A Year That Forced Change: Examining How Schools and School Systems Adapted to the Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Calls for Racial Justice in 2020

July 18, 2023 | By Huriya Jabbar, Taylor Enoch-Stevens, Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Julie A. Marsh, Eupha Jeanne Daramola, Jacob Alonso, Jeremy Singer, Chanteliese Watson, Laura Mulfinger, Kait Ogden, Dwuana Bradley, Annie Hemphill, Sheneka Williams, Kate Kennedy

These two reports explore how educational institutions and their systems responded to two sudden disruptions, the COVID-19 pandemic and increased awareness of racial inequity. We compared responses from traditional, charter, voucher-receiving private schools and rural and urban districts.

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TECHNICAL REPORTS

- System Responses to Crisis: Organizational Perspectives

- School System Responses to Racial Injustice

In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 virus shuttered schools across the country and world and calls for racial justice expanded into nearly every sphere of social and political life as the nation reeled at another life violently taken at the hands of a police officer. School system leaders faced difficult decisions about delivering instruction while maintaining the safety and well-being of students, families, faculty, and staff. Moreover, the spotlight on racial injustice also drew attention to the need for educational reform to better serve historically marginalized students with academic, social, emotional, and other special needs.

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