Learning upended: How Americans experienced the shift to remote instruction

In spring 2020, much of what parents, students, and teachers knew about schooling was upended, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to make a sudden shift to remote instruction. Parents became part-time teachers, often setting aside their own work to help their children learn. Teachers plunged into entirely new forms of teaching, while racing to master new technologies, revamp their schedules, and provide emotional support to students and parents. And for students, the implications are still unclear — millions could not access online instruction at all, while millions more faced a daily struggle to stay engaged with their classes and homework.

From late April through June 2020, the education nonprofit Cognia conducted three surveys (including a total of 63 questions) designed to better understand the effects of this abrupt shift to online instruction. (A full report of the survey findings is available here.) Respondents included more than 74,000 students, parents, and teachers from the United States and 22 other countries. The U.S. sample alone (79% of the total number of respondents) included students, parents, and teachers from a geographically and socioeconomically diverse set of 335 schools in 35 states and Puerto Rico, which makes this the largest study to date of Americans’ experiences with K-12 education during the pandemic. (Readers should keep in mind, however, that this was not a nationally representative sample. It’s possible that the results were influenced, to some extent, by the fact that all 335 schools have a connection to Cognia via the organization’s accreditation, assessment, and consulting services.)

The focus and scope of this research differs significantly from a recent survey described in Kappan’s November issue. That study, conducted by David Marshall, David Shannon, and Savannah Love, provided an in-depth look at the experience of 328 teachers to identify the specific instructional challenges they faced in the early days of the pandemic. By contrast, Cognia’s three surveys — which received responses from 2,890 teachers, 32,486 parents, and 38,739 students — focused on the academic, emotional, and personal impacts of the sudden shift to remote learning. (Note that neither study was designed to explore the pros and cons of remote teaching and learning per se. Based on its experience accrediting roughly 500 digital learning schools, Cognia recognizes that online learning can be highly effective. However, the sudden, unplanned shift that took place in spring 2020 was not an ideal circumstance for remote instruction.)

Insights from the data

Perhaps the most striking finding from Cognia’s surveys is that students’ workload — including both the number of assignments they received and the time required to complete those assignments — tended to increase significantly after schools shifted from in-person to remote instruction. However, while the workload increased, the academic activities tended to become less challenging, leading to widespread concerns that students might not master grade-level content and skills and become ready to move on to the next grade. The vast majority of students (80%) reported having more work to do in a remote setting than was the norm when they were taught in the classroom, and more than two-thirds of students (67%), 6 in 10 parents (60%), and almost all teachers (94%) said that the assignments given during remote instruction covered material that was either “new and easy” or “something already learned.”

These findings are consistent with what Cognia staff saw during the spring of 2020 in numerous observations of online instruction (conducted as part of the organization’s school improvement and assessment work): Staff reported that teachers tended to water down their academic expectations, assigning relatively easy work that students could complete independently, rather than spending significant time on instructional design and thinking through new ways of using technology or scheduling.

Some teachers found opportunities to learn about effective online instruction and adapted their work accordingly, adjusting their class schedules and, for example, using breakout rooms to engage students in inquiry and collaboration on challenging topics. However, the survey data reveal that most teachers were consumed with immediate challenges related to preparing instructional activities and assignments for their online classes. Most teachers (70%) reported that this work — preparing online assignments and activities, many of them less than rigorous — took significantly more time than they had spent preparing activities in their face-to-face classrooms. Further, the data suggest that most teachers spent more time communicating with students and parents, and they had little time to learn new teaching approaches or share ideas with colleagues.

Not surprisingly, given these results, the majority of parents (57%) and more than 6 in 10 students (61%) reported they were worried or sometimes worried about whether students would be ready for the next year of school. High school (67%) and middle school students (63%) were far more likely to say they were worried about the coming year than students in elementary school (54%).

Along with declines in the academic rigor of the work assigned to students, the data reveal some other trends that likely had negative effects on teaching and learning.

First, the data suggest that the learning environment was not optimal for most young people because they lacked opportunities to collaborate and interact with others. Although the percentage of students who reported needing more interaction decreased as student age increased, about two-thirds of all students wished they had more interaction with others, including classmates. Similarly, the vast majority of students (71%) and parents (80%) agreed that students felt lonely most days or some days, and the majority of students (68%) reported missing school most (26%) or some (42%) days.

