ERIC Number: EJ1413227
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-1068-2341
Available Date: N/A
Extending Understanding of the Relationship between School District COVID-19 Reopening Plan Signals and Enrollment Decline
Education Policy Analysis Archives, v31 n123 spec iss 2023
Preceding the 2020-21 school year, school districts engaged their communities by sharing pandemic school reopening plans, outlining the learning modalities and support services to be made accessible to students. Existing research has highlighted a connection between a district's primary reopening method and changes in student enrollment--a crucial aspect for gauging responsiveness to different learning environments. Conversely, limited research has established the relationship between new health and safety procedures, provisions for vulnerable students, learning support services, or the level of community engagement undertaken by a district in creating reopening plans and student enrollment change, independent of the method of reopening (e.g., in-person or distanced). We do so using two methodological approaches. First, we use differences-in-differences approaches to estimate the impact of reopening method on enrollment changes. Second, we leverage granular data of reopening plans for a representative sample of Missouri school districts in a triple-differences approach. We find that signaling the intent to begin the school year with distanced instruction generated a 3% decline in enrollment beyond pandemic-era declines, concentrated among the youngest students. Extending existing reopening findings, we also estimate that enrollment declined an additional 5% in middle schools where districts did not require masking.
Descriptors: COVID-19, Pandemics, School Closing, Declining Enrollment, Public Schools, Elementary School Students, Secondary School Students
Colleges of Education at Arizona State University and the University of South Florida. c/o Editor, USF EDU162, 4202 East Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620-5650. Tel: 813-974-3400; Fax: 813-974-3826; Web site: https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/index.php/epaa
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Missouri
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A