Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Pulse of education
Exasperating year for school administrators, especially over government decisions
There’s no question that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on schools across Pennsylvania.
A pair of statewide educational organizations recently released a report taking a look at just how much the past 12 months have been affected by the pandemic.
The Pennsylvania School Board Association and Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators have unveiled the 2021 edition of their annual State of Education report.
Since the report’s inception in 2017, it has been looked at as a barometer of key indicators of school performance, as well as a window into the challenges schools across
the state are facing.
This time around, those challenges are chiefly the result of COVID-19. Which is why the report focuses solely on the impact the pandemic has had on education.
The report is based on surveys of school administrators, as well as data from the state Department of Education and other sources.
Biggest takeaways
While the report looks in detail at many aspects of education during the pandemic, with varying degrees of impact, it pulls out a few pieces that are most on the mind of educators.
The overriding feeling among school administrators, the report found, is that they were let down by government officials.
Just under 70% of respondents said the most challenging part of the pandemic has been dealing with “inadequate and consistently changing guidance” from federal, state and local authorities.
The second biggest takeaway was that the pandemic exacerbated an existing problem: the cost of charter schools.
School district leaders for years have cited the cost of tuition for students who attend charter schools — which students’ home districts are responsible for — as a growing problem that has caused financial hardships.
The new report found that during the pandemic more than 22,000 students shifted to cybercharter schools, which created an added statewide cost of about $335 million.
The growing cost of charter schools, in particular cybercharter schools, was named the biggest pressure on school district budgets.
Another main takeaway of the report is that the pandemic has forced most schools to adapt on the fly. Since the start of the 2020-21 school year, 85% of districts reported having to change their instructional plans because of COVID-19.
More findings
COVID-19’s tentacles have reached far and wide into the world of education, leaving almost nothing untouched.
In fact, the report found that 99% of school districts had at least one COVID-19 case among its students or staff.
About 75% of superintendents reported feeling “burned out” because of having to deal with the pandemic, and more than half of school districts have seen an uptick in staff retirements and resignations.
“The last year in public education has truly been unprecedented,” the report states. “The pandemic has forced public schools to close school buildings, transition all students to remote learning and reopen school buildings during a national health emergency.”
The report lauds school leaders, teachers and staff for the work they’re done over the past year, toiling to make sure they provide a quality education to Pennsylvania’s 1.7 million public school students. That work was done amid unexpected hurdles laid out by the pandemic.
When asked to name some of the biggest challenges, school leaders responded:
• 69.2% said inadequate and changing guidance from federal, state and local authorities.
• 43.3% said special education needs.
• 32.1% said budget pressures.
• 30.8% said staffing constraints.
• 20.3% said health and safety issues.
• 19.7% said transitioning to remote instruction.
• 15.4% said health and safety and reopening planning.
And, the report found, the future isn’t exceedingly bright.
School officials reported that they expect to continue to face all sorts of challenges due to the pandemic. Some are continuing, and others are new.
When asked what will be the biggest challenges, school officials said:
• 55.7% said addressing academic regression.
• 44.3% said budgeting for next school year.
• 39.3% said responding to COVID-19 challenges.
• 25.6% said staffing, including finding substitutes.
Impact on instruction
The clearest impact COVID-19 has had on education is with how lessons are provided for students.
Schools across the state were shut down last March and kept shuttered until the end of the school year. Many districts have stayed virtual this school year, or used a mix of virtual and in-person instruction.
That has left districts trying to figure out how to best educate students from afar, and worried about them falling behind.
“Since public school buildings were closed in March of 2020, one of the biggest challenges facing school districts has been to continue providing a quality educational program despite not being able to conduct consistent daily in-person instruction,” the report states. “And now into the 2020-21 school year, school districts are also working to identify and address any academic regression resulting from the pandemic.”
When the 2020-21 school year started, about 35% of districts were offering fulltime in-person learning.
For those that weren’t fulltime in-person, the reasons given were:
• 58.1%: health and safety risks.
• 26.3%: staff member concerns.
• 25.3%: county or other agency advice.
• 17.7%: community feedback.
• 14.5%: COVID levels in the community. • 11.8%: risk of liability. • 6.5%: inability to ensure social distancing.
As the school year progressed, the pandemic caused most school districts to change gears. About 85% reported changing their instructional plans at some point.
That led to a drop in fulltime in-person education.
In December and January, the report found, only about 14% of districts were running full-time in-person instruction.
Just under 40% were fully virtual, and a little over 46% were using a hybrid system with students having some virtual and some in-person learning.
With most districts having students spend at least some of their time learning from home, school leaders have faced a host of instructional challenges.
When asked what those challenges have been, they reported:
• 36.1% said reduced inperson time.
• 29.9% said adapting curriculum to virtual.
• 28.5% said lack of internet/Wi-Fi/other technology.
• 24.0% said assessing student progress.
• 23.6% said connecting students to needed supports.
• 20.8% said delivering synchronous instruction.
Access to technology has been a particular challenge, especially for districts that hadn’t already begun providing students with laptops or tablet devices.
According to the report, only about 23% of districts were already providing a device to every student before the pandemic. Just under 40% provided devices to some students.
That situation led to a rush on those devices, creating supply shortfalls.
“The transition to virtual learning caused almost every school district to purchase electronic devices such as laptops, Wi-Fi hotspots and tablets to provide its students and staff,” the report states. “The increased demand led to delays for most districts to obtain those devices.”
About 78% of districts reported delays in receiving devices they purchased.
Financial pinch
While COVID-19 has taken a bite out of school districts’ finances, it’s not the primary cause of fiscal problems.
The report found that four other areas ranked ahead of COVID-19 issues when school leaders where asked about the biggest pressures on district budgets:
• 82% said charter school tuition payments.
• 34.6% said special education costs.
• 31.2% said inadequate state funding. • 27.1% said pension costs. About a quarter of districts said loss of revenue because of the pandemic was causing financial pressure, and 22% said pressure was being caused by increased costs due to COVID-19.
Across the state, the average increase in costs because of COVID-19 was $1 million per district.
School leaders reported that federal assistance, in the form of funding through the CARES Act, has helped take away some of the sting. However, only 22.4% said it covered all of their additional costs.
Districts reported having dealt with financial pressures in a variety of ways:
• 67.9% drew from their fund balance.
• 44.1% reduced staffing or eliminated positions.
• 39.7% postponed textbook and curriculum updates.
• 37.9% raised property taxes.
• 35.9% postponed building renovations or maintenance.
Ongoing financial strains and new ones caused by the pandemic might result in a lot of Pennsylvanians getting bigger property tax bills.
The report said 45% of districts are expecting to increase property taxes regardless of the pandemic. Another 23.7% said they plan to raise rates because of COVID-19.
Just over 15% of districts said they won’t increase taxes specifically because of the ongoing economic struggles being faced by their communities.