School closures. Distance learning, home-schooling, and online education. Budget implications. The effect on standardized testing. The novel coronavirus has upended the world of education just as it has radically changed the rest of our economy and our day-to-day lives. Education Next‘s coverage of the virus and the reaction as it affects education is collected here, organized chronologically with the most recently published items toward the top. Podcasts are at the bottom of the page.
Covid-19 Has Capsized the Case Against School Choice
During the past six months, it’s become clear that what this universal, public system actually guarantees is a lot less than we imagine
By Frederick Hess
States Step Up to Fund Families; Others Should Follow
Idaho, North Carolina, and Oklahoma innovate by decentralizing education spending, decisions in response to pandemic
By Adam Peshek
Combination of Limited College Admission Testing and “Test-Optional” Policies Set off a Scramble
The Covid-era mix is shaping up as a worst-case scenario from an equity perspective.
By Jordan Arnold and Sarah Turner
Costs of Past and Future Learning Losses
For the United States, the already accrued learning losses are expected to amount to $14.2 trillion, and would grow if schools are unable to restart quickly.
By Eric A. Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann
The Rapid Rise of Pandemic Pods
Will the parent response to Covid-19 lead to lasting change?
By Michael B. Horn
“This Is Going to Be the Hardest Fall We’ve Had Maybe in the Modern History of Education.”
Silicon Schools CEO on how schools can make a high-quality jump to distance learning
By Brian Greenberg
How Big Charter Networks Made the Switch to Remote Learning
Schools that were better before the pandemic did better during the pandemic
By Gregg Vanourek
Amid Pandemic, Support Soars for Online Learning, Parent Poll Shows
Results from the 2020 Education Next Survey of Public Opinion
By Michael B. Henderson, David Houston, Paul E. Peterson, M. Danish Shakeel and Martin R. West
The Case for Case Studies: Teaching During Covid-19
“A kid who decided to break a police car window to steal masks from an officer, who arrests people attempting to enter stores without a mask”
By Rann Miller
In Pandemic, Private Schools Face Peril
Policy choices may help to preserve options for families
By Juliet Squire
Could Covid Finally Disrupt the Top-Down Education Bureaucracy?
Urgency may lead to innovations, increased autonomy
By Philip K. Howard
Virtual Fall: America’s Largest School Districts Are Opting for Remote Starts
For millions of students, “back to school” will be online, from home.
By Christopher Cleveland
The Price Students Pay When Schools Are Closed
Seven ways children, and the nation, lose out when school buildings do not open
By Paul E. Peterson
How the Coronavirus Crisis May Improve Teacher Quality
Recession hiring boosts teacher quality and student learning
By Martin R. West, Markus Nagler and Marc Piopiunik
Make Covid-Era K-12 Local Education More Like Daycare
Small-scale “nurture centers” can support remote learning for children of parents who aren’t available to homeschool
By J.H. Snider
Pandemic Offers Opportunity to Extend Learning Time
A chance to break free of seasonal, location-centric learning.
By Nick Sheltrown
What Google Search Data Reveals About Learning During the Pandemic
“Substantially widened socioeconomic gaps.”
By Andrew Bacher-Hicks, Joshua Goodman and Christine Mulhern
Reopening Resilient Schools
With a hybrid learning model and proper safeguards, schools can successfully open
By John Bailey
What American Families Experienced When Covid-19 Closed Their Schools
Parents report little contact with teachers and less student learning, but also broad satisfaction; charter and private schools provide more opportunities for student-teacher interaction
By Michael B. Henderson, David Houston, Paul E. Peterson and Martin R. West
Did America’s Schools Rise to the Coronavirus Challenge?
Forum: Some see heroic efforts, others, a miserable failure.
By Michael Casserly and Chris Stewart
Focus on Teaching, Not Just Masks and Hand-Sanitizer
Make schools better than they were by relying more on the best teachers
By Eric A. Hanushek
Toward Reopening: What Will School Look Like this Fall?
States start making decisions on “priority populations,” ages for mask-wearing
By Christopher Cleveland
Jeb Bush: “My View Is the Schools Have To Open”
“Staying quarantined is not an option,” says the former Florida governor.
By Frederick Hess
In Newton, Mass., a Union Beats Parents to the Punch on Distance Learning
“A complete and utter joke,” a parent complains, as teachers get full salaries and students get a few hours a week at most of live instruction.
By E. B. Solomont
School Districts’ Remote-Learning Plans May Widen Student Achievement Gap
Only 20 percent of schools meet standards for “rigorous” remote-learning instruction
By Nat Malkus
Teacher Pension Plans and the Covid Recession
Any federal bailout should come with conditions attached
By Andrew G. Biggs and Cory Koedel
The Stress of This Moment Might Be Hurting Kids’ Development
But relationships, routines, and resilience can help
By Pamela Cantor, M.D.
