Educational Impacts of COVID-19: A Crisis of Inequalities

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have permeated into every aspect of our lives, and education has not been immune. The school closures in Spring 2020 and the transition to online learning in Fall 2020 fundamentally changed how schools function, creating new challenges for education. Already, we see visible educational impacts as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. At the start of the 2020-2021 school year, students were projected to arrive with 66% of typical gains in reading and 44% of typical gains in math due to school closures (Kuhfeld et al., 2020a). With the continuation of alternative education strategies, it is likely that these issues will continue to grow.

However, these estimations of educational outcomes fail to highlight the variability among different demographics of students. The “achievement gap,” a disparity in academic performance between students in different socioeconomic and racial groups, has stubbornly persisted within the United States. Due to the existing widespread inequities within the U.S., this gap is expected to widen as a result of the pandemic (Kuhfeld et al., 2020a). Indeed, report card scores from the 2020-2021 school year have shown that “the number of students failing classes has risen as many as two or three times -- with English language learners and disabled and disadvantaged students suffering the most” (Thompson, 2020). This theory is echoed by sources documenting higher pandemic impacts to students of color as opposed to their white counterparts (Kuhfeld et al., 2020b). The pandemic has become an issue of equity, disparities, and social justice, along with educational impacts.

Existing financial inequalities among school districts produced different outcomes when schools were switched online. One prerequisite for successful online learning is having a device that can access the online course materials, which is more likely in districts with more funding (MN Department of Education, 2016, p. 11). Nationwide, 38% of high school students had access to a non-shared device through a 1:1 program or a “bring your own device” program at their schools giving them easy access to their coursework (Hinrichs, 2017). 55% of Minnesota schools have implemented a 1:1 program, including Saint Paul Public schools, where all but 600 students had a school-issued iPad (Verges, 2020). However, in remaining districts where there was not a 1:1 device program implemented, the transition to online learning was harder.

The pandemic has exacerbated existing funding shortfalls for school districts. As public schools transitioned online, some parents unenrolled their children in favor of private schools, which have not been forced to close, or homeschooling. Enrollment has declined up to 4.8% in Minnesota school districts, which translates to direct losses in funding. For the Menahga school district in central MN, loss of 230 students led to a 22% budget loss (Shockman, 2020). School budgets are also contingent on state tax revenues which plunged. States reported up to a 25% decline in tax revenues compared to 2019, meaning deep budget cuts are necessary across the board, including education (Turner, 2020). This will not impact every district equally. Cuts to state funding for education increase the importance of school funding that comes from property taxes. The distribution of wealth and property values is currently unequal, highlighting yet another way in which this public health crisis has disproportionately hurt districts who are already struggling financially and prevented them from fully providing the resources necessary for online learning.

We can also analyze socioeconomic inequities in education at the household level. There are many studies that show improved outcomes for home-schooled students, though this improvement is likely “due to flexible instruction, small ‘class sizes,’ and dedicated parent-teachers” (García & Weiss, 2020). Unfortunately for many low-income families, parents often work long hours at jobs that have been deemed “essential” and are unable to be around during typical school hours (McNicholas & Poydock, 2020). Additionally, 70% of these essential workers do not have a college degree and are ill-equipped to help students (McNicholas & Poydock, 2020). This makes effective homeschooling an option limited to those with time and resources, much like private schools.

Access to technology also plays a major role in online learning success. At home learning is only effective with stable access to the internet and a computer (García & Weiss, 2020). However, there are widespread inequities in access to these resources, with roughly 17.8 million American households lacking a home internet subscription and 10 million lacking computers (Hargarten, 2020). Access to technologies directly correlates to wealth, with only 6% of households that make greater than $75,000 a year lacking access to the internet, as opposed to 35% making less than $30,000 (Anderson & Perrin, 2018). A Pew Research study found that 58% of Black Americans and 57% of Hispanic Americans report having a computer at home, in contrast with 82% of White Americans, which is explained by minorities tending to live in poverty (Perrin & Turner, 2019). Another study using 2015 census data demonstrated that 15% of the U.S. doesn’t have home internet access, with the number increasing to 25% when examining only the Black population. Ultimately, minority and low-income students are more likely to face the challenges of lacking access to essential remote learning tools. These challenges will exacerbate the existing achievement gap, which is projected to grow as a result of school shutdowns in the spring, which extended the typical “summer slide” and will disproportionately impact low-income students (Figure 2) (Soland et al., 2020).

