SDT has been applied in research across various contexts, including work (e.g., [ 25 ]), health (e.g., [ 26 ]), everyday life (e.g., [ 27 ]) and education (e.g., [ 15 , 28 ]). Moreover, the pivotal role of the three basic psychological needs for learning outcomes and functioning has been shown across multiple countries, including collectivistic as well as individualistic cultures (e.g., [ 29 , 30 ]), leading to the conclusion that satisfaction of the three basic needs is a fundamental and universal determinant of human motivation and consequently learning success [ 31 ].

Self-determination theory in a distance learning setting during COVID-19

As Chen and Jang [ 28 ] observed, SDT lends itself particularly well to investigating distance learning, as the three basic needs for autonomy, competence and social relatedness all relate to important aspects of distance learning. For example, distance learning usually offers students greater freedom in deciding where and when they want to learn [ 32 ]. This may provide students with a sense of agency over their learning, leading to increased perceived autonomy. At the same time, it requires students to regulate their motivation and learning more independently [ 4 ]. In the unique context of distance learning during COVID-19, it should be noted that students could not choose whether and to what extent to engage in distance learning, but had to comply with external stipulations, which in turn may have had a negative effect on perceived autonomy. Furthermore, distance learning may also influence perceived competence, as this is in part developed by receiving explicit or implicit feedback from teachers and peers [ 33 ]. Implicit feedback in particular may be harder to receive in a distance learning setting, where informal discussions and social cues are largely absent. The lack of face-to-face contact may also impede social relatedness between students and their peers as well as students and their teachers. Well-established communication practices are crucial for distance learning success (see [ 34 ] for an overview). However, providing a nurturing social context requires additional effort and guidance from teachers, which in turn necessitates sufficient skills and preparation on their part [ 34 , 35 ]. Moreover, the sudden switch to distance learning due to COVID-19 did not leave teachers and students time to gradually adjust to the new learning situation [ 36 ]. As intrinsic motivation is considered particularly relevant in the context of distance education [ 28 , 37 ], applying the SDT framework to the novel situation of pandemic-induced distance learning may lead to important insights that allow for informed recommendations for teachers and educational institutions about how to proceed in the context of continued distance teaching and learning.

In summary, the COVID-19 situation is a completely new environment, and basic need satisfaction during learning under pandemic-induced conditions has not been explored before. Considering that closures of educational institutions have affected billions of students worldwide and have been strongly debated in some countries, it seems particularly relevant to gain insights into which factors consistently influence conducive or maladaptive learning behavior in these circumstances in a wide range of countries and contextual settings.

Therefore, the overall goal of this study is to investigate the well-established relationship between the three basic needs for autonomy, competence, and social relatedness with intrinsic motivation in the new and specific situation of pandemic-induced distance learning. Firstly, we examine the relationship between each of the basic needs with intrinsic motivation. We expect that perceived satisfaction of the basic needs for autonomy (H1a), competence (H1b) and social relatedness (H1c) would be positively related to intrinsic motivation. In our second research question, we furthermore extend SDT’s predictions regarding two important aspects of learning behavior–procrastination (as a consequence of low or absent intrinsic motivation) and persistence (as the implementation of the volitional part of motivation) and hypothesize that each basic need will be positively related to persistence and negatively related to procrastination, both directly (procrastination: H2a –c; persistence: H3a –c) and mediated by intrinsic motivation (procrastination: H4a –c; persistence: H5a –c). We also proposed that perceived autonomy, competence, and social relatedness would have a direct negative relation with procrastination (H6a –c) and a direct positive relation with persistence (H7a –c). Finally, we investigate SDT’s claim of universality, and assume that the aforementioned relationships will emerge across countries we therefore expect a similar pattern of results in all observed countries (H8a –c). As previous studies have indicated that gender [ 4 , 17 , 38 ] and age [ 39 , 40 ]. May influence intrinsic motivation, persistence, and procrastination, we included participants’ gender and age as control variables.

Study design

Due to the circumstances, we opted for a cross-sectional study design across multiple countries, conducted as an online survey. We decided for an online-design due to the pandemic-related restrictions on physical contact with potential survey participants as well as due to the potential to reach a larger audience. As we were interested in the current situation in schools than in long-term development, and we were particularly interested in a large-scale section of the population in multiple countries, we decided on a cross-sectional design. In addition, a multi-country design is particularly interesting in a pandemic setting: During this global health crisis, educational institutions in all countries face the same challenge (to provide distance learning in a way that allows students to succeed) but do so within different frameworks depending on the specific measures each country has implemented. This provides a unique basis for comparing the effects of need fulfillment on students’ learning behavior cross-nationally, thus testing the universality of SDT.

Sample and procedure

The study was carried out across 17 countries, with central coordination taking place in Austria. It was approved and supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research and conducted online. International cooperation partners were recruited from previously established research networks (e.g., European Family Support Network [COST Action 18123]; Transnational Collaboration on Bullying, Migration and Integration at School Level [COST Action 18115]; International Panel on Social), resulting in data collection in 16 countries (Albania, China, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Kosovo, Lithuania, Poland, Malta, North Macedonia, Romania, Sweden, USA) in addition to Austria. Data collection was carried out between April and August 2020. During this period, all participating countries were in some degree of pandemic-induced lockdown, which resulted in universities temporarily switching to distance learning. The online questionnaires were distributed among university students via online surveys by the research groups in each respective country. No restrictions were placed on participation other than being enrolled at a university in the sampling country. Participants were informed about the goals of the study, expected time it would take to fill out the questionnaire, voluntariness of participation and anonymity of the acquired data. All research partners ensured that all ethical and legal requirements related to data collection in their country context were met.

Only data from students who gave their written consent to participate, had reached the age of majority (18 or older) and filled out all questions regarding the study’s main variables were included in the analyses (for details on data cleaning rules and exclusion criteria, see [ 41 ]). Additional information on data collection in the various countries is provided in S1 Table in S1 File .

The overall sample of N = 15,462 students was predominantly female (71.7%, 27.4% male and 0.7% diverse) and ranged from 18 to 71 years, with the average participant age being 24.41 years ( SD = 6.93, Mdn = 22.00). Sample descriptives per country are presented in Table 1 .

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257346.t001

The variables analyzed here were part of a more extensive questionnaire; the complete questionnaire, as well as the analysis code and the data set, can be found at OSF [ 42 ] In order to take the unique situation into account, existing scales were adapted to the current pandemic context (e.g., adding “In the current home-learning situation …”), and supplemented with a small number of newly developed items. Subsequently, the survey was revised based on expert judgements from our research group and piloted with cognitive interview testing. The items were sent to the research partners in English and translated separately by each respective research team either using the translation-back-translation method or by at least two native-speaking experts. Subsequently, any differences were discussed, and a consolidated version was established.

To assure the reliability of the scales, we analyzed them using alpha coefficients separately for each country (see S2–S18 Tables in S1 File ). All items were answered on a rating scale from 1 (= strongly agree) to 5 (= strongly disagree) and students were instructed to answer with regard to the current situation (distance learning during the COVID-19 lockdown). Analyses were conducted with recoded items so that higher values reflected higher agreement with the statements.

Perceived autonomy was measured with two newly constructed items (“Currently, I can define my own areas of focus in my studies” and “Currently, I can perform tasks in the way that best suits me”; average α = .78, ranging from .62 to .86).

Perceived competence was measured with three items, which were constructed based on the Work-related Basic Need Satisfaction Scale (W-BNS; [ 25 ]) and transferred to the learning context (“Currently, I am dealing well with the demands of my studies”, “Currently, I have no doubts about whether I am capable of doing well in my studies” and “Currently, I am managing to make progress in studying for university”; average α = .83, ranging from .74 to .91).

Perceived social relatedness was assessed with three items, based on the W-BNS [ 43 ], (“Currently, I feel connected with my fellow students”, “Currently, I feel supported by my fellow students”) and the German Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale [ 44 ]; “Currently, I feel connected with the people who are important to me (family, friends)”; average α = .73, ranging from .64 to .88).

Intrinsic motivation was measured with three items which were slightly adapted from the Scales for the Measurement of Motivational Regulation for Learning in University Students (SMR-LS; [ 45 ]; “Currently, doing work for university is really fun”, “Currently, I am really enjoying studying and doing work for university” and “Currently, I find studying for university really exciting”; average α = .91, ranging from .83 to .94).

Procrastination was measured with three items adapted from the Procrastination Questionnaire for Students (Prokrastinationsfragebogen für Studierende; PFS; [ 46 ]): “In the current home-learning situation, I postpone tasks until the last minute”, “In the current home-learning situation, I often do not manage to start a task when I set out to do so”, and “In the current home-learning situation, I only start working on a task when I really need to”; average α = .88, ranging from .74 to .91).

Persistence was measured with three items adapted from the EPOCH measure [ 47 ]: “In the current home-learning situation, I finish whatever task I begin”, “In the current home-learning situation, I keep at my tasks until I am done with them” and “In the current home-learning situation, once I make a plan to study, I stick to it”; average α = .81, ranging from .74 to .88).

Data analysis.

Data analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS version 26.0 and Mplus version 8.4. First, we tested for measurement invariance between countries prior to any substantial analyses. We conducted a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFAs) for all scales individually to test for configural, metric, and scalar invariance [ 48 , 49 ] (see S19 Table in S1 File ). We used maximum likelihood parameter estimates with robust standard errors (MLR) to deal with the non-normality of the data. CFI and RMSEA were used as indicators for absolute goodness of model fit. In line with Hu and Bentler [ 50 ], the following cutoff scores were considered to reflect excellent and adequate fit to the data, respectively: (a) CFI > 0.95 and CFI > 0.90; (b) RMSEA < .06 and RMSEA < .08. Relative model fit was assessed by comparing BICs of the nested models, with smaller BIC values indicating a better trade-off between model fit and model complexity [ 51 ]. Configural invariance indicates a factor structure that is universally applicable to all subgroups in the analysis, metric invariance implies that participants across all groups attribute the same meaning to the latent constructs measured, and scalar invariance indicates that participants across groups attribute the same meaning to the levels of the individual items [ 51 ]. Consequently, the extent to which the results can be interpreted depends on the level of measurement invariance that can be established.

For the main analyses, three latent multiple group mediation models were computed, each including one of the basic psychological needs as a predictor, intrinsic motivation as the mediator and procrastination and persistence as the outcomes. These three models served to test the hypothesis that perceived autonomy, competence and social relatedness are related to levels of procrastination and persistence, both directly and mediated through intrinsic motivation. We used bootstrapping in order to provide analyses robust to non-normal distribution variations, specifying 5,000 bootstrap iterations [ 52 ]. Results were estimated using the maximum likelihood (ML) method. Bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals are reported.

