University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The relationship between instructional modality and elementary achievement outcomes during the 2020-21 pandemic school year

Swanner, Joshua K.

Content Files
SWANNER-DISSERTATION-2024.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124164

Description

Title
The relationship between instructional modality and elementary achievement outcomes during the 2020-21 pandemic school year
Author(s)
Swanner, Joshua K.
Issue Date
2024-04-12
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Bruno, Paul
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Bruno, Paul
Committee Member(s)
  • Alexander, Kern
  • Lewis, Colleen
  • Roegman, Rachel
Department of Study
Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp
Discipline
Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ed.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • instructional modality
  • COVID-19
  • pandemic
  • achievement
  • remote learning
  • hybrid learning
  • elementary school
  • Chicagoland
  • Illinois
  • learning loss
Abstract
Following nationwide school closures in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. school systems faced crucial decisions in how to advance student learning while grappling with novel health and safety considerations. The State of Illinois was not immune from this decision-making, as each individual school board was required to make its own choices on instructional modality for the 2020-21 school year (SY21): in-person learning, remote learning, or a combination of the two (Illinois State Board of Education, 2020b). Emerging research continues to show that students who learned via remote instruction during SY21 experienced the greatest declines in academic achievement, with the most drastic declines occurring amongst historically marginalized and disadvantaged student groups (Cashdollar, Barragan Torres, et al., 2022; Goldhaber, Kane, McEachin, & Morton, 2022; West et al., 2021). This dissertation furthers the current research by investigating: (a) the relationship between instructional modality and student achievement in elementary-serving Chicagoland school districts during SY21; (b) how this relationship was impacted by school funding; and (c) which school districts and students were most likely to experience remote instructions. Using difference-in-difference methods, results show that student proficiency rates on the Illinois Assessment of Readiness were predicted to have experienced the sharpest decline when remote learning was employed instead of in-person learning, followed by hybrid learning. Results show that schools funded below their adequacy targets were predicted to have experienced exacerbated effects on student learning. Lastly, results also demonstrate that Black/Hispanic students, students from low-income households, and districts funded below their funding adequacy targets were most likely to experience remote instruction.
Graduation Semester
2024-05
Type of Resource
Thesis
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124164
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2024 Joshua Swanner

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