What We’ve Learned from Distance Learning, and What it Means for the Future
For improving online education, a September deadline
By Brian Greenberg
Access to Education Technology Is Not Enough
Three key steps states can take to make sure remote learning works for everyone
By Karl Rectanus
Summer “Vacation Academies” Can Narrow Coronavirus Learning Gaps
Small-group instruction, both in person and online, can give students needed support
By Beth Schueler
Senator Lamar Alexander on the Response to the Coronavirus
“Washington usually messes it up if they get involved, the way they did with Common Core.”
By Frederick Hess
Education Reform and the Coronavirus
“In that longer-term sense, at least, the tasks of education and education reform, of teaching and learning, are every bit as life-and-death as anything happening in a hospital emergency room or intensive care unit.”
By Martin R. West
Iconic Teacher Leader on Coronavirus Response
“Students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
By Frederick Hess
Forty-Six States Have Closed Physical Schools Until August or September
When will in-person school resume? In most places, not for about four months, at the earliest.
By Melissa Fall and Nick Tavares
A Blueprint for Back to School
What will it take to get schools ready?
By John Bailey and Frederick Hess
“Preparing for a second wave of shutdowns in the fall”
“Video games are an amazing tool for education,” Microsoft education executive says
By Frederick Hess
Superintendent Floats Fall Scenario of “Hybrid” Reopening
Students would “attend school certain days of the week and learn from home on others.”
By Frederick Hess
“Existential Fear and Constant Worry”
Stockton, California, school superintendent John Deasy on the Covid-19 crisis: “The daily death rates and new case announcements are very difficult to wrap your head around. It is like the shock of 9/11 every week.”
By Frederick Hess
Midday Yoga, The “Mute” Button, and Easier Differentiation: Why One Teacher Loves the Novel e-School
In the Coronavirus-Caused Distance Learning, a Silver Lining
By Kerry McKay
AP Classes Move to YouTube with Unannounced Celebrity Guests
Trevor Packer, head of the Advanced Placement Program at the College Board, on offering tests and education amid the Coronavirus crisis
By Frederick Hess
“The Decision To Reopen Will Be Much More Difficult”
Former Montgomery County Superintendent Josh Starr on the “hurry up and wait” coronavirus reality for school leaders.
By Frederick Hess
In School Response to Coronavirus, States Lead the Way
“From Illinois, recommendations for minimum and maximum learning time per day, based on students’ ages.”
By Frederick Hess
Coronavirus Could Spur Shift to Year-Round School Schedule
“Consider calling it summer at this point and adjust to a new calendar.”
By Frederick Hess
Daddy School: Week 2
Current events, Khan Academy math, cartooning, and an apprenticeship in watching TV.
By Mike Goldstein
Using Transparency To Create Accountability When School Buildings Are Closed and Tests Are Canceled
The districts and schools most likely to succeed in remote education will be those that provide a substantial amount of synchronous instruction and live student–teacher interaction.
By Brian P. Gill
Should DeVos Ask Congress To Waive Parts of the Special Education Law amid the Coronavirus Pandemic?
The best cases for—and against—changing the rules.
By Robin J. Lake and John M. McLaughlin
Four Lessons We’ve Learned from Moving Online
Students with ADHD, executive function challenges, and anxiety can thrive in a virtual “schoolhouse”
By Anabelle Morgan
Chiefs for Change COO Weighs in on Challenges of Coronavirus
“The decision to reopen school facilities is a public-health decision that is out of our hands.”
By Frederick Hess
Philadelphia Is Delaying Online Teaching for 7 Weeks. It Doesn’t Need to.
The district believes that only half its students have home internet. The true number may be closer to 80 to 90 percent.
By Paul T. von Hippel
How Will the Coronavirus Crisis Affect Children’s Learning? Unequally.
It’s not a vacation. There’s still half a semester of curriculum to learn.
By Paul T. von Hippel
During Coronavirus Crisis, How Can State Leaders Help Schools?
“Should schools run longer school days or summer school to catch students up, or should they call a mulligan on this year and start afresh in the fall?”
By Frederick Hess
Betsy DeVos on Coronavirus: What Are the Feds Doing to Help Schools?
“Students who never anticipated being distance learners, and educators who are only used to teaching in a classroom, are now having to figure out ways to keep learning going.”
By Frederick Hess
How to Deliver Deeper Learning During the Coronavirus Shutdown
“When I asked him to name the school at the end of the week, he named it ‘Happy School.’”
By Frederick Hess
Tracking 82 Districts’ Responses to Coronavirus School Closures
Only four districts say they are providing formal curriculum, online instruction, and student progress monitoring, but that group does include Miami-Dade Public Schools and the New York City Department of Education.
By Frederick Hess
Great City Schools Chief Mike Casserly on the Urban Response to Covid-19
“There is just no substitute for students being with teachers as lessons are being taught.”
By Frederick Hess
Former Superintendent Terry Grier on the Challenges of School Closures and Distance Learning
“Most of the country’s school districts do not have enough laptops for students and teachers to use at home and school.”
By Frederick Hess
Sal Khan on Teaching 40 Million Kids at Home
As schools across the country closed, Khan Academy, with the support of Bank of America, pushed to create daily learning schedules for students age 4-18 and expand access to its online resources for millions.