Finally, in an exploratory step, we investigated the international applicability of the direct and mediated effects. To this end, an additional set of latent mediation models was computed where the path estimates were fixed in order to create an average model across all countries. This was prompted by the consistent patterns of results across countries we observed in the multigroup analyses. Model fit indices of these average models were compared to those of the multigroup models in order to establish the similarity of path coefficients between countries.

Statistical prerequisites

Table 2 provides overall descriptive statistics and correlations for all variables (see S2–S18 Tables in S1 File for descriptive statistics for the individual countries).

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Metric measurement variance, but not scalar measurement invariance could be established for a simple model including the three individual items and no inter-correlations between perceived competence, perceived social relatedness, intrinsic motivation, and procrastination. For these four variables, the metric invariance model had a good absolute fit, whereas the scalar model did not, due to too high RMSEA; moreover, the relative fit was best for the metric model compared to both the configural and scalar model (see S18 Table in S1 File ). Metric, but not scalar invariance could also be established for persistence after modelling residual correlations between items 1 and 2 and items 2 and 3 of the scale. This was necessary due to the similar wording of the items (see “Measures” section for item wordings). Consequently, the same residual correlations were incorporated into all mediation models.

Finally, as the perceived autonomy scale consisted of only two items, it had to be fitted in a model with a correlating factor in order to compute measurement invariance. Both perceived competence and perceived social relatedness were correlated with perceived autonomy ( r = .59** and r = .31**, respectively; see Table 2 ). Therefore, we fit two models combining perceived autonomy with each of these factors; in both cases, metric measurement invariance was established (see S19 Table in S1 File ).

In summary, these results suggest that the meaning of all constructs we aimed to measure was understood similarly by participants across different countries. Consequently, we were able to fit the same mediation model in all countries and compare the resulting path coefficients.

Both gender and age were statistically significantly correlated with perceived competence, perceived social relatedness, intrinsic motivation, procrastination, and persistence (see S20–S22 Tables in S1 File ).

Mediation analyses

Autonomy hypothesis..

We hypothesized that higher perceived autonomy would relate to less procrastination and more persistence, both directly and indirectly (mediated through intrinsic learning motivation). Indeed, perceived autonomy was related negatively to procrastination (H6a) in most countries. Confidence intervals did not include zero in 10 out of 17 countries, all effect estimates were negative and standardized effect estimates ranged from b stand = - .02 to -.46 (see Fig 1 ). Furthermore, perceived autonomy was directly positively related to persistence in most countries. Specifically, for the direct effect of perceived autonomy on persistence (H7a), all but one country (USA, b stand = -.02; p = .621; CI [-.13, .08]) exhibited distinctly positive effect estimates ranging from b stand = .18 to .72 and confidence intervals that did not include zero.

Countries are ordered by sample size from top (highest) to bottom (lowest).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257346.g001

In terms of indirect effects of perceived autonomy on procrastination mediated by intrinsic motivation (H7a), confidence intervals did not include zero in 8 out of 17 countries and effect estimates were mostly negative, ranging from b stand = -.33 to .03. Indirect effects of perceived autonomy on persistence (mediated by intrinsic motivation; H5a) were distinctly positive and confidence intervals did not include zero in 12 out of 17 countries. The indirect effect estimates and confidence intervals for all remaining countries were consistently positive, with the standardized effect estimates ranging from b stand = .13 to .39, indicating a robust, positive mediated effect of autonomy on persistence. Fig 2 displays the unstandardized path coefficients and their two-sided 5% confidence intervals for the indirect effects of perceived autonomy on procrastination via intrinsic motivation (left) and of perceived autonomy on persistence via intrinsic motivation (right).

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Unstandardized and standardized path coefficients, standard errors, p-values and bias-corrected bootstrapped confidence intervals for the direct and indirect effects of perceived autonomy on procrastination and persistence for each country are provided in S23–S26 Tables in S1 File , respectively.

Competence hypothesis. Secondly, we hypothesized that higher perceived competence would relate to less procrastination and more persistence both directly and indirectly, mediated through intrinsic learning motivation. Direct effects on procrastination (H6b) were negative in most countries and confidence intervals did not include zero in 10 out of 17 countries (see Fig 3 ).

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Standardized effect estimates ranged from b stand = -.02 to -.60, with 10 out of 17 countries exhibiting at least a medium-sized effect. Correspondingly, effect estimates for the direct effects on persistence were positive everywhere except the USA and confidence intervals did not include zero in 14 out of 17 countries (see Fig 3 ). Standardized effect estimates ranged from b stand = -.05 to .64 with 14 out of 17 countries displaying an at least medium-sized positive effect.

The pattern of results for the indirect effects of perceived competence on procrastination mediated by learning motivation (H4b) is illustrated in Fig 4 : Effect estimates were negative with the exception of China and the USA. Confidence intervals did not include zero in 7 out of 17 countries. Standardized effect estimates range between b stand = .06 and -.46. Indirect effects of perceived competence on persistence were positive everywhere except for two countries and confidence intervals did not include zero in 7 out of 17 countries (see Fig 4 ). Standardized effect estimates varied between b stand = -.07 and .46 (see S23–S26 Tables in S1 File for unstandardized and standardized path coefficients).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257346.g004

Social relatedness hypothesis.

Finally, we hypothesized that stronger perceived social relatedness would be both directly and indirectly (mediated through intrinsic learning motivation) related to less procrastination and more persistence. The pattern of results was more ambiguous here than for perceived autonomy and perceived competence. Direct effect estimates on procrastination (H6c) were negative in 12 countries; however, the confidence intervals included zero in 12 out of 17 countries (see Fig 5 ). Standardized effect estimates ranged from b stand = -.01 to b stand = .33. The direct relation between perceived social relatedness and persistence (H7c) yielded 14 negative and three positive effect estimates. Confidence intervals did not include zero in 7 out of 17 countries (see Fig 5 ), with standardized effect estimates ranging from b stand = -.01 to b stand = .31.

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In terms of indirect effects of perceived social relatedness being related to procrastination mediated by intrinsic motivation (H4c), the pattern of results was consistent: All effect estimates except those for the USA were clearly negative, and confidence intervals did not include zero in 15 out of 17 countries (see Fig 6 ). Standardized effect estimates ranged between b stand = .00 and b stand = -.46. Indirect paths of perceived social relatedness on persistence showed positive effect estimates and standardized effect estimates ranging from b stand = .00 to .44 and confidence intervals not including zero in 16 out of 17 countries (see Fig 6 ; see S23–S26 Tables in S1 File for unstandardized and standardized path coefficients).

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Meta-analytic approach

Due to the overall similarity of the results across many countries, we decided to compute, in an additional, exploratory step, the same models with path estimates fixed across countries. This resulted in three models with average path estimates across the entire sample. Standardized path coefficients for the direct and indirect effects of the basic psychological needs on procrastination and persistence are presented in S27 and S28 Tables in S1 File , respectively. We compared the model fits of these three average models to those of the multigroup mediation models: If the fit of the average model is better than that of the multigroup model, it indicates that the individual countries are similar enough to be combined into one model. The amount of explained variance per model, outcome variable and country are provided in S29 Table in S1 File for procrastination and S30 Table in S1 File for persistence.

Perceived autonomy.

Relative model fit was better for the perceived autonomy model with fixed paths (BIC = 432,707.89) compared to the multigroup model (BIC = 432,799.01). Absolute model fit was equally good in the multigroup model (RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.97) and in the fixed path model (RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.97). Consequently, the general model in Fig 7 describes the data from all 17 countries equally well. The average amount of explained variance, however, is slightly higher in the multigroup model, with 19.9% of the variance in procrastination and 33.7% of the variance in persistence explained, as compared to 18.3% and 27.6% in the fixed path model. The amount of variance explained increased substantially in some countries when fixing the paths: in the multigroup model, explained variance ranges from 2.2% to 44.4% for procrastination and from 0.9% to 69.9% for persistence, compared to 13.0% - 27.7% and 18.2% to 63.2% in the fixed path model. Notably, the amount of variance explained did not change much in the three countries with the largest samples, Austria, Sweden, and Finland; countries with much smaller samples and larger confidence intervals were more affected.

*** p = < .001.

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Overall, perceived autonomy had significant direct and indirect effects on both procrastination and persistence; higher perceived autonomy was related to less procrastination directly ( b unstand = -.27, SE = .02, p = < .001) and mediated by learning motivation ( b unstand = -.20, SE = .01, p = < .001) and to more persistence directly ( b unstand = .24, SE = .01, p = < .001) and mediated by learning motivation ( b unstand = .12, SE = .01, p = < .001). Direct effects for the autonomy model are shown in Fig 7 ; for the indirect effects see Table 3 .

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Effects of age and gender varied across countries (see S20 Table in S1 File ).

Perceived competence.

For the perceived competence model, relative fit decreased when fixing the path coefficient estimates (BIC = 465,830.44 to BIC = 466,020.70). The absolute fit indices were also better for the multigroup model (RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.96) than for the fixed path model (RMSEA = 0.06, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.96). Hence, multigroup modelling describes the data across all countries somewhat better than a fixed path model as depicted in Fig 8 . Correspondingly, the fixed path model explained less variance on average than did the multigroup model, with 23.2% instead of 24.3% of the variance in procrastination and 32.9% instead of 37.3% of the variance in persistence explained. Explained variance ranged from 1.0% to 51.9% for procrastination in the multigroup model, as compared to 13.9% - 34.4% in the fixed path model. The amount of variance in persistence explained ranged from 1.0% to 58.1% in the multigroup model and from 23.5% to 55.9% in the fixed path model (see S29 and S30 Tables in S1 File ).

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Overall, higher perceived competence was related to less procrastination ( b unstand = -.44, SE = .02, p = < .001) and to higher persistence ( b unstand = .32, SE = .01, p = < .001). These effects were partly mediated by intrinsic learning motivation ( b unstand = -.11, SE = .01, p = < .001, and b unstand = .07, SE = .01, p = < .001, respectively; see Table 3 ). Effects of gender and age varied between countries, see S21 Table in S1 File .

Perceived social relatedness.

Finally, the perceived social relatedness model with fixed paths had a relatively better model fit (BIC = 479,428.46) than the multigroup model (BIC = 479,604.61). Likewise, the absolute model fit was similar in the model with path coefficients fixed across countries (RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.96) and the multigroup model (RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.97, TLI = 0.97). The multigroup model explained 17.6% of the variance in procrastination and 26.3% of the variance in persistence, as compared to 15.2% and 21.6%, respectively in the fixed path model. Explained variance for procrastination ranged between 0.5% and 48.1% in the multigroup model, and from 9.0% to 23.0% in the fixed path model. Similarly, the multigroup model explained between 1.0% and 56.5% of the variance in persistence across countries, while the fixed path model explained between 15.6% and 48.3% (see S29 and S30 Tables in S1 File ).