The disruption to traditional educational systems will have profound impacts on the mental-wellbeing of students. 57% of all adolescents who use mental health services (MHS) within a given year access some of these services through their schools, with 35% of these students receiving MHS exclusively from school (Golberstein, Wen, & Miller, 2020). This rate increases for low-income students or students within racial/ethnic minority groups who face less access to healthcare services as a result of economic and systemic barriers (Ali et al., 2019). The disruption to in-person MHS will acutely impact all students who receive these services, but will disproportionately impact those (as identified above) who face the cumulative effects of other social and economic stressors.

The current digital divide is one stressor that will exacerbate existing inequities in access to MHS. Telemedicine MHS can be as effective as in-person services, but students from low-income households may have less access to a computer or reliable wifi that would enable them to utilize telemedicine (Golberstein, Wen & Miller, 2020). In July 2020, 40% of parents (particularly lower-income parents and parents of color) were worried about accessing social services if schools remained closed, and 31% worried they wouldn’t have access to the technology needed for online services (Hamel et al., 2020). Household environments can also be adverse to telemedicine, since barriers such as a smaller house size could decrease privacy and discourage participation in online services.

Educational changes will not only aggravate existing mental health issues, but also create new challenges (Sher, 2020). In a recent poll, 29% of parents surveyed reported that their child is “experiencing harm to emotional or mental health” because of social distancing (Calderon, 2020). Online learning can result in a feeling of reduced connection to peers, increased fatigue, and lack of motivation (Wiles, 2020). This is especially concerning, since increased rates of stress can precipitate or exacerbate further psychological disorders (Moench & Wellman, 2020). As we move forward, we must remain cognizant of the threats to mental health that the pandemic and online learning poses, especially in relation to students whose socioeconomic status might already disproportionately impede them from successful remote learning.

Recent studies have already determined that school closures will have adverse effects on students. However, the ultimate impact of remote learning won’t be realized for years. There are many factors beyond the scope of this essay which should be examined, such as the impacts of educational changes on teachers and special education services, the differences in resource access for rural versus urban schools, the educational changes of other countries, and the loss of social-emotional development among young children (Watson, 2020). Based on the multitude of adverse impacts, we urge schools to open for in-person learning as much as possible, as long as students and teachers are given the resources and instruction they need to stay safe. One study has found that the repercussions of closing schools (quantified as potential “Years of Life Lost”) far outweigh the potential deaths due to COVID-19 spread within schools (Christakis et al., 2020). This is based on projected increases in dropout rates and lowered long-term educational achievement, both of which are associated with an overall poorer quality of life. We believe it’s important not to perpetuate these losses further. Regardless of this stance, there must be more guidance provided to teachers on how to optimize online learning at each age level with respect to differences in resources and impacts of COVID-19 as discussed above. This may mean implementing diagnostic tests upon returning to school to help monitor the inevitable variability following the period of remote learning and distributing resources equitably (García & Weiss, 2020; Soland et al., 2020). Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the ways in which schools are unequally funded and under-resourced. More funding must be available for public schools to counteract the inequities and learning gaps experienced during this pandemic.

Image Credits

Header.Cambridge, E. (2020, August 20). Primary school to be 1st in country to make kids wear face masks at all times. The Sun.

Figure 1. COVID-19 isolation hits harder for 300,000 Minnesotans who don't have internet.

Minneapolis, Minnesota Neighborhood Map - Income, House Prices, Occupations, Boundaries.

Figure 2. The impact of COVID-19 on student achievement and what it may mean for educators.

Figure 3. Coronavirus: Reopening, Schools, and The Government Response.