ERIC Number: ED625929
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Oct
Pages: 50
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
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Assessing School District Decision-Making: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic. EdWorkingPaper No. 22-660
Christian, Alvin; Jacob, Brian; Singleton, John D.
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
The COVID-19 pandemic drew new attention to the role of school boards in the U.S. In this paper, we examine school districts' choices of learning modality -- whether and when to offer in-person, virtual, or hybrid instruction -- over the course of the 2020-21 pandemic school year. The analysis takes advantage of granular weekly data on learning mode and COVID-19 cases for Ohio school districts. We show that districts respond on the margin to health risks: all else equal, a marginal increase in new cases reduces the probability that a district offers in-person instruction the next week. Moreover, this negative response is magnified when the district was in-person the prior week and attenuates in magnitude over the school year. These findings are consistent with districts learning from experience about the effect of in-person learning on disease transmission in schools. We also find evidence that districts are influenced by the decisions of their peers.
Descriptors: School Districts, Pandemics, COVID-19, Decision Making, Elementary Secondary Education, Health, Risk, Boards of Education, In Person Learning, Distance Education, Blended Learning, Probability, Disease Control, School Closing
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Brown University Box 1985, Providence, RI 02912. Tel: 401-863-7990; Fax: 401-863-1290; e-mail: AISR_Info@brown.edu; Web site: http://www.annenberginstitute.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Identifiers - Location: Ohio
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