Hence, the fixed path model depicted in Fig 9 is well-suited for describing data across all 17 countries. Higher perceived social relatedness is related to less procrastination both directly ( b unstand = -.06, SE = .01, p = < .001) and indirectly through learning motivation ( b unstand = -.12, SE = .01, p = < .001). Likewise, it is related to higher persistence both directly ( b unstand = .07, SE = .01, p = < .001) and indirectly through learning motivation ( b unstand = .08, SE = .00, p = < .001; see Table 3 ). Effects of gender and age are shown in S22 Table in S1 File .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257346.g009

The aim of this study was to extend current research on the association between the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and social relatedness with intrinsic motivation and two important aspects of learning behavior—procrastination and persistence—in the new and unique situation of pandemic-induced distance learning. We also investigated SDT’s [ 7 ] postulate that the relation between basic psychological need satisfaction and active (persistence) as well as passive (procrastination) learning behavior is mediated by intrinsic motivation. To test the theory’s underlying claim of universality, we collected data from N = 15,462 students across 17 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Confirming our hypothesis, we found that the three basic psychological needs were consistently and positively related to intrinsic motivation in all countries except for the USA (H1a - c). This consistent result is in line with self-determination theory [ 7 ] and other previous studies (e.g., 9), which have found that satisfaction of the three basic needs for autonomy, competence and social relatedness is related to higher intrinsic motivation. Notably, the association with intrinsic motivation was stronger for perceived autonomy and perceived competence than for perceived social relatedness. This also has been found in previous studies [ 4 , 9 , 28 ]. Pandemic-induced distance learning, where physical and subsequential social contact in all areas of life was severely constricted, might further exacerbate this discrepancy, as instructors may have not been able to establish adequate communication structures due to the rapid switch to distance learning [ 36 , 53 ]. As hypothesized, intrinsic motivation was in general negatively related to procrastination (H2a - c) and positively related to persistence (H3a - c), indicating that students who are intrinsically motivated are less prone to procrastination and more persistent when studying. This again underlines the importance of intrinsic motivation for adaptive learning behavior, even and particularly in a distance learning setting, where students are more prone to disengage from classes [ 34 ].

The mediating effect of intrinsic motivation on procrastination and persistence

Direct effects of the basic needs on the outcomes were consistently more ambiguous (with smaller effect estimates and larger confidence intervals, including zero in more countries) than indirect effects mediated by intrinsic motivation. This difference was particularly pronounced for perceived social relatedness, where a clear negative direct effect on procrastination (H6c) could be observed only in the three countries with the largest sample size (Austria, Sweden, Finland) and Romania, whereas the confidence interval in most countries included zero. Moreover, in Estonia there was even a clear positive effect. The unexpected effect in the Estonian sample may be attributed to the fact that this country collected data only from international exchange students. Since the lockdown in Estonia was declared only a few weeks after the start of the semester, international exchange students had only a very short period of time to establish contacts with fellow students on site. Accordingly, there was probably little integration into university structures and social contacts were maintained more on a personal level with contacts from the home country. Thus, such students’ fulfillment of this basic need might have required more time and effort, leading to higher procrastination and less persistence in learning.

A diametrically opposite pattern was observed for persistence (H7c), where some direct effects of social relatedness were unexpectedly negative or close to zero. We therefore conclude that evidence for a direct negative relationship between social relatedness and procrastination and a direct positive relationship between social relatedness and persistence is lacking. This could be due to the specificity of the COVID-19 situation and resulting lockdowns, in which maintaining social contact took students’ focus off learning. In line with SDT, however, indirect effects of perceived social relatedness on procrastination (H4c) and persistence (H5c) mediated via intrinsic motivation were much more visible and in the expected directions. We conclude that, while the direct relation between perceived social relatedness and procrastination is ambiguous, there is strong evidence that the relationship between social relatedness and the measured learning behaviors is mediated by intrinsic motivation. Our results strongly underscore SDT’s assumption that close social relations promote intrinsic motivation, which in turn has a positive effect on learning behavior (e.g., [ 6 , 14 ]). The effects for perceived competence exhibited a somewhat clearer and hypothesis-conforming pattern. All direct effects of perceived competence on procrastination (H6b) were in the expected negative direction, albeit with confidence intervals spanning zero in 7 out of 17 countries. Direct effects of perceived competence on persistence (H7b) were consistently positive with the exception of the USA, where we observed a very small and non-significant negative effect. Indirect effects of perceived competence on procrastination (H4b) and persistence (H5b) as mediated by intrinsic motivation were mostly consistent with our expectations as well. Considering this overall pattern of results, we conclude that there is strong evidence that perceived competence is negatively associated with procrastination and positively associated with persistence. Furthermore, our results also support SDT’s postulate that the relationship between perceived competence and the measured learning behaviors is mediated by intrinsic motivation.

It is notable that the estimated direct effects of perceived competence on procrastination and persistence were higher than the indirect effects in most countries we investigated. Although SDT proposes that perceived competence leads to higher intrinsic motivation, Deci and Ryan [ 8 ] also argue that it affects all types of motivation and regulation, including less autonomous forms such as introjected and identified motivation, indicating that if the need for competence is not satisfied, all types of motivation are negatively affected. This may result in a general amotivation and lack of action. In our study, we only investigated intrinsic motivation as a mediator. For future research, it might be advantageous to further differentiate between different types of externally and internally controlled behavior. Furthermore, perceived competence increases when tasks are experienced as optimally challenging [ 7 , 54 ]. However, in order for instructors to provide the optimal level of difficulty and support needed, frequent communication with students is essential. Considering that data collection for the present study took place at a time of great uncertainty, when many countries had only transitioned to distance learning a few weeks prior, it is reasonable to assume that both structural support as well as communication and feedback mechanisms had not yet matured to a degree that would favor individualized and competency-based work.

However, our findings corroborate those from earlier studies insofar as they underline the associations between perceived competence and positive learning behavior (e.g., [ 19 ]), that is, lower procrastination [ 18 ] and higher persistence (e.g., [ 21 ]), even in an exceptional situation like pandemic-induced distance learning.

Turning to perceived autonomy, although the confidence intervals for the direct effects of perceived autonomy on procrastination (H6a) did span zero in most countries with smaller sample sizes, all effect estimates indicated a negative relation with procrastination. We expected these relationships from previous studies [ 18 , 23 ]; however, the effect might have been even more pronounced in the relatively autonomous learning situation of distance learning, where students usually have increased autonomy in deciding when, where, and how to learn. While this bears the risk of procrastination, it also comes with the opportunity to consciously delay less pressing tasks in favor of other, more important or urgent tasks (also called strategic delay ) [ 5 ], resulting in lower procrastination. In future studies, it might be beneficial to differentiate between passive forms of procrastination and active strategic delay in order to obtain more detailed information on the mechanisms behind this relationship. Direct effects of autonomy on persistence (H7a) were consistently positive. Students who are free to choose their preferred time and place to study may engage more with their studies and therefore be more persistent.

Indirect effects of perceived autonomy on procrastination mediated by intrinsic motivation (H4a) were negative in all but two countries (China and the USA), which is generally consistent with our hypothesis and in line with previous research (e.g., [ 23 ]). Additionally, we found a positive indirect effect of autonomy on persistence (H5a), indicating that autonomy and intrinsic motivation play a crucial role in students’ persistence in a distance learning setting. Based on our results, we conclude that perceived autonomy is negatively related to procrastination and positively related to persistence, and that this relationship is mediated by intrinsic motivation. It is worth noting that, unlike with perceived competence, the direct and indirect effects of perceived autonomy on the outcomes procrastination and persistence were similarly strong, suggesting that perceived autonomy is important not only as a driver of intrinsic motivation but also at a more direct level. It is important to make the best possible use of the opportunity for greater autonomy that distance learning offers. However, autonomy is not to be equated with a lack of structure; instead, learners should be given the opportunity to make their own decisions within certain framework conditions.

The applicability of self-determination theory across countries

Overall, the results of our mediation analysis for the separate countries support the claim posited by SDT that basic need satisfaction is essential for intrinsic motivation and learning across different countries and settings. In an exploratory analysis, we tested a fixed path model including all countries at once, in order to test whether a simplified general model would yield a similar amount of explained variance. For perceived autonomy and social relatedness, the model fit increased, whereas for perceived competence it decreased slightly compared to the multigroup model. However, all fixed path models exhibited adequate model fit. Considering that the circumstances in which distance learning took place in different countries varied to some degree (see also Limitations), these findings are a strong indicator for the universality of SDT.

Study strengths and limitations

Although the current study has several strengths, including a large sample size and data from multiple countries, three limitations must be considered. First, it must be noted that sample sizes varied widely across the 17 countries in our study, with one country above 6,000 (Austria), two above 1,000 (Finland and Sweden) and the rest ranging between 104 and 905. Random sampling effects are more problematic in smaller samples; hence, this large variation weakens our ability to conduct cross-country comparisons. At the same time, small sample sizes weaken the interpretability of results within each country; thus, our results for Austria, Finland and Sweden are considerably more robust than for the remaining fourteen countries. Additionally, two participating countries collected specific subsamples: In China, participants were only recruited from one university, a nursing school. In Estonia, only international exchange students were invited to participate. Nevertheless, with the exception of the unexpected positive direct relationship between social relatedness and procrastination, all observed divergent effects were non-significant. Indeed, this adds to the support for SDT’s claims to universality regarding the relationship between perceived autonomy, competence, and social relatedness with intrinsic motivation: Results in the included countries were, despite their differing subsamples, in line with the overall trend of results, supporting the idea that SDT applies equally to different groups of learners.

Second, due to the large number of countries in our sample and the overall volatility of the situation, learning circumstances were not identical for all participants. Due to factors such as COVID-19 case counts and national governments’ political priorities, lockdown measures varied in their strictness across settings. Some universities were fully closed, some allowed on-site teaching for particular groups (e.g., students in the middle of a laboratory internship), and some switched to distance learning but held exams on site (see S1 Table in S1 File for further information). Therefore, learning conditions were not as comparable as in a strict experimental setting. On the other hand, this strengthens the ecological validity of our study. The fact that the pattern of results was similar across contexts with certain variation in learning conditions further supports the universal applicability of SDT.

Finally, due to the novelty of the COVID-19 situation, some of the measures were newly developed for this study. Due to the need to react swiftly and collect data on the constantly evolving situation, it was not possible to conduct a comprehensive validation study of the instruments. Nevertheless, we were able to confirm the validity of our instruments in several ways, including cognitive interview testing, CFAs, CR, and measurement invariance testing.

