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

Swanner, Joshua K.

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

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

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2024 Joshua Swanner

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