Originally published in the Phi Delta Kappan, November 27, 2020
In spring 2020, much of what parents, students, and teachers knew about schooling was upended, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to make a sudden shift to remote instruction.
Cognia conducted three surveys designed to better understand the effects of this abrupt shift to online instruction. Respondents included more than 74,000 students, parents, and teachers from the United States and 22 other countries. Perhaps the most striking finding from Cognia’s surveys is that students’ workload — including both the number of assignments they received and the time required to complete those assignments — tended to increase significantly after schools shifted from in-person to remote instruction. However, while the workload increased, the academic activities tended to become less challenging, leading to widespread concerns that students might not master grade-level content and skills and become ready to move on to the next grade. Read the article here in Phi Delta Kappan. A full report of the survey findings is available here.