Conclusion and future directions

In general, our results further support previous research on the relation between basic psychological need fulfilment and intrinsic motivation, as proposed in self-determination theory. It also extends past findings by applying this well-established theory to the new and unique situation of pandemic-induced distance learning across 17 different countries. Moreover, it underlines the importance of perceived autonomy and competence for procrastination and persistence in this setting. However, various other directions for further research remain to be pursued. While our findings point to the relevance of social relatedness for intrinsic motivation in addition to perceived competence and autonomy, further research should explore the specific mechanisms necessary to promote social connectedness in distance learning. Furthermore, in our study, we investigated intrinsic motivation, as the most autonomous form of motivation. Future research might address different types of externally and internally regulated motivation in order to further differentiate our results regarding the relations between basic need satisfaction and motivation. Finally, a longitudinal study design could provide deeper insights into the trajectory of need satisfaction, intrinsic motivation and learning behavior during extended periods of social distancing and could provide insights into potential forms of support implemented by teachers and coping mechanisms developed by students.

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257346.s001

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The “Cliff” Approacheth

Pandemic relief funds for education are about to be a thing of the past. how will public schools cope.

You know the easiest way to tell that U.S. schools have gotten back to their prepandemic normal? It’s that when they’re in the news these days, it’s mostly for familiar reasons: because they’re bearing the awful consequences of American gun culture or hosting culture wars about censoring books. We’ve largely slouched back to the status quo—schools are open, and there’s little sustained effort to substantively alter how they function. Insofar as we’re talking about K–12 teaching and learning now, we’re rehashing another evergreen education conversation : fretting about a possible shortage of U.S. teachers.

But appearances can be deceiving. Much of the apparent K–12 business as usual has been the result of an immense splash of federal emergency funding through Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief. At the end of September, that funding sunsets—all funds must be “ obligated ,” which is to say districts must have committed, via their budgets, to a plan to spend them by Jan. 28, 2025. As a result, over the next few school years, the national public education picture is going to change considerably, forcing families, educators, administrators, and public officials to make difficult choices about how public schools will operate.

ESSER made for a sea change in federal education resources, brought about via a series of three bills, passed in 2020 and 2021, plowing about $190 billion into the nation’s public education. For context, the U.S. Department of Education’s K–12 budget usually works out to just over $40 billion a year; that covers everything the department does, from offering grants to support schools serving communities of concentrated poverty to supplying resources for English-learning students to providing services to students with disabilities.

Since March 2020, those ESSER funds have sustained the country’s public schools through immensely turbulent years. During the Trump administration, ESSER funds enabled schools’ purchase of the technology necessary for virtual learning along with emergency support services for students and staff. In 2021 the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan generated the last—and, at $122 billion, the largest —round of ESSER funding, which financed school-reopening efforts and programming aimed at improving students’ mental well-being and fostering academic recovery.

In the years between the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in many states had grown accustomed to flat, or shrinking, budgets . ESSER changed everything. Indeed, the sudden influx of resources was so unprecedented that some communities initially struggled to spend the money. But over time, schools adjusted to the new reality, improving their facilities, adding learning technologies, and implementing new curricula and teacher trainings.

Schools also added staff: tutors, after-school coordinators, and more teachers —often to reduce class sizes . Between 2021 and 2023, surveys from AASA , the School Superintendents Association, consistently found that solid majorities of districts used their ESSER funds to increase staff capacity.

North Carolina’s Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, for instance, received upwards of $230 million in ESSER grants . WS/FCS put nearly $100 million of those into “ Accelerating Learning for Students ,” and another $72 million into “Recruitment, Development, & Retention of Talent.” From the 2021–22 to 2022–23 school year, the district brought on more than 400 additional staff, nearly 140 of which were financed through federal grants.

But ESSER was, at its base, emergency funding—and the country has largely decided that the pandemic emergency is over. Districts have until Sept. 30 to commit their final funds to various recovery efforts, then American public schools enter a new budget reality more akin to their prepandemic situation.

And yet, it won’t be quite the same. School budgets are dwindling in many communities as student enrollment shrinks—usually because of a combination of lower birth rates and conservative policies diverting education funding to private schools. Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools enrollment dropped by roughly 2,000 students between 2019 and 2023.

ESSER’s end will put K–12 schools squarely into an era of trade-offs. Many districts will have to decide whether to continue pandemic recovery efforts like tutoring programs, after-school academic programs, summer learning opportunities, and social–emotional supports. Some districts, including WS/FCS , are having to choose whether to dismiss teachers or forestall staff raises .

And this is just the first level of difficulty. When budget shortfalls cost staff positions, districts will face further headaches in determining which teachers, schools, communities, and students will bear the bulk of the reductions. In many places, this will mean that recent hires will be most likely to lose their positions— these educators tend to work in schools serving historically marginalized populations and be more racially diverse .

Fortunately, the Sept. 30 ESSER “ cliff ” isn’t nearly as sharp as it sounds , says researcher Chad Aldeman. Many districts used ESSER funds to shore up their finances, which leaves them in relatively strong fiscal health. Although K–12 hiring will probably slow this fall compared with last fall, 2025 is when schools will truly start to reflect the impacts of the depleted federal money. By then, Aldeman says, “districts will basically [just] be doing replacement hiring—and they definitely won’t be growing. Some places will be having to shrink. So that’s the sort of moment where we get back to balance, back to where we were. [But] balance is a hard one—because it begs the question of: Balance compared to what? Balance compared to 2019? Balance compared to 2010?”

That gets at the uncertainty lurking for schools—and policymakers—as ESSER ends: What was the program’s actual goal?

Noelle Ellerson Ng, associate executive director for advocacy and governance for AASA, says that ESSER “was never intended to close all achievement gaps. It was intended to get schools back to where they were pre-COVID, and people don’t want to wrestle with the uncomfortable truth [that] if you did the heroic work to get back to pre-COVID, you still have a lot of glaring achievement gaps.” Further, she says, local education leaders tell her: “The impacts of COVID are still in school. The kids schools have now are not the ones they had before COVID.”

If ESSER was ultimately about reopening and restarting American public education, it’s a relatively clear success. Schools have been pretty universally reopened since fall 2021. For better or worse, much of the education technology that facilitated virtual pandemic learning has been integrated into in-person learning as well.

By contrast, it’s apparent that ESSER didn’t fully reestablish the prepandemic status quo for kids. Early returns suggest that the program may have blunted the worst of the pandemic’s effect on student achievement. The Education Recovery Scorecard , a project led by researchers at Stanford and Harvard universities, hints at a nuanced set of outcomes. In general, their model found that for each additional $1,000 in per-student funding that ESSER provided, there were modest achievement boosts equivalent to roughly six additional days of learning in math and three additional days of learning in reading.

But this finding belies significant variation between districts. In 2019 WS/FCS students scored , on average, slightly below the national average in math. In 2022, when reopened schools made it possible to administer math tests again, the district’s math scores had fallen to nearly 1.4 grade levels below that 2019 national benchmark. A year later, WS/FCS students had made impressive progress— reducing the gap by nearly half, to just three-quarters of a year behind the national average . However, in neighboring Stokes County Schools , the patterns were much different. Math scores there dropped by nearly two-thirds of a grade level from 2019–22 but showed almost no improvement from 2022–23.

The researchers imply that these patterns may reflect the varying effectiveness of different strategies districts pursued: “We conclude that many districts spent the pandemic relief dollars in ways which boosted student achievement,” they write . “But that is different from saying that the dollars had as much impact as they could have had.” ESSER funds helped schools succeed because they were new, supplemental resources, but they were particularly effective when schools used them in especially effective ways. The amount of money mattered—but it mattered more when it was spent better.

That’s why the next few years could be a watershed moment in public education. Schools no longer need sustained boosts in federal funding to supply in-person instruction during the 2024–25 school year—or to offer a standard school day, week, and year that feels like the prepandemic normal to students and families.

But schools are about to have to shrink their spending back to prepandemic levels—and perhaps even further if their enrollment levels have dropped. This will entail making tough choices, like deciding whether to retain new staff brought on with ESSER funds or provide teachers with raises, or whether to continue ESSER-backed after-school programs or keep additional mental-health staff on campuses. A recent American Institutes for Research study found evidence that districts spent considerable ESSER funds on new teaching staff and warned that “it is also likely … that the end of ESSER will also lead to significant staff and teacher layoffs.” Remember that teaching shortage? If teachers have been harder to find in recent years, that may been a reflection of an ESSER-fueled hiring boom that’s about to end.

In other words, schools will have to pick which pandemic-era, ESSER-funded supports they want to keep. This gets somewhat easier if public officials are able to increase resources for public education. “Our schools can’t get better if they’re being underfunded. So this is really an opportunity for the public to continue to weigh in, make that case, and to put pressure honestly on state leaders to make deeper investments in their schools,” says Education Trust policy researcher Qubilah Huddleston .

Still, ESSER was such a dramatic increase in K–12 resources that it’s highly unlikely most communities will be able to fully replace it . That means that the Sept. 30 deadline will kick off an era when teachers, administrators, and policymakers will have to focus their (limited) attention, energy, and resources on rebuilding public education systems that give children the best possible chance to finish what ESSER started: to fully close the academic gulfs that opened during the pandemic.

Pandemics Don’t Really End—They Echo

T he public health emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic officially ended on May 11, 2023. It was a purely administrative step. Viruses do not answer to government decrees. Reported numbers were declining, but then started coming up again during the summer. By August, hospital admissions climbed to more than 10,000 a week. This was nowhere near the 150,000 weekly admissions recorded at the peak of the pandemic in January 2022.

The new variant is more contagious. It is not yet clear whether it is more lethal. Nor is it clear whether the recent rise is a mere uptick or foreshadows a more serious surge. More than 50,000 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the U.S. in 2023. Somehow, this has come to be seen as almost normal.

Even while health authorities are keeping their eyes on new “variables of concern,” for much of the public COVID has been cancelled. The news media have largely moved on to other calamities. The pandemic is over. Is it?

History shows that pandemics have ragged endings. Some return again and again. The Justinian Plague that swept through the Roman Empire in the 6 th century returned in waves over the next 200 years. The Black Death that killed half the population of Europe between 1347 and 1351 came back more than 40 times over the next 400 years.

Read More: Will the New Vaccine Work Against the Latest Variant?

The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt long after the last rapid test comes back positive. Millions today are still suffering from “ long COVID ”—a range of medical conditions that can appear long after the initial infection. This concept can be applied to the whole of society.

Pandemics have always frayed the social fabric, disrupted economies, deepened social divides, and intensified prejudices, leaving behind psychological scars—all of which have lasting political repercussions.

Angered by the British crown’s attempt to restore the inequalities of the pre-pandemic feudal system, which had been weakened by the massive depopulation caused by the plague, English peasants marched on London and nearly brought down the king. Repeated waves of cholera in Europe during the 19 th century increased social tensions and contributed to growing class warfare. A sharp increase in labor strife followed the 1918 flu pandemic.

Today, society seems similarly on edge and quick to violence, an observation that was also made about medieval society following the plague. The U.S. homicide rate in 2020 and 2021 increased by nearly 40 percent. It appears to have come down in some cities, but violent crime remains above pre-pandemic levels. Mass shootings have hit an all-time high, while random unprovoked aggression has increased in public spaces. The pandemic is not entirely to blame, but it has likely been a contributing factor.