Second, the survey indicates that COVID cut many students off from familiar school routines that help maintain order, reduce anxiety, and stay focused on their schoolwork. Significant numbers of parents (44%) reported that for their children, these routines — such as the teacher greeting them at the start of the class, setting clear expectations, and rehearsing group learning practices — were different each day or every week or were not established at all.

Third, the data suggest that teachers themselves were acutely aware of their own struggle to shift from their familiar face-to-face learning environments to remote learning. A significant percentage of teachers (42%) said that remote teaching was harder than expected, and virtually all (98%) agreed that they had to learn new skills (77% agree, 21% somewhat agree). Moreover, most teachers said they felt isolated. Almost all teachers indicated they missed their school life (99%) and felt disconnected from colleagues (90%).

Four Rs to help move forward

Over the last several months, Cognia staff have talked with numerous school leaders, representing a wide range of educational contexts, who’ve described what they found most challenging about shifting to online or blended instruction during the pandemic, along with any strategies and resources that helped them achieve a relatively smooth transition. Again and again — and echoing our survey findings — they’ve highlighted the need for K-12 educators to focus on four key challenges in particular, having to do with: rigor, routines, relationships, and resources (or the “Four Rs,” as we’ve taken to calling them). While these insights from the field are impressionistic and await more formal research, we think educators would be well-advised to keep them in mind as remote teaching and learning continues during the 2020-21 school year.

Rigor

The survey data suggest that since the shift to remote instruction, many teachers have been consumed with the challenges involved in creating new activities and assignments for students, putting greater emphasis on keeping students busy than on teaching them rigorous material. So, what will it take to help teachers redesign their online courses to allow for more advanced and interesting work, including independent projects, group inquiry, and problem-based learning?

In a physical classroom, teachers can more easily observe students’ behavior, monitor their engagement, and assess whether the material is set at an appropriately challenging level. By contrast, students learning online may be in distracting environments that are not visible to their teachers. Further, neither teachers nor students are able to spend eight hours a day on video conference. Teachers need help, then, to answer urgent questions about how best to align their instruction to the online setting and students’ (sometimes invisible) home environments: “How do I ensure that hands-on learning will work in homes where students may not have supplies?” “How can I create a new classroom schedule that balances students’ need for connection with the right dose of independent learning, hands-on activities, and personalized attention?” “How can I ‘be with’ students virtually while I am separated from them physically?”

Professional development and opportunities for collaboration can help teachers develop and use effective strategies for everything from communication, benchmarks for success, and grading/feedback to response time, virtual office hours/attendance, and engagement; and it can expand their comfort level with digital learning resources. Adapting instructional strategies and differentiating instruction to the level provided in face-to-face classrooms can help teachers reduce the quantity and increase the quality of assignments given to students, while also meeting the needs of the 40% of students who reported on the Cognia survey that assignments were difficult to complete. However, teachers will continue to struggle in this area unless and until they have more opportunities to learn about effective online instruction, figure out what works best for them, and exchange ideas with peers.

Routines

Regular routines — everything from where children sit to how they greet the teacher to how they take turns in class discussions — are essential features of life in schools. They guide student behavior, help them focus, and create the intellectual structures in which rigorous teaching and learning can take place. That’s no less true in an online environment. Students rely on consistent expectations about when to arrive for class, how to participate, how to interact with peers, when to study, and on and on. And at the elementary and middle school levels, especially, most students need explicit guidance on how to maintain a regular schedule, how to budget their time, and how to behave in class — more so than do high schoolers, who tend to be more independent, self-directed, and self-reliant.

This was often confirmed during interviews with staff at schools that made a relatively smooth transition to remote teaching: They made a point of reaching out to parents to encourage them to keep their daily routines intact, making sure their children were getting out of bed at the same time every morning, dressing in school clothes, eating on the same schedule, and behaving as consistently during the online school day as they did before the pandemic.

