Since public schools began in the United States, there has been an academic gap between different groups of people. In normal face-to-face situations, the academic gap is not closing. In March 2020, schools closed worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to emergency remote teaching. Because of the uncertainty of the pandemic, educators, students, and families were impacted by this crisis. The problem in this study focused on students who were underachieving in math and reading because of limited resources. The purpose of this study was to find ways that educators were able to break through these barriers so students could be successful. I used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) as the qualitative method guided by the crisis response theory Caplan developed in the early 1960s, although components of preventive mental health took place during the early 1900s. The research methodology was IPA which allowed participants to share a common experience and to tell a story about their experiences. Thirteen educators were interviewed using Zoom. The educators shared their lived experiences during emergency remote teaching (ERT). I used semi-structured open-ended interview questions following an interview protocol guide which allowed for qualifying questions. The interviews were transcribed from Zoom and analyzed one at a time. I followed the sequence highlighted by Smith, Flowers, and Larkin, who started the IPA movement. The themes that highlighted the barriers were technology issues, lack of materials, lack of parent involvement, and inability to see student work. The themes for breaking through barriers included educators sharing hope and caring with their students, student engagement, arts integration, students as leaders, and utilizing technology tools. The results of this study will help districts prepare for a crisis in the future. More care needs to be given to educators' well-being; platforms need to be created for educators to share their ideas so students can be more successful in future crisis events. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]