Many Americans quit their jobs after the pandemic. Others are refusing to give up working from home . The so-called great resignation appears to be ending, but the labor militancy that featured in post-pandemic societies continues.

While the COVID-19 pandemic comes nowhere near the depopulation effects of the plague, it emptied the sidewalks in many major American cities. Office buildings have fewer workers. Restaurants have lost business. It is not uncommon to see rows of boarded up retail shops. COVID does not get all the blame. The rise in crime in many city centers keeps many away. Urban geography may be permanently altered.

As it often did after past pandemics, pessimism pervades the post-pandemic moodscape. Its explanation lies beyond the pathogens. A Biblical host of natural and man-made disasters—pestilence, war, famine, floods, drought, fire, contribute to a sense of foreboding.

The 1918 flu pandemic left a legacy of distrust in institutions and each other, which was passed down to children and grandchildren, COVID may have similar long-term effects.

Americans are a cantankerous lot, increasingly suspicious of malevolent motives behind anything government does. Partisan news outlets look for conflict and stoke outrage. In past pandemics, conspiracy theories flourished, often blaming immigrants and Jews. So too, some COVID conspiracy theories suggest that the virus was designed to kill Whites or Blacks, while sparing Asians and Jews. Nothing changes.

Some believe the government created the pandemic hoax or deliberately misled the public about the seriousness of the situation. They argue that needless lockdown orders and business shutdown ruined the economy; providing financial relief to businesses and families opened the way for massive corruption and left the country with insupportable debt; mask and vaccine mandates were assaults on personal liberty for the benefit of big Pharma profits. Some still claim that the vaccines themselves rivaled the virus in their lethality. Defiance has been elevated to patriotism.

Owing to response measures, improved medications, life-saving procedures for treating critically-ill patients, and the rapid availability of a vaccine, the outbreak did not replicate the death tolls of previous pandemics.

Although it sounds perverse, saving lives ended up contributing to the controversy. Simply put: The pandemic was not deadly enough . The 2 nd century Antonine Plague killed a quarter of the Roman Empire’s population. The 6 th century Justinian plague killed half the population of Europe. According to some historians, the first wave of the plague in the 14 th century again wiped out half of Europe’s inhabitants.

COVID has killed more than a million Americans, roughly a third of one percent—or about the same percentage of the population killed in World War II. As a percentage of the total population, the 1918 flu was twice as deadly.

The demographics of the death toll are important. The 1918 flu killed many younger people—those 25-40 years old accounted for 40% of the fatalities—while COVID killed mainly older Americans, as three-quarters of the dead were 65 or older. Those under 40 accounted for just 2.5% of the fatalities.

Some questioned why the country’s well-being should be jeopardized to save the elderly, many of whom already had other afflictions anyway. Expressed in the cruelest terms, nature was culling the herd. Indeed, some of the same groups that during earlier debates about national health care expressed outrage at the prospect of death panels “pulling the plug on grandma” suggested during the pandemic that the elderly would be willing to die to save the economy.

The COVID pandemic lacked visual impact. Except for those directly affected, COVID’s toll remained abstract. There was no modern equivalent of town criers calling “Bring out your dead” accompanied by carts making the rounds to collect corpses. Had COVID led to bodies piled in the streets, shared dread might have outweighed our differences. As it turned out, we had the science to address the pandemic. What we lacked was the social accord.

Discord continues in the political arena. The tradeoffs between preserving individual rights and protecting the public are legitimate areas to explore, but rather than looking for lessons to be learned, some politicians appear determined to settle scores. Pandemic disputes will almost certainly feature in the 2024 presidential election.

Any future outbreak of disease will likely again see cable news, the internet, and social media play major roles in shaping the information individuals choose in their decision making. This will inevitably make emergency control measures more difficult to impose. COVID’s biggest political casualty may be governability itself.

We are unable to join hands to remember the more than a million Americans that have succumbed to the virus—that are succumbing still. We cannot express a nation’s gratitude to the scientists, public health officials, and heroic frontline health workers, thousands of whom died saving lives during the pandemic. Stuck in the well-worn paths of previous pandemic prejudices and conspiracy theory re-runs, we cannot come together to mourn our losses and celebrate our survival.

There will be no collective thanksgiving, no elegies, no closure. As we have seen time and time again throughout human history, pandemics do not end—they echo.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

The problems of the covid-19 pandemic in higher education.

• 1 Laboratory of Humanistic Approach in Education, Moscow City University, Moscow, Russia
• 2 Department of Psychology and Pedagogy, Ulyanovsk State University, Ulyanovsk, Russia
• 3 Department of Psychology, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow, Russia
• 4 Department of Pedagogy and Psychology of Professional Education, K.G. Razumovsky Moscow State University of Technologies and Management, The First Cossack University, Moscow, Russia
• 5 Department of Psychology and Human Capital Development, Financial University Under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia
• 6 Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Sechenov University, Moscow, Russia
• 7 Department of Public Administration and Social Technologies, Moscow Aviation Institute, National Research University, Moscow, Russia

Since the outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19, many studies have been conducted to examine how education has responded to the challenges of a completely new situation that has led to the spread of distance education as the only form of instruction. In this study, data were collected and analyzed to understand the difficulties of distance education that higher education students faced during the pandemic. Our goal was to present the results of a socio-psychological study of accessibility, educational resources, applications, and distance learning technologies. A total of 160 students from different Moscow universities participated in the study. A qualitative research method was used for the study. For this purpose, mainly in-depth interviews were conducted to find out the participants’ views on distance education. The data obtained were analyzed by the researchers using qualitative analysis methods. The results showed that all students faced technical difficulties during distance learning, such as poor internet connection, lack of access to online platforms due to the high number of users, lack of necessary equipment, and individual space for online learning. The results also showed low technical readiness for distance education and low quality of online resources, as well as cyber threats during online courses. In addition, the results showed that most students indicated that they would prefer a hybrid form of instruction that combines distance and face-to-face instruction. Implications for further studies are drawn in the conclusion.

Introduction

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most pressing research topics around the world has been the introduction of distance learning and the development of online education and training ( Jacques et al., 2020 , 2021 ; Zagkos et al., 2022 ). All over the world, research has focused on how education is responding to the challenges of an entirely new situation in which distance education has become the only form of knowledge acquisition and learning. The initiative of the consortium of participants in the World Education Leadership Symposium ( Vachkova et al., 2022 ) and the international project World School Leadership Study [WSLS] ( Huber and Spillane, 2016 ) can serve as an example of an international project. This project collected and analyzed data on the difficulties faced by school education participants around the world in the context of the pandemic and the full transition to distance education. The scientific community around the world has been struggling to cope with the global risks and challenges created by the pandemic COVID-19. This situation has led to the accumulation of research studies on the problem and the development of distance education in schools to investigate the most effective ways to solve the challenges under extreme conditions during the pandemic. The analysis of existing research on the aforementioned problems revealed several opportunities to identify new trends in the development of distance education during the pandemic ( Galimova et al., 2019 ; Ulyanina, 2020 ).

Methodological Framework

Experience in the implementation of distance education: international analysis of practices.

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 led to the largest disruption of the entire education system in the world. More than 1.5 billion students in more than 190 countries had to leave school to go to school. The closure of schools and other educational institutions affected exactly 94% of the world’s students ( United Nations, 2020 ). Moreover, the disruption of the educational process has serious consequences not only in the context of ensuring the right of students to education but also in the context of the economic and socio-political development of higher education. On the other hand, the crisis in the school system has triggered a new impetus for the emergence and development of innovative methods in the educational process ( Lipatova et al., 2015 ; Kalinina et al., 2017 ; Salakhova et al., 2017 ; Valeeva et al., 2018 ; Joshi et al., 2020 ). From this perspective, educational innovations have affected all educational stakeholders, including parents, students, and teachers. To ensure continuity of learning during the pandemic, innovative approaches such as radio and television broadcasts were used for school lessons. In addition, other measures such as e-interviews ( Temsah et al., 2021a ), video interviews ( Joshi et al., 2020 ), mobile learning ( Bacolod, 2022 ), and distance learning ( Mitin and Mitina, 2020 ; Tugun et al., 2020 ; Usak et al., 2020 ; Nagovitsyn et al., 2021 ; Qarkaxhja et al., 2021 ; Rerke et al., 2021 ) were taken to ensure continuity of the educational process.

In Argentina, for example, an educational website called “Seguimos Educando” has been created for students at all levels of schooling ( Argentine Ministry of Education, 2021a ). Seguimos Educando uses a virtual platform that brings together television, radio, and print media to provide educational support to students. In addition, a variety of digital technologies (with a description and download links) were created and published for students ( Argentine Ministry of Education, 2021b ). Collections of digital teaching materials and resources for students, organized by grade level, have been published through this platform ( Argentine Ministry of Education, 2021c ).

Austria is another country that has implemented effective distance education practices. For this, a specialized section for students, teachers, and parents has been created on the website of the Ministry of Education, which contains up-to-date information on the implementation of distance learning during the pandemic ( BMBWF, 2021 ). The Austrian Ministry of Education has developed the Eduthek content platform, which includes educational materials for learners of all ages. To improve the effectiveness of online education, a portal for distance learning services has been developed in this country. The provision of consulting services organized by the Austrian government for all participants in the educational environment deserves special attention. In another country, distance education is based on the use of educational television and broadcasting educational technologies through the YouTube channel in Brazil ( YouTube, 2021 ). An educational online platform “AULA EM CASA” has also been designed to answer the need to shift training to the online mode.

Since March 2020, a digital learning system has been implemented in the territory of Bulgaria, which provides information and methodological support for all students. The country has also created a National Electronic Library (electronic content repository), which publishes materials from expert teachers on their activities in the digital environment. Education in schools is carried out on the Microsoft Teams platform ( Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria, 2020 ).

The experiences of distance learning in the United Kingdom indicate that the country has carried out large-scale work not only to create innovative technologies for teaching practice but also to implement a reform to the school system. In addition to the educational platforms, the country is constantly monitoring the implementation of the child’s rights in education (control and supervision of the activities of mobile operators, control of Internet providers, collection of information about the operation of online platforms) ( Find Government Services and Information GOV.UK, 2020 ; National Literacy Trust, 2020 ).

