Moving suddenly from on-site, in class, traditional instruction to school closure (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and reopening within 2 weeks in a virtual model was difficult, but we did it. Moreno Valley Community Adult School did not see COVID restrictions as an obstacle to instructional delivery, but as an impetus to pivot into the future and…

The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated educational inequities for students from institutionally marginalized communities. This article specifically examines the college (in)opportunities and conscious choices of rural Latinx students from California's San Joaquin Valley as they pursued higher education during the pandemic. This…

When COVID-19 first disrupted the routines and traditions that constitute school, many teachers grappled for the first time with online instruction, often with little experience or support. The experience of the past months has demonstrated that those who could transition seamlessly to online or hybrid models were already delivering authentic,…

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of digital connectivity for learning--while revealing serious inequities in access to broadband and computing devices. For the 2021-22 school year, California has focused on getting as many students as possible back to the classroom. But digital access at home remains essential. As digital tools for…

Employing phenomenology as a methodological framework, this study sought to capture and understand, from a first-person point of view, what parents, teachers, and administrators in U.S. high-needs K-12 schools experienced related to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Individual interviews were conducted on a video conferencing platform…

The forced expeditious transition online induced by the COVID-19 pandemic caused a massive disruption to education. COVID-19 exacerbated the inequities that existed in education for years. As technology advances and integrates with education, it can both enhance inclusive instructional practices, as well as exacerbate issues of equity. Achievement…

Like schools across the country, Green Dot Public Schools California closed its campuses in mid-March and kept them closed for the rest of the school year. Early in the crisis, the network focused on distributing food, Chromebooks, and hotspots to its roughly 11,000 students. It conducted wellness checks by phone with all of its families. Over the…

California has begun moving toward a "cradle to career" approach that connects early childhood, K-12, and higher education more closely. But COVID-19 has disrupted learning, funding, and progress toward improving student outcomes and has exacerbated racial and economic equity gaps. This publication is part of a briefing kit that focuses…

This document contains the technical appendices for the report "Achieving Digital Equity for California's Students." Appendices include: (1) Census Household Pulse Survey; and (2) Additional Figures. [For the full report, see ED617930. For the Policy Brief, see ED617933.]

This qualitative study examined special education teachers' perceptions of student success in online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic school closures to isolate the key determinants in the differential student outcomes reported by the teachers. Data were collected from 16 teachers in the U.S. state of California using semi-structured…

As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, digital connectivity is critical to student learning. Gaps in digital access--including reliable access to internet and a digital device--are a driving force in the educational inequities evident during distance learning. In this report, the authors use data on a sample of California households with children…

The COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 as high school seniors were receiving their college admission notifications for fall. Many postsecondary institutions shifted outreach efforts to online formats. This qualitative study examines how virtual recruitment at an emerging HSI incorporates culturally responsive practices from the perspective of…

How do we ensure that all students have the tools and resources they need to succeed in today's educational context? In this article, we explore how the right to education generally and to specific educational tools and resources in California have been protected through litigation in the past; how the COVID-19 pandemic revealed technology-based…

This report, commissioned by the Bay Area Geographic Leads Consortium, explores how five county offices of education and local school districts pivoted to reach, teach, and support the holistic needs of students experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report documents the rising number of students experiencing homelessness as…

Higher education systems and institutions are often viewed as resistant to change or slow to adapt, particularly by advocates and communities urging equity-minded reform of colleges and universities. Yet the COVID-19 pandemic jolted California's colleges and universities into drastically changing course to meet students' basic, mental, and…