U-Turn: Surge of COVID Cases Reverses Reopening Progress in America's School Districts

As of December, a statistically representative sample of 477 school districts showed that 31 percent were operating fully in remote learning--a larger percentage than at any other point during the fall semester This brief gives an update from our ongoing review of reopening plans from around the country We found: (1) Districts take two steps back after incremental movement toward in-person learning earlier this fall: (a) Learning models continue to vary widely across urban, suburban, and rural locales;and (b) Fewer districts changed their model from November to December, but those that did were more likely to move to remote learning;and (2) Gaps in understanding student learning and supporting their experiences during the pandemic: (a) Less than half of districts mention the use of assessments to help tailor instruction and resources to student needs;and (b) Less than a third of districts offer childcare or learning hubs for students while not in person High COVID-19 case rates, parent and teacher concern, the rise of a new, more contagious variant of the virus, and a slower than expected vaccine rollout threaten the return to in-person learning in the short term But school districts can continue pushing to provide more intensive support to students wherever learning happens