A specialized platform Aptus has been developed in Chile, on which digital resources are collected to provide distance learning (video lectures, assessment, and monitoring system) ( Aptus Potenciadora Educacional, 2020 ). China has created and operated a national state educational online platform with total coverage of more than 180 million students and support for 7,000 servers ( China National Online Education Platform, 2020 ). Colombia has created Aprender digital, a digital platform of the Ministry of Education, with over 80,000 digital learning resources, organized by grades in various forms (games, videos, etc.), available to teachers, principals, and other stakeholders in the educational process, covering preschool, primary and secondary school education ( RTVC y Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2020 ). For families who do not have access to the Internet, the government has developed a homeschooling kit. Also, in the territory of the country, educational programs are broadcast on state radio and television for primary and secondary school students. In Croatia, students can access digital content through the portal “Skolaza Zivot” ( Ministry of Science and Education of The Republic of Croatia, 2020 ). Instruction in educational institutions is carried out using platforms: Loomen, Microsoft Teams, and Yammer.

The experiences of the Czech Republic have included a specialized website “distance education” that was designed for implementing distance learning ( Specialized website “Distance education”, 2020 ). The developed platform includes a wide range of opportunities for the realization and support of online learning: digital content for students, a list of links to digital educational resources, practical advice for teachers and parents with detailed video instructions, training webinars, and masterclasses, etc. In France, the epidemiological situation prompted the creation of the online portal Ma classe à la Maison by the National Center for Distance Education (CNED) ( Ministre de l’Education Nationale de la Jeunesse et des Sports, 2020 ). The online portal Ma classe à la Maison is not only a set of educational resources but also an “educational device,” the architecture and structure of which are aimed at helping the student in mastering new educational material. The technical and methodological support of the online portal is carried out by the CNED service, which increases the effectiveness of the educational activities of the teacher. In addition, educational content is hosted in digital work environments: “Environment Numérique de travail”–ENT; EcoleDirecte, ProNote, etc.–internal school networks (intranets). In addition, television, and radio broadcasting facilities (France Télévisions, Radio France, Arte, and National Education) are included in the educational process to expand learning opportunities in France. The resources are available through podcasts, streaming, or playback on national websites and platforms.

The experience of implementing distance learning in Italy also testifies to the development and creation of new educational resources and online platforms ( Ministero dell’IstruzioneMinistero dell’Università e della Ricerca, 2020 ). Italy has also created the platform of the National Institute for Documentary, Innovative and Educational Research (INDIRE), aimed at providing methodological support for teachers in the development of information technology ( INDIRE, 2020 ). National television and radio broadcasting programs have been used to implement online educational activities in Italy. Great importance in the country’s education system has been given to pedagogical training and the continuity of distance learning practices [La Scuola per la Scuola community; Next-Level Association; ITE Tosi; Institute of Educational Technologies (ITD) of the National Research Council].

In Spain, the INTEF educational platform has been created to ensure the online educational process, which includes more than 100 thousand educational resources in various Procomún formats ( INTEF, 2021 ); the educational portal Educlan for professional adaptation of teachers to the distance learning mode ( EDUCLAN, 2020 ). Distance education in the United States varies from state to state. For example, in South Carolina, the online state program VirtualSC has been developed ( VirtualSC, 2020 ). North Carolina has an online collection of resources and best educational practices ( North Carolina Remote Learning Resources, 2020 ). Mainly e-mail, Zoom, and Google Meet have been used as communication tools between teacher and student.

In India, educational portals were used to implement distance learning portal “DIKSHA” ( DIKSHA, 2020 ); “E-Pathshala” ( NCERT, 2020 ); the portal of the National Repository of Open Educational Resources “NROER” ( NROER, 2020 ); Swayam Prabha ( Swayam Prabha, 2020 ). In Indonesia, distance education is supported by the educational television “Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia” ( Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia, 2020 ). The platform “Rumah Belajar” ( Rumah Belajar, 2020 ) provides a learning management system, digital lesson delivery, e-textbooks, and assessment tools. Other educational platforms included Google Suite Education, Smart Class, Microsoft Teams, Quipper School, Sekolahmu, and Kelas Pintar.

In Jamaica, educational materials have been prepared for students who do not have the opportunity to access the internet. TV lessons and transmissions are included in the educational process (for example, “School is not OUT” on the TJ Live channel). Also, access has been provided to digital educational resources (One on One Educational Services, Cheetah, Book Fusion, Edufocal, Learning Hub, CSEC COVID-19 Toolkit, etc.).

There are four main platforms for educational programs and resources for students in Kenya for organizing distance education: Kenya Broadcasting Corporation “KBC” ( Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, 2020 ); educational television programs are broadcast on Edu channel TV; KICD EduTV in Kenya on YouTube channel; Kenyan Education Cloud-hosted and supervised by KICD ( Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development, 2020 ). To overcome the lack of Internet connectivity, Kenyan authorities have launched a program to use the Loon Google stratospheric balloon network with 4G LTE base stations ( Loon Google Stratospheric Balloon Program, 2020 ). In Mexico, distance education “telesecundaria” has been used since 1968, and this state has not had particular difficulties in switching to online education due to the pandemic ( Gobierno de México, 2021 ).

The presented international experience in organizing distance education, regardless of the level of economic development and experience in implementing the country’s information technologies, allows us to conclude that all countries have made many efforts to maintain the educational process and offer online learning.

Experiences in Organizing Online Education in Russia

Across the Russian Federation, as well as in foreign countries around the world, a set of measures was carried out aimed at organizing activities for the transition of the education system to the online format. Large-scale research and monitoring, revealing the specifics of organized measures, were carried out both by the scientific community and by representatives of state authorities. For example, the HSE Laboratory of Media Communications in Education studied the experience of teachers who were in transition to distance learning ( HSE University, 2020 ). More than 22 thousand teachers from 73 territorial entities of the Russian Federation did participate in the study. Four main problems were determined in the analyses. These are difficulties in giving lessons via video communication; lack of practice in the use of online resources; technical difficulties and organizational difficulties. The study concluded that, despite the indicated difficulties, all teachers quickly mastered the required digital skills and successfully adapted to the new form of teaching. This finding is reflected in the UNESCO report on the progress of distance learning during the pandemic ( UNESCO, 2020 ).

The People’s Foundation conducted a study whose results showed that more than 80% of teachers faced organizational, technical, and adjustment difficulties in implementing distance education. Among the students’ problems, teachers mentioned the lack of necessary equipment for online learning ( via computers, tablets, phones) and problems with Internet connection ( Vachkova et al., 2022 ). The study of students’ and parents’ opinions on distance education was the subject of a study conducted by experts from the project PF “Equal Opportunities for Children” and the National Education Resources Foundation. The results of their analysis showed that the overwhelming majority of both school children and parents do not want to replace offline learning with a distance form. More than 80% of respondents (children and parents) also reported technical difficulties, slow internet connection speed, and deficiencies in educational platforms and resources.

The analysis of the results of the transition to distance education was conducted by Moscow State Pedagogical College, HSE Institute of Education ( Adamovich et al., 2020 ), and their international partners, Research Center for the Socialization and Personalization of Children’s Education at FIRO RANEPA ( Tarasova et al., 2020 ), NAFI Analytical Center, etc. The results of these studies confirm that, in general, the Russian education system has coped well with the transition to online mode. However, many teachers have found that the transition to distance education has caused a different range of problems that require additional effort. Therefore, the present study aims to understand the difficulties of distance education faced by higher education students during the pandemic. We also aimed to understand the accessibility, educational resources, applications, and distance education technologies in higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research Methods

Since this study is empirical research to understand the difficulties of distance education faced by higher education students during the pandemic, an exploratory and descriptive case study approach was used. In-depth interviews were the main data collection tool. Case study research is appropriate for the acquisition of an in-depth understanding of the behavior and experiences of individual participants in a natural setting ( Patton, 2002 ).

A large-scale socio-psychological study among students from Moscow universities was carried out to study the problems of accessibility, educational resources, applications, and distance educational technologies during the pandemic. The research included in-depth interviews of the participants voluntarily. An unstructured interview was conducted with students according to a previously prepared script (guide) with audio recording. The interviews were conducted by researchers with training in the interview process. Interviews averaged 20 min in length. Interviews were recorded with the participants’ permission. All the interviews were transcribed and reviewed by researchers. To collect the data for the present study, necessary approval procedures were received by the Moscow City University, which enrolled the participants in this study. This research was conducted under the approval of the Moscow City University institutional review board.

The developed script of the interviews, which provided the possibility of subsequent use of qualitative analysis of the processing of the data, served as a toolkit. When developing the interview guides, various types and forms of questions were used to determine general and specific problems in the accessibility, educational resources, applications, distance learning technologies, as well as their satisfaction with the services provided to them. To analyze the data gathered from the interviews, we used open-ended coding methods as suggested by Strauss and Corbin (1990) . A total number of 160 students from various Moscow universities were involved in the interviews. The participants’ demographic information is given in Table 1 . The participants were a convenience sample of higher education students who enrolled at the universities during the pandemic in Russia. All participants ranged in age from 18 to 27 ( M = 20.5, S.D. = 1.2). The key criterion was that all participants had to be higher education students. The participants were involved in the study voluntarily. The male to female ratio was 92–68. All of the participants were predominantly white people. Permission to conduct the study was granted by the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Education of the Moscow City University. Before beginning the interviews with the participants, they were informed about the purpose of the study so that they participated knowingly, and their confidentiality and anonymity were assured. The interviews were conducted between February 1, 2021 and June 1, 2021. The organizational platform of the online research was the Zoom service.

Table 1. Participants’ demographic information for the study ( n = 160).

In our study, responses from the interviews were used only to understand the difficulties of distance education faced by higher education students during the pandemic, and no statistical analysis was performed on the results. Since the data obtained from the interviews provide an in-depth understanding of the difficulties of distance education faced by higher education students during the pandemic, no other data sources were not included in the study.

In the data analysis, qualitative content analysis was conducted by researchers. For the analyses, all of the researchers read the transcripts. Later, the researchers began to code the transcripts. While doing this coding, researchers determined codes and themes that emerged from the data. The transcripts were constantly compared to see what patterns or themes emerged in the interview data. The coding of data into themes was conducted independently by two researchers. After this coding, two researchers met and compared their codes. When there was no consensus on codes, researchers discusses their coding and reached a consensus on the coding.

Trustworthiness in this study was ensured by using triangulation and member-checking methods. The triangulation aims to evaluate the accuracy of the data ( Merriam, 1998 ). For the triangulation, the authors sought to obtain rich data to answer the research question. Another method, member checking was used to reduce the impact of subjective bias ( Patton, 2002 ). For this procedure, the researchers distributed the analyzed themes from the interviews to the participants and asked them about the accuracy of the data.

In our results regarding the organizational conditions for distance learning, all students (160 people) emphasized the low technical readiness of electronic platforms and applications (Zoom, Teams), as well as the quality of these electronic resources on the Internet. The students indicated that the quality of courses did completely depend on the work of these electronic resources. Sample quotations from students’ are as follows: “We just flew out of Zoom, for example, and the screen darkened,” “The teachers were hard to hear and everything was always freezing,” “Problems emerged with connection and it was not clear what the lecturer was saying, I had to ask again.”

