This brief gives a snapshot of how school districts across the country are currently planning for fall 2020, how they are planning for contingencies of COVID-19 spread, and how this varies based on district characteristics. During the week of July 27-31, we reviewed district websites, social media, and local news to collect data from a sample of…

In the summer of 2022, the Center on Reinventing Public Education convened a panel of education and youth development experts to take stock of recent efforts to address students' mental health and well-being and to reestablish core elements of social and emotional learning (SEL) in schools. The panel agreed that the pandemic's impact has been…

This brief is one in a series aimed at providing K-12 education decision makers and advocates with an evidence base to ground discussions about how to best serve students during and following the novel coronavirus pandemic. It addresses one central question: What does research tell us about how to use community-based resources to address academic…

This brief, informed by interviews with school and system leaders in the New England region, suggests some efforts to reinvent schools before the pandemic have helped schools to navigate the current crisis. To increase the odds that innovation prevails in the face of rising fatigue and pressure, we must better understand the adaptations schools…

In mid-June, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), in partnership with the Reinvention Lab powered by Teach For America, gathered a "change-maker" group of students, educators, and education leaders. The people who gathered were committed to a learner-centered, radically different future of education. The question posed to…

In summer 2020, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE), with support from the Barr Foundation, began observing and learning from students, parents, and educators in New England high schools as they navigated the uncertainty of the pandemic. The authors wanted to see what challenges and opportunities they faced, the ways in which they…

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…

This report is part of the American School District Panel (ASDP), a joint project between the Center on Reinventing Public Education, the RAND Corporation, Chiefs for Change, the Council of Great City Schools, and Kitamba, an education consulting firm. The ASDP's primary work is conducting a series of nationally-representative surveys of school…

This brief gives a snapshot of how school districts across the country are currently planning for fall 2020, how they are planning for contingencies of COVID-19 spread, and how this varies based on district characteristics. From August 17-21, we reviewed district websites, social media, and local news to collect data from a sample of 477 districts…

Across the country, the tides are beginning to turn on school reopening. Relief funding, policy guidance on safe reopening, declining cases, and increasing vaccination rates have cleared the way for students to safely return to classrooms. School districts are largely responding. The Center on Reinventing Public Education's (CRPE's) latest…

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on an employment crisis alongside falling college enrollment rates, which reached historic lows at two-year institutions. Would these twin crises provide the motivation and opportunity that states, education institutions, and employers needed to make meaningful progress toward a more flexible and integrated learning…

This brief summarizes our findings from a review of COVID-19 response plans of 477 school districts across the country. Key findings include: (1) 1 in 3 school districts have been communicating an expectation that teachers will provide instruction while schools remain closed; (2) Urban and suburban districts have been significantly more likely…

This brief gives an update on our nationally representative sample of school district reopening plans. This update comes at a critical time, as a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic once again forces school system leaders to rethink plans to welcome students safely to campuses, and spiking caseloads raise a new round of public health fears for…

The pandemic affected the lives and social-emotional experiences of every student to some extent. Along with the unprecedented closures of schools across the country in March 2020, virtually all social activities ceased. Students were cut off from their teachers, with uneven access to live instruction and hands-on, collaborative learning. There…