By Frederick Hess
School Accountability in the Time of Virus
Not every test is entirely out of the question, even now.
By Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Daddy School, Week One
A parent’s plan meets reality.
By Mike Goldstein
Covid-19 Closed Schools. When Should They Reopen?
Expect more closures in fall 2020
By John Bailey
Yes, It Really Is Harder to Get into Highly Selective Colleges Today
Comparison of SAT scores over time tells a story
By Michael J. Petrilli and Pedro Enamorado
The Dos and Don’ts of Distance Learning in a Pandemic
“The more we can simplify things, the better.”
By Thomas Toch
Secretary DeVos, It’s Time to Scratch the 2020 State Tests
It’s time to waive the assessment requirements, everywhere and for everyone.
By Frederick Hess
Coronavirus Closing Your Kid’s School? One Parent’s Plan for Daddy School
Play nerf basketball. Watch Ted Talks.
By Mike Goldstein
Searching for Precedent in Pandemics Past
“On account of the pestilence that occurred in this year, all the teachers of the boys are dead”
By Ira Stoll
Covid-19 Boost to Online Learning May Backfire
Many courses will be poor substitutes for the originals
By Michael B. Horn
Closing Schools To Slow a Pandemic
Balancing potential public health benefits against the cost of keeping parents away from work
By John Bailey
Podcasts
The Education Exchange: A Lot of Lost Ground: Results from the Education Next Survey on Learning During the Pandemic
“Across a range of the questions that we asked, you see a more robust response in the charter school sector and in the private school sector.”
July 8, 2020
EdNext Podcast: Why Some Schools Are Responding Well to the Pandemic
“There’s just something magical about being live.”
June 3, 2020
The Education Exchange: Stanford-Affiliated Doctor Says Schools Should Open in September
Let science, not fear, drive our decisions, he says
May 26, 2020
EdNext Podcast: Jeb Bush on Adjusting to Distance Learning During the Pandemic
The 43rd governor of Florida and the president and chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, Jeb Bush, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West for the 200th episode of the EdNext Podcast. Governor Bush discusses his experience managing crises, as well as some of the best practices to continue education during the Covid-19 pandemic. “This is the time for innovation to rise up,” Bush says.
May 13, 2020
The Education Exchange: “Some Fear and Some Anxiety”
Surveying Louisiana residents about their response to the coronavirus pandemic.
May 11, 2020
EdNext Podcast: Mapping Out a Return to Schools
A visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, John Bailey, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss Bailey’s new study, which details how students and teachers can plan to return to physical school buildings in the 2020-21 academic year amid the Covid-19 pandemic. “It’s going to be a lot of creative problem-solving to tackle this,” Bailey says.
May 6, 2020
The Education Exchange: “Some School Districts Are Talking about not Reopening until Next January”
The director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, Robin Lake, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss a new report published by CRPE which details school district response plans to Covid-19.
May 4, 2020
The Education Exchange: From “Innovative” to “Rotten”—Online Learning Amid Covid-19
“What I’ve heard from a lot of homeschooling families is the moment you leave traditional school, you realize how much time is wasted.”
April 27, 2020
EdNext Podcast: Coronavirus Could Fuel Demand for Better Assessments
A former deputy director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lynn Olson, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss her new report from FutureEd. It details how standardized testing has come under bipartisan attack, and what will need for change for testing to survive.
April 23, 2020
The Education Exchange: “People Want Their Kids Back in School”
Former Seattle superintendent Joseph Olchefske on the “checkerboard situation” of distance learning in response to coronavirus closures—and the “doomsday scenario” of it lasting through fall 2020.
April 20, 2020
EdNext Podcast: Using Transparency To Create Accountability During Covid-19 Closures
A senior fellow at Mathematica and director of REL Mid- Atlantic, Brian P. Gill, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss what schools can do to measure what is happening during distance learning.
April 15, 2020
The Education Exchange: “On Day One, We Were Ready”
Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho recounts a “seamless” transition to distance learning in response to the novel coronavirus—and predicts it will lead to “a new revolution of choice.”
April 13, 2020
EdNext Podcast: How Colleges Have Raised Selectivity Over Time
An executive editor of Education Next and president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Mike Petrilli, joins Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss how median SAT scores show that colleges have raised their selectivity standards since 1985.
April 8, 2020
The Education Exchange: Coronavirus Threatens Teacher Pensions
The director of the Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research at Saint Louis University, Michael Podgursky, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss what long-term economic effects are likely to result from the Covid-19 pandemic.
March 30, 2020
EdNext Podcast: Closing Schools To Slow a Pandemic
A visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, John Bailey, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss why closing schools may help slow the Covid-19 pandemic, and how long it may be until they re-open.
March 25, 2020
EdNext Podcast: How the Move to Online Learning Could Backfire
A co-founder of and a distinguished fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, Michael Horn, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West. They discuss how the coronavirus-caused move to online learning could result ina poor substitutes for face-to-face classes. That may wind up eventually slowing, rather than accelerating, the progress of online learning.
March 18, 2020