- In addition, 16 students out of 160 respondents reported cyber threats (attacks) while studying online. For example, “Hackers wrote. Someone wrote obscene phrases passing himself off as other students. We had a lot of such things. felt sorry for the teachers.”

- Almost all students, except for students living in a residence hall, mentioned the presence of their home workspace for distance learning. It was difficult for these students to organize their attendance in distance classes. All students had technical tools (computer/laptop/tablet/phone) for distance learning. However, most of the students (121 out of 160) generally preferred to use a tablet or phone rather than a computer. The following quotations for these results are: “Using the phone is more convenient and more mobile,” “You can walk around the house with it,” “You can attend to your business,” “You can stay in bed and turn on a lecture on the phone,” “You can turn on the lecture on the phone and at the same time do your homework on the computer.”

- Regarding the involvement of students in distance learning technologies, the participants expressed the following quotations: “At the beginning of the distance learning format it was interesting, and then it became terribly boring,” “Interactive activity was interesting, but not all lecturers bother with it,” “It was difficult to understand the subject and master the information. The poor quality of the Internet service always forced us to revise the material,” “Everything was easy and standard,” “It was just our duty to study remotely,” and “I kept on studying. There was no particular interest.”

- These listed judgments allow us to conclude that all students consider the transition to distance learning as a requirement for teaching. Students showed their interest in this form only at the beginning of self-isolation and explained it by the possibility of not attending a university. However, after the lapse of time, this interest was flagged. In addition, a negligent attitude toward online classes has appeared.

- As part of the study of student’s assessment of the quality of the provision of training courses, additional education during the period of distance learning and its impact on the quality of educational results, study load, contradictory data were obtained. Some students (89 out of 160 children) mentioned that the transition to distance learning has nothing to do with the quality of mastering academic disciplines and everything depends only on the student himself. Others, on the contrary, emphasized the importance of face-to-face education and the decline in learning outcomes due to the transition of classes to distance learning (71 out of 160). It is worth noting that the conclusions obtained on this block of questions do not find any relationship with the category of students but depend on individual personality traits (locus of control, level of development of the emotional-volitional sphere, the intellectual level of development, character traits, temperament, etc.).

- As part of the study, on the attitude of students to the future opportunities and directions of development of distance learning, 71 out of 160 students expressed negative attitudes. For example, among the students’ judgments about the future of distance learning, the following judgments were recorded: “I would rather keep attending classes at university. It is impossible to study at home. Home is not for learning,” “There must be no distance learning. There is no control. Nobody learns. Everyone goes about his business,” “I became more independent during my online studies,” “Everything is clear at university. The lecturer when he explains the material, you can ask, and he will explain everything. This cannot be done online,” and many others.

- However, 89 out of 160 students emphasized the importance of combining distance learning and the traditional form in the future: “It is advisable to combine distance learning and university studies. Some lectures can be missed,” “A 50% to 50% form would be ideal,” “Distance learning is more mobile and more rational. Why, under compulsion, attend classes that are not interesting and unnecessary”?

- The data obtained indicate that students of higher educational institutions in the city of Moscow have a more negative attitude to distance learning. However, despite their attitude, most students believe that the optimal form of training lies in a hybrid form. Students believe that only by combining distance learning online and full-time format, effective learning outcomes be possible. One hundred and twenty-nine students out of 160 said that “In our group, basically all students work, and it would be great if the attendance was not considered when assessing the student’s academic performance,” “I work and it is very difficult for me to get to the university physically by a certain time, but I’m fine I learn the material online. I am for online courses,” “There are subjects, for example, “of general orientation,” which can be changed over to an online format. The quality of education would only benefit from this,” “A hybrid form means new opportunities! It is cool and great.”

The purpose of this study was to explore the results of a socio-psychological study to understand the problems of accessibility, educational resources, applications, and distance educational technologies in higher education during the pandemic. Our results revealed that nearly all higher education students (160 people) did emphasize that they had problems with the low technical readiness of electronic platforms and applications (such as Zoom and Teams), as well as the quality of these electronic resources on the Internet in general. These results are consistent with those of studies conducted in other countries ( Leontyeva, 2018 ; Devkota, 2021 ; Lakshman Naik et al., 2021 ; Nsengimana et al., 2021 ; Zapata-Garibay et al., 2021 ). In general, many studies ( Leontyeva, 2018 ; Devkota, 2021 ; Lakshman Naik et al., 2021 ; Nsengimana et al., 2021 ; Zapata-Garibay et al., 2021 ) reported that the students in the higher education level had some problems regarding technical equipment, the quality of internet, and applications for distance education during the pandemic. The reason for these problems may be that the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic was at an unexpected time. Therefore, institutions, scholars, and students were not prepared for this pandemic and knowledgeable about what they would encounter in the pandemic. Because of this reason, the unpreparedness of all stakeholders including scholars, students, and universities for the pandemic can be explained as the reason for this result.

Another finding is that all students had technical tools such as computers, laptops, tablets, and phones for distance learning. However, the majority of the students (121 out of 160) generally did prefer to use a tablet or a phone for their internet connection rather than a computer. These results show that the use of tablets or phone is very common in higher education. Another point from this result is that most of the students had an opportunity to connect lessons in distance education. This result is parallel to those of Zapata-Garibay et al. (2021) . However, the same result contradicts the study of Rahiem (2020) who reported that university students in Indonesia had many deficiencies and inequities in finding a device to connect distance education lessons.

The results also revealed that more than half of the students (89 out of 160 children) indicated that the transition to distance learning has nothing to do with the quality of mastering academic disciplines and everything depends only on the student himself. This result is very similar to the findings of Lischer et al. (2021) who reported the experiences of the undergraduate student with coping with the challenges to their teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland. The study of Lischer et al. (2021) revealed that undergraduate students considered discussions in distance education as boring than in face-to-face teaching. From this perspective, the reason behind our results may be that distance education is not well-organized and/or implemented for the satisfaction of the students.

In addition, nearly half of the students in this study (71 out of 160 students) expressed negative attitudes to distance learning. This result is interesting for distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reason for this result may be that, in general, the students were passive throughout lessons in distance education. This result is consistent with a recent study by Supriya et al. (2021) that shows that students perceived several negative impacts of the transition to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, these negative impacts were “… particularly on students’ perceived understanding of course content, interactions with other students and instructors, feeling like a part of the biology community at the university, and career preparation .” ( Supriya et al., 2021 , p. 10). As a result of this situation, students may have been boring during the teaching. Therefore, they might consider that lessons in distance education were more sluggish than face-to-face teaching. Another reason may be that poorly prepared lessons and the deficiencies in distance teaching may have caused this result. From this perspective, it can be concluded that face-to-face classes are a substitute for teaching in higher education.

Finally, nearly more than half of the students (89 out of 160 students) indicated the importance of combining distance learning and the traditional form in the future. This result is parallel to the comments of Lischer et al. (2021) . As it is well-known, institutions in various countries consider combining distance teaching and face-to-face learning from the beginning of the pandemic. This result may stem from the positive effects of active learning during face-to-face teaching. A recent study by Deslauriers et al. (2019) found that students who received active instruction had higher scores in the assessment. Based on our findings, it is important to combine distance and face-to-face teaching to overcome the deficiencies and inequities of distance learning during the pandemic. Based on the literature, there has been an effort to combine distance and face-to-face teaching in a hybrid form of teaching ( Lischer et al., 2021 ; Temsah et al., 2021b ).

The results obtained from this study showed that all students did experience technical difficulties during distance learning such as low quality of the internet connection, failure access to online platforms due to an increased number of users, lack of necessary equipment, and individual space for online classes. The results also showed that all the students depicted distance learning as a process of a high degree of complexity in terms of organizational, methodological, organizational, and technical work. In particular, the students pointed out the low level of technical readiness for online platforms and applications (such as Zoom, Teams) and the low quality of the online resources, as well as the presence of cyber threats during online courses. Our results also revealed that most of the students (129 out of 160 students) indicated that they would prefer a hybrid format for courses when switching to face-to-face education. In addition, our findings have revealed that students consider distance education technologies highly effective and motivating them in learning subjects. Namely, students believe that effective results of educational activities will be increased by combining distance and face-to-face education.

The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing. It is well-accepted that distance education is a part of teaching in higher education in the world. Because of this reason, more research is needed to examine and understand the effects of the pandemic on higher education. This study investigated the problems in the implementation of distance education in one country. Future studies should be conducted to explore the problems while implementing distance education in different countries so that differences and similarities between different countries may be revealed from these studies.

Limitations

One of the limitations of our study is the small number of participants. Our participants were students who enrolled at universities in Moscow city. It should be noted that the histories and experiences of this group in Russia are different from other students in other places of the world. Another limitation is that we used only interviews to understand the change and challenges in higher education during the pandemic. However, we agree that different data collections could be included in assessing the effects of the pandemic among higher education students. Future studies should consist of different data collection tools to obtain detailed data. Another limitation is that the data were based on the Russian higher education student’s views of the problems in distance teaching during the pandemic. We need to emphasize that the results of this research are not generalizable to the country’s situation in higher education.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords : distance learning, pandemic, COVID-19, the system of higher professional education, digital platforms

Citation: Salakhova VB, Shukshina LV, Belyakova NV, Kidinov AV, Morozova NS and Osipova NV (2022) The Problems of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Higher Education. Front. Educ. 7:803700. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2022.803700

Received: 28 October 2021; Accepted: 22 April 2022; Published: 16 May 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Salakhova, Shukshina, Belyakova, Kidinov, Morozova and Osipova. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Valentina B. Salakhova, [email protected]

† ORCID: Valentina B. Salakhova, orcid.org/0000-0002-5056-6518 ; Liudmila V. Shukshina, orcid.org/0000-0002-9378-6633 ; Natalia V. Belyakova, orcid.org/0000-0001-7116-9389 ; Alexey V. Kidinov, orcid.org/0000-0002-1826-208X ; Natalia S. Morozova, orcid.org/0000-0002-6453-1615 ; Natalia V. Osipova, orcid.org/0000-0002-9757-8057

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Why Is the Loneliness Epidemic So Hard to Cure?

Maybe because we aren’t thinking about it in the right way.

Credit... Illustration by Max Guther. Concept by Alex Merto.

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By Matthew Shaer

Matthew Shaer is a contributing writer for the magazine and a founder of the podcast studio Campside Media.

• Published Aug. 27, 2024 Updated Aug. 28, 2024

In the early months of 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic settled over the country, a psychologist and Harvard lecturer named Richard Weissbourd approached his colleagues with a concept for a new kind of study. Loneliness, or the specter of it, seemed to Weissbourd to be everywhere — in the solitude of quarantine, in the darkened windows of the buildings on campus, in the Zoom squares that had come to serve as his primary conduit to his students. Two years earlier, he read a study from Cigna, the insurance provider, showing that 46 percent of Americans felt sometimes or always alone. In 2019, when Cigna replicated the study , the number of lonely respondents had grown to 52 percent. God knows what the data would say now, Weissbourd thought.

