The COVID-19 Pandemic Is a Lousy Natural Experiment for Studying the Effects of Online Learning: Focus, Instead, on Measuring the Overall Effects of the Pandemic Itself

Autor/inn/en	Bacher-Hicks, Andrew; Goodman, Joshua
Titel	The COVID-19 Pandemic Is a Lousy Natural Experiment for Studying the Effects of Online Learning: Focus, Instead, on Measuring the Overall Effects of the Pandemic Itself
Quelle	In: Education Next, 21 (2021) 4, S.38-42 (5 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1539-9664
Schlagwörter	COVID-19; Pandemics; School Closing; Online Courses; Educational Technology; Educational Research; Social Science Research; Social Problems; Mental Health; Educational Policy; Disadvantaged Youth; Racial Differences; Ethnicity; Achievement Gap + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? School closings; Schule; Schließung; Schließung (von Schulen); Online course; Online-Kurs; Unterrichtsmedien; Bildungsforschung; Pädagogische Forschung; Social scientific research; Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung; Social problem; Soziales Problem; Psychohygiene; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Benachteiligter Jugendlicher; Rassenunterschied; Ethnizität
Abstract	The COVID-19 pandemic that prompted a nationwide shutdown of schools and a shift to online instruction in spring 2020 also prompted a wave of articles calling this instructional change a "natural experiment" that could be used to study the effects of online education. Yet the pandemic disrupted so many aspects of children's academic, social, emotional, and economic lives that its broad scope poses serious challenges to isolating the causal impact of any specific change, such as the switch to remote instruction. In this article, Andrew Bacher-Hicks and Joshua Goodman emphasize that educators and policymakers should proceed with caution when interpreting studies that attempt to identify such specific effects. Instead, they assert, researchers should focus on helping education leaders understand the overall impact of the pandemic on students, putting particular emphasis on discovering which groups have suffered the worst effects. The best evidence to date indicates that COVID-19 has had a substantial negative impact overall and has disproportionately harmed the learning of disadvantaged students. Continued research in this direction could provide a sharper picture of which students have faced the most severe challenges under COVID-19, pointing the way toward how best to allocate resources to address learning losses. Bacher-Hicks and Goodman conclude that though choices of how best to remedy these losses may be best left to individual states, districts, or schools, substantial resources should be devoted to these efforts. Without such investment, particularly among students who have experienced the greatest setbacks, education systems will likely enter an era of increased educational inequality persisting beyond the return of fully reopened schools. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Education Next Institute, Inc. Harvard Kennedy School, Taubman 310, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; Fax: 617-496–4428; e-mail: Education_Next@hks.harvard.edu; Web site: https://www.educationnext.org/the-journal/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01