As we settled into a new reality with COVID-19, there were calls for educators to use the crisis as a time to initiate changes desperately needed in education (Zhao & Watterston, 2021). Highlighting an elementary school as a case study (Hungerford-Kresser et al., 2022), we now reflect on what we learned during the early stages of the pandemic,…

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to dramatic changes in way of life for people across the globe. One of the most common disruptions to everyday life has been the prolonged closure of schools, in-person school in particular. This article presents research examining the consequences of the pandemic on the reading skills of first- through sixth-grade…

The instructional leadership approach requires school principals to give top priority to the continuous improvement of teaching quality and academic outcomes. This study explored how principals of elementary schools in Israel fulfilled their instructional leadership role during COVID-19. Data collection comprised semi-structured interviews with a…

Although teacher burnout has been experienced for decades, teachers faced additional stressors with the onset of COVID-19. Teachers faced newfound stressors due to lockdowns and restrictions on gathering face-to-face and instruction becoming virtual. Even the youngest students (kindergarten to fifth grade) had to be taught according to the virtual…

Teachers have been confronting burnout even before COVID-19 appeared; however, with COVID-19, teacher burnout has amplified and persisted. Resilience is a component within individuals that exhibits endurance to burnout. One factor that could feasibly be a component of resilience is hope. Hope within the Positive Psychology framework is seen as a…

We use student-level data on elementary special education identification from Washington state to explore student identification rates in the months immediately after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and over 2 subsequent years. Special education identification rates dropped dramatically in March 2020 through the end of the 2019-20 school year…

Teaching and learning activities during the COVID-19 pandemic were largely ineffective, and exacerbated existing learning disparities (Dorn et al., 2020; Muscoviz & Evans, 2022). Instructional technologies were a significant component of these teaching and learning activities. Because K-12 teachers' internal beliefs are a significant predictor…

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a mandatory shift from in-person instruction to online learning for many young children. Teachers needed to adjust to virtual teaching, children were isolated from their peers, and parents played a bigger role in learning during the pandemic. In 2021, the shift back to in-person learning occurred. Research has…

Schools abruptly ended face-to-face instruction in March 2020 and transitioned to emergency remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed teachers across the United States between March and April 2020 to understand their experiences during this time in our history (n = 249). Linear regression analysis was used to examine relationships…

This article outlines the results from an investigation on elementary school students designed to find out whether the coronavirus pandemic had an impact on their conceptualisation of microorganisms. We compared 9- to 11-year-old children's drawings and answers to questionnaires conducted before the pandemic (during 2017 and 2018, N = 137) with…

We analyze student-level data on elementary special education identification in Washington state to explore how identification rates changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that special education identification rates dropped dramatically in March 2020 through the end of the 2019-20 school year and remained below historical norms throughout…

Early in 2020, the United States was faced with the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in several school districts across the country shutting down. What began as a temporary school closure morphed into one of the most creative and labor-intensive restructurings of schools. Leading the dramatic changes were elementary school…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore public school teachers' perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on their profession and related activities, specifically delivery of instruction, preparation and planning, and desires to leave the profession of teaching. Through semi-structured interviews, three research questions…

Most research has so far focused primarily on the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on early adolescents. This pre-registered study fills this gap by investigating possible links between pandemic regulations and positive outcomes, namely school well-being. Specifically, we test the assumption that high-ability early adolescents benefit…

This study explores the effects of COVID-19 on academic growth and achievement in Hawaii schools, and strategies that school leaders used in the recovery from the pandemic. The calculations in this report can support states as they investigate the impact of COVID on students and schools and their recovery from the pandemic. The Center for…