Listen to this article, read by James Patrick Cronin

“Initially, the idea was, OK, we’ve got a problem that’s not new but is obviously affecting lots of us, and that is now more visible than ever — it’s more present than ever,” Weissbourd told me. “What I really wanted was to get under the hood. Like, what does loneliness feel like to the lonely? What are the potential consequences? And what’s causing it?”

Finding answers to these types of questions is a notoriously difficult proposition. Loneliness is a compound or multidimensional emotion: It contains elements of sadness and anxiety, fear and heartache. The experience of it is inherently, intensely subjective, as any chronically lonely person can tell you. A clerk at a crowded grocery store can be wildly lonely, just as a wizened hermit living in a cave can weather solitude in perfect bliss. (If you want to infuriate an expert in loneliness, try confusing the word “isolation” with “loneliness.”) For convenience’ sake, most researchers still use the definition coined nearly three decades ago, in the early 1980s, by the social psychologists Daniel Perlman and Letitia Anne Peplau, who described loneliness as “a discrepancy between one’s desired and achieved levels of social relations.” Unfortunately, that definition is pretty subjective, too.

In order to understand the current crisis, Weissbourd, who serves as the faculty director of Making Caring Common — a Harvard Graduate School of Education project that collects and disseminates research on health and well-being — created a 66-question survey, which would be mailed to approximately 950 recipients around the United States. With the exception of a couple of straightforwardly phrased items — “In the past four weeks, how often have you felt lonely?” — a majority of the queries devised by Weissbourd and the project’s director of research and evaluation, Milena Batanova, approached the issue elliptically, from a variety of angles: “Do you feel like you reach out more to people than they reach out to you?” “Are there people in your life who ask you about your views on things that are important to you?” Or: “Has someone taken more than just a few minutes to ask how you are doing in a way that made you feel they genuinely cared?”

Several weeks later, the raw results were sent back to Weissbourd. “Frankly, I was knocked back,” he told me. “People were obviously really, really suffering,” and at a scale that dwarfed other findings on the topic. Thirty-six percent of the respondents reported feeling chronic loneliness in the previous month, with another 37 percent saying they experienced occasional or sporadic loneliness. As Weissbourd and Batanova had hoped, the answers to subsequent questions helped clarify why. Among the cohort identifying as lonely, 46 percent said they reached out to people more than people reached out to them. Nineteen percent said no one outside their family cared about them at all.

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-warnings-from-democrats-about-project-2025-and-donald-trump

Fact-checking warnings from Democrats about Project 2025 and Donald Trump

This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact .

Project 2025 has a starring role in this week’s Democratic National Convention.

And it was front and center on Night 1.

WATCH: Hauling large copy of Project 2025, Michigan state Sen. McMorrow speaks at 2024 DNC

“This is Project 2025,” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said as she laid a hardbound copy of the 900-page document on the lectern. “Over the next four nights, you are going to hear a lot about what is in this 900-page document. Why? Because this is the Republican blueprint for a second Trump term.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has warned Americans about “Trump’s Project 2025” agenda — even though former President Donald Trump doesn’t claim the conservative presidential transition document.

“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” Harris said July 23 in Milwaukee. “He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class. Like, we know we got to take this seriously, and can you believe they put that thing in writing?”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has joined in on the talking point.

“Don’t believe (Trump) when he’s playing dumb about this Project 2025. He knows exactly what it’ll do,” Walz said Aug. 9 in Glendale, Arizona.

Trump’s campaign has worked to build distance from the project, which the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, led with contributions from dozens of conservative groups.

Much of the plan calls for extensive executive-branch overhauls and draws on both long-standing conservative principles, such as tax cuts, and more recent culture war issues. It lays out recommendations for disbanding the Commerce and Education departments, eliminating certain climate protections and consolidating more power to the president.

Project 2025 offers a sweeping vision for a Republican-led executive branch, and some of its policies mirror Trump’s 2024 agenda, But Harris and her presidential campaign have at times gone too far in describing what the project calls for and how closely the plans overlap with Trump’s campaign.

PolitiFact researched Harris’ warnings about how the plan would affect reproductive rights, federal entitlement programs and education, just as we did for President Joe Biden’s Project 2025 rhetoric. Here’s what the project does and doesn’t call for, and how it squares with Trump’s positions.

Are Trump and Project 2025 connected?

To distance himself from Project 2025 amid the Democratic attacks, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he “knows nothing” about it and has “no idea” who is in charge of it. (CNN identified at least 140 former advisers from the Trump administration who have been involved.)

The Heritage Foundation sought contributions from more than 100 conservative organizations for its policy vision for the next Republican presidency, which was published in 2023.

Project 2025 is now winding down some of its policy operations, and director Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official, is stepping down, The Washington Post reported July 30. Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita denounced the document.

WATCH: A look at the Project 2025 plan to reshape government and Trump’s links to its authors

However, Project 2025 contributors include a number of high-ranking officials from Trump’s first administration, including former White House adviser Peter Navarro and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

A recently released recording of Russell Vought, a Project 2025 author and the former director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, showed Vought saying Trump’s “very supportive of what we do.” He said Trump was only distancing himself because Democrats were making a bogeyman out of the document.

Project 2025 wouldn’t ban abortion outright, but would curtail access

The Harris campaign shared a graphic on X that claimed “Trump’s Project 2025 plan for workers” would “go after birth control and ban abortion nationwide.”

The plan doesn’t call to ban abortion nationwide, though its recommendations could curtail some contraceptives and limit abortion access.

What’s known about Trump’s abortion agenda neither lines up with Harris’ description nor Project 2025’s wish list.

Project 2025 says the Department of Health and Human Services Department should “return to being known as the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care.”

It recommends that the Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 approval of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug regimen for a medication abortion. Medication is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. — accounting for around 63 percent in 2023.

If mifepristone were to remain approved, Project 2025 recommends new rules, such as cutting its use from 10 weeks into pregnancy to seven. It would have to be provided to patients in person — part of the group’s efforts to limit access to the drug by mail. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to mifepristone’s FDA approval over procedural grounds.

WATCH: Trump’s plans for health care and reproductive rights if he returns to White House The manual also calls for the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act on mifepristone, which bans the mailing of “obscene” materials. Abortion access supporters fear that a strict interpretation of the law could go further to ban mailing the materials used in procedural abortions, such as surgical instruments and equipment.

The plan proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how many abortions take place within their borders. The plan also would prohibit abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds. It also calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the training of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, omits abortion training.

The document says some forms of emergency contraception — particularly Ella, a pill that can be taken within five days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy — should be excluded from no-cost coverage. The Affordable Care Act requires most private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services, which involves a range of birth control methods, including emergency contraception.

Trump has recently said states should decide abortion regulations and that he wouldn’t block access to contraceptives. Trump said during his June 27 debate with Biden that he wouldn’t ban mifepristone after the Supreme Court “approved” it. But the court rejected the lawsuit based on standing, not the case’s merits. He has not weighed in on the Comstock Act or said whether he supports it being used to block abortion medication, or other kinds of abortions.

Project 2025 doesn’t call for cutting Social Security, but proposes some changes to Medicare

“When you read (Project 2025),” Harris told a crowd July 23 in Wisconsin, “you will see, Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare.”

The Project 2025 document does not call for Social Security cuts. None of its 10 references to Social Security addresses plans for cutting the program.

Harris also misleads about Trump’s Social Security views.

In his earlier campaigns and before he was a politician, Trump said about a half-dozen times that he’s open to major overhauls of Social Security, including cuts and privatization. More recently, in a March 2024 CNBC interview, Trump said of entitlement programs such as Social Security, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” However, he quickly walked that statement back, and his CNBC comment stands at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump’s campaign website says that not “a single penny” should be cut from Social Security. We rated Harris’ claim that Trump intends to cut Social Security Mostly False.

Project 2025 does propose changes to Medicare, including making Medicare Advantage, the private insurance offering in Medicare, the “default” enrollment option. Unlike Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans have provider networks and can also require prior authorization, meaning that the plan can approve or deny certain services. Original Medicare plans don’t have prior authorization requirements.

The manual also calls for repealing health policies enacted under Biden, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. The law enabled Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for the first time in history, and recently resulted in an agreement with drug companies to lower the prices of 10 expensive prescriptions for Medicare enrollees.

Trump, however, has said repeatedly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he will not cut Medicare.

Project 2025 would eliminate the Education Department, which Trump supports

The Harris campaign said Project 2025 would “eliminate the U.S. Department of Education” — and that’s accurate. Project 2025 says federal education policy “should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” The plan scales back the federal government’s role in education policy and devolves the functions that remain to other agencies.

Aside from eliminating the department, the project also proposes scrapping the Biden administration’s Title IX revision, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also would let states opt out of federal education programs and calls for passing a federal parents’ bill of rights similar to ones passed in some Republican-led state legislatures.

Republicans, including Trump, have pledged to close the department, which gained its status in 1979 within Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s presidential Cabinet.

In one of his Agenda 47 policy videos, Trump promised to close the department and “to send all education work and needs back to the states.” Eliminating the department would have to go through Congress.

What Project 2025, Trump would do on overtime pay

In the graphic, the Harris campaign says Project 2025 allows “employers to stop paying workers for overtime work.”

The plan doesn’t call for banning overtime wages. It recommends changes to some Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, regulations and to overtime rules. Some changes, if enacted, could result in some people losing overtime protections, experts told us.

The document proposes that the Labor Department maintain an overtime threshold “that does not punish businesses in lower-cost regions (e.g., the southeast United States).” This threshold is the amount of money executive, administrative or professional employees need to make for an employer to exempt them from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In 2019, the Trump’s administration finalized a rule that expanded overtime pay eligibility to most salaried workers earning less than about $35,568, which it said made about 1.3 million more workers eligible for overtime pay. The Trump-era threshold is high enough to cover most line workers in lower-cost regions, Project 2025 said.

The Biden administration raised that threshold to $43,888 beginning July 1, and that will rise to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. That would grant overtime eligibility to about 4 million workers, the Labor Department said.

It’s unclear how many workers Project 2025’s proposal to return to the Trump-era overtime threshold in some parts of the country would affect, but experts said some would presumably lose the right to overtime wages.

Other overtime proposals in Project 2025’s plan include allowing some workers to choose to accumulate paid time off instead of overtime pay, or to work more hours in one week and fewer in the next, rather than receive overtime.

Trump’s past with overtime pay is complicated. In 2016, the Obama administration said it would raise the overtime to salaried workers earning less than $47,476 a year, about double the exemption level set in 2004 of $23,660 a year.

But when a judge blocked the Obama rule, the Trump administration didn’t challenge the court ruling. Instead it set its own overtime threshold, which raised the amount, but by less than Obama.

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