While COVID-19 caused unimaginable disruptions to public education, we saw remarkable examples of innovation and commitment to supporting high school student success. In our New England landscape of learning research, we learned that the boundaries of what it means to "reinvent" high school stretched, and in some systems, the momentum…

Recent state and national achievement exam results, as well as academic progress reports, have underscored how the COVID-19 pandemic and related school closures had a large, negative impact on students' reading and math development. While a great deal is known about the test-based academic impacts of the pandemic such as test scores that provide…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted nearly every aspect of the social and economic lives of individuals, families, and communities. It also highlighted and deepened existing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities. Education, too, was negatively impacted by the pandemic. Research has provided ample evidence about the challenges related to learning…

The COVID-19 pandemic and recovery period is a unique opportunity to understand contemporary issues in high school reform. Evidence has clearly demonstrated lingering COVID impacts on adolescent students that have deepened pre-existing inequities and worsened teen mental health. There's a natural desire to regain normalcy after the pandemic. But…

The proliferation of settings in which personalized learning platforms have been used during the pandemic offers rich opportunities for describing those use cases and understanding how such platforms might affect students' academic, social, and emotional outcomes. There is relatively little known about which use cases provide the best outcomes for…

As stress and disruption have intensified for students over the past two years due to the pandemic, so has interest in and spending on social-emotional learning (SEL) in public education. Also mounting in some places is confusion about what SEL is and a lack of clarity about how, exactly, to implement SEL in sustainable, effective ways. In a time…

In the face of financial, political, and capacity constraints, leaders within the Baltimore City Public School System and Chicago Public Schools are making progress toward closing post-pandemic gaps in student learning. The executive leadership teams serving Baltimore City Public School System and Chicago Public Schools are using several…

This report is part of a series that aims to provide a definitive account of the best available evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected America's students. The series is part of a broader effort, the Evidence Project, which brings together researchers and policymakers to advance solutions-oriented analysis of the K-12 response to the…

Cleveland came into the pandemic with a history of collaboration among civic organizations and schools. In summer 2020, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) and partners--community organizations, funders, and out-of-school-time organizations--saw that students were in a crisis and came together to establish full-day remote-learning…

Data on the popularity of alternative educational models like "pandemic pods," homeschooling, "hybrid" homeschooling, and tutoring has been anecdotal, episodic, and parochial. Journalistic accounts of new learning communities in some cities and some states have profiled schools, the educators that teach in them, and the…

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, student achievement levels remains low and adult approval of public schools is at its lowest point in decades. For nearly all student groups, but especially those who have been historically underserved, recovery remains unfinished business and a generation of American students is at risk of never catching…

In partnership with the Barr Foundation, the Center on Reinventing Public Education conducted longitudinal interviews with ten teachers and seven parents across four school systems in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, and Massachusetts between January and June of 2021. Our interviews expose how ill-equipped New England schools were to address…

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…

The COVID-19 pandemic and related school closures led to unprecedented academic setbacks for all American students. In this third State of the American Student report, attention is turned to how the pandemic impacted--and continues to impact--special or unique populations of students, such as those with learning differences, English language…

In the summer of 2020, it became clear to growing numbers of families and community organizations that COVID-19's unprecedented disruptions to public education would not subside in time for the coming school year. Facing the prospect of continued school closures and uncertain public health safeguards, families were forced to make new childcare…