Relationships

One of the most positive takeaways from the survey data is the high level of support shown to teachers. By and large, students and parents reported that teachers were caring, made sure their students had everything they needed for learning, made themselves available to students and parents, and regularly checked on student progress. More specifically:

• Roughly 92% of parents said that they had gained much greater or some appreciation for teachers’ expertise (57% greater, 35% some), based on their child(ren)’s experiences learning from home.
• More than 9 in 10 students (93%) said that their teachers checked on them to make sure they had everything they needed to learn (53% most of the time, 40% some of the time). Nearly the same percentage of teachers (88%) said they checked on their students’ daily (57%) or several times a week (31%).
• Nearly all parents (96%) agreed that teachers showed genuine care for their child(ren) while classes were online (77% agreed, 19% sometimes agreed). Similarly, 95% of students said that their teachers cared about them (73% agreed, 22% sometimes agreed).
• Virtually all parents (97%) said that teachers and school leaders made themselves available for conversations when it was convenient for families (71% most of the time, 26% sometimes). Teachers also noted that families were responsive to their communications (48% most of the time, 39% sometimes).

Resources

Across the country, many school districts have made remarkable efforts to provide access to students who need it. Still, any gap in access is unacceptable, entailing a structural inequity that impedes the success of tens of thousands of students. According to Cognia’s surveys, roughly 1 in 10 students reported having no or only some access to technology and electronic devices, such as laptops and mobile hotspots, in spring 2020. This is consistent with data from a June 2020 U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey, which found that nearly 9 in 10 households with children attending school online had consistent access to devices and the internet.

We expect that school resources will only become more scarce in the months ahead, as a result of state budget shortfalls caused by the pandemic, along with new expenses related to ensuring student safety. Schools will need adequate resources not only to maintain students’ access to online instruction but also to remain fully staffed with teachers and to ensure that they know how to make effective use of technology, teaching and learning resources, and assessment tools. School systems have always spent far too little on high-quality professional learning, in spite of research and experience that demonstrate its positive impact on school and student outcomes. However, given the expanded expectations now placed on teachers, such professional support is more important than ever.

The need for continuous improvement

There is no guarantee that our schools will return to normal this year or even the next. As long as the pandemic continues, and even after it ends, educators must be diligent in assessing their own efforts to meet their students’ needs. However, we can learn a great deal from schools that have handled the shift to remote instruction successfully. Their practices could even lead to an instructional renaissance, pointing the way toward new kinds of technology-mediated and student-directed learning, enabling us to open up our classrooms, change teachers’ work for the better, and allow students to learn anywhere, anytime, and anyplace. Educators need to ask themselves whether specific classroom practices are vestigial remnants of an old way of doing business or whether they truly support equitable and engaging instruction, paying special attention to the learning challenges young people face every day. The pandemic has shined a bright light on systemic inequities in K-12 education and on the urgent need to provide stronger professional support to teachers. As challenging as this moment is, it may clear the way for new opportunities.

Note: A report based on Cognia’s spring 2020 surveys about remote teaching and learning is available at https://go.cognia.org/upended-learning-key-findings-on-the-impact-of-remote-schooling 

 

Lessons from schools that made a smooth transition to remote learning  

Cognia’s conversations with public and private school leaders have helped us identify strategies that have been particularly effective in leveraging relationships to strengthen school performance. 

Primarily, we found that schools that most successfully made the transition recognized that everyone  —  including all families, students, and teachers — is affected. Leaders of these schools looked into the future to anticipate what needs to happen throughout the school year; cooperatively developed plans with teachers, parents, and the community, and trained everyone to execute the resulting plans. These schools worked with parents, teachers, and students on how to use technology for the best results and taught students and teachers new ways to interact in remote classrooms. Clearly stated expectations helped students know exactly what to do if they were given assignments or needed help with technology. These strategies created engagement and fostered the social and emotional well-being of each group. 

The most successful schools also developed and cooperatively agreed upon clear plans to handle the health aspects of the pandemic. They mandated masks and prohibited visitors from being present in school, did wellness checks every morning, and, if someone tested positive for COVID-19, moved the affected classes or grades to online instruction for two weeks. As a result, virtually everyone adhered to the plan and saw no major spread of the virus. 

These schools also recognized the importance of teachers’ peer interactions. Teachers had opportunities to meet as professional learning communities to talk with and listen to others and share ideas and resources and examine problems the school continues to face. 

The leaders Cognia talked to were forward-looking. They are treating the pandemic not as a single moment that will end but as an opportunity to explore ways to increase engagement and to help students navigate and direct their own learning in ways that can be used moving forward. Some leaders have been exploring sustainable strategies that they can incorporate long after the pandemic, such as more flexible classrooms where some students can learn and interact with teachers and classmates online from other locations while others learn onsite.