Connecticut COVID-19 Education Research Collaborative (CCERC)

Evaluation Projects

 
2020-21 Summer Enrichment Evaluation
The Summer Enrichment grant program supports summer enrichment and recreational opportunities to children across Connecticut, The Expansion and Innovation grants are designed to to facilitate students’ reengagement with their peers and provide opportunities for socialization and fun so that they can thrive in the 2021-22 school year. The evaluation uses mixed methods to assess the impact of summer enrichment programs on students’ social and emotional well-being as they enter the new school year. The study also examines the relationship between program features, activities and policies, and students’ well-being and satisfaction.

Researchers
  • Dr. Dorothea Anagnostopoulos, University of Connecticut
  • Dr. Casey Cobb, University of Connecticut
Report
2021-22 Summer Enrichment Evaluation
The Summer Enrichment grant program (SE) program aims to support “high-quality and accessible summer enrichment opportunities to children across Connecticut.” The proposed study uses mixed methods to assess students’ experiences in SE programming and its effects on their social, emotional, and behavioral well-being.  The study also will examine the relationship between program features, activities and policies and students’ well-being and satisfaction. 

Researchers
  • Dr. Casey Cobb, University of Connecticut
Report
  • Preliminary report expected January 2023
Advanced Course Taking Patterns in Connecticut High Schools

This study will investigate course taking patterns at the high school level with a particular focus on students’ enrollment in advanced courses. This will investigate the supply of courses and how high schools approach the development and marketing of advanced / college credit courses in high schools. It will also investigate the demand for these courses including students’ probability of enrollment and their rationales for selecting or not selecting these courses.

Researchers

  • TBD

Report

  • September 30, 2024 
Behavioral Health Pilot
CSDE has set the vision that each school in the state will have coordinated resources for behavioral health supports to address the needs of students, families, and staff. The CSDE is using 3 million dollars in GEER II funds, which are matched by CSDE's ARP ESSER funds, to pilot and test systems that further
connect schools to the community and ensure that students and educators have the support they need. These funds will allow the CSDE to set up a system of coordinated care that will have a long-term impact on the health and wellness of Connecticut's students and adults.

The BHP is focused on seven Connecticut school districts and has three main objectives:
  • assess the comprehensiveness of the schools' mental health system using the School Mental Health Quality Assessment-District Version (SMHQA-D);
  • identify gaps (resource mapping and capacity) and priority areas for improvement; and
  • develop an equitable, coherent system to address needs based on evidence-based interventions and supports with measurable outcomes.

Researchers

  • TBD

Report

  • September 2024
Categorizing and Understanding Facilities and Long-term (Capital) Investments
While a great deal of the spending/allocations were dedicated to personnel and/or materials directly related to student learning, there were significant allocations dedicated to longer term (generally capital) investments as well, including HVAC upgrades, purchasing of new technology, etc. While these are generally considered to have secondary impacts, recent literature suggests that heat can directly affect learning outcomes, while air conditioning may mitigate that impact, and negative impacts of heat may disproportionately impact students of color (Park et al., 2020). With this in mind, ARP-ESSER provides us an opportunity for better understanding the ways in which districts spend allocations on long-term facilities and other physical investments.


Researchers
  • TBD

Report

  • December 1, 2023
Equity in Academic Recovery
The ARP-ESSER plans require districts to address learning loss due to COVID-19 disruptions. During 2020 and 2021, many school districts moved to full and partial remote learning for students and parents exercised some level of choice over their child’s learning modality. While for some students, this was a welcome change, for most, remote learning led to isolation and a major disruption to learning. Research has demonstrated that students who learned in remote formats lost more ground than those who learned in person. Students of color, students with disabilities, English learners, students experiencing homelessness, disengaged youth, youth in foster care, and students from low-income families were more likely to learn remotely, raising major concerns about equity. How remote learning was conceived and implemented varied based on the district, as are the efforts to recover from learning loss in the ARP-ESSER plans. This study will build on CCERC’s earlier Remote Learning Audit by tracking associations between student learning model during the pandemic and student outcomes over time and identifying practices and approaches that have been successful at supporting academic recovery, particularly for the groups mentioned above.

  Researchers
  • TBD

Report

  • September 30, 2024
High-dosage Tutoring
One learning mechanism that appears frequently in the ARP-ESSER plans is tutoring. This is not surprising; extant literature suggests that tutoring is a particularly effective intervention (Nickow et al, 2020). Given the frequency of this type of intervention, there is an opportunity to learn about its effectiveness. That said, literature also suggests there are particular mechanisms of effective tutoring programs (see Robinson et al., 2021). Thus, better understanding the “who, what, when, and how” of tutoring programs funded by ARP-ESSER will allow us to better understand and disentangle the effects of tutoring programs.
 

Researchers

  • TBD

Report

  • September 30, 2024
Identifying Effective and Equitable Socio-Emotional Supports for Students and Educators
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the socio-emotional wellbeing of students, teachers, administrators, and communities in deep and ongoing ways. Isolation, trauma, challenge, and loss defined much of 2020 and 2021 for many and had broad and not yet understood impacts on learning and schools more generally. Many districts used ARP-ESSER funds to hire and/or develop support structures for students during this difficult time. This study will provide a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of these supports, throughout and after the pandemic. This understanding can provide both a map of the current landscape as well as illuminate paths forward in supporting individuals, schools, and the communities to which they belong.

Researchers

  • TBD

Report

  • September 30, 2024
Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP)

In April, 2021 Governor Ned Lamont launched the Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP) to address student absenteeism and disengagement from school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Funded by $10.7 million in Connecticut’s Recovery  funding, this program provides home visiting for students who displayed high rates of absenteeism and disengagement during the 2020-21 schoolyear and their families. LEAP is focused on 15 Connecticut school districts and has three main objectives:

  • Bridge students back to their school communities for the final months of the 2020-21
    school year.
  • Support student enrollment in upcoming summer camps and summer learning
    programs.
  • Facilitate for families in need a seamless transition back into their school communities
    for the 2021-2022 school year.

This CCERC evaluation is expected to describe LEAP’s recipients and providers, analyze its
overall impact and variations by sub-groups, and examine recipients’ and providers’ experience
with this intervention.

Researchers

  • Dr. Steven Stemler, Wesleyan University (PI)
  • Dr. Eric Brunner, University of Connecticut
  • Dr. Jacob Werblow, Central Connecticut State University

Report

  • Expected in Winter 2023
Remote Learning Audit

Senate bill 1202 that passed during the 2021 legislative session and was codified as Public Act 21-2ss requires the CSDE to conduct a comprehensive audit of the remote learning provided by local and regional boards of education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years. This evaluation will (1) document the learning formats (e.g. remote, hybrid) that were provided to students; (2) describe the implementation of these learning formats and efforts to support them; (3) analyze student access to key supports such as mental health and nutrition; and (4) analyze key outcomes, including student performance, student absenteeism, and student physical and emotional outcomes. Frequently asked questions about the Remote Learning Audit.

Researchers

  • Dr. Michael Strambler, Yale University (PI)
  • Dr. Joy Kaufman, Yale University
  • Dr. Michael Young, University of Connecticut
  • Dr. Stephen Ross, University of Connecticut

Report

  • Expected in Fall 2022
Teachers’ and Leaders’ Perceptions, Turnover, and Supply
The COVID-19 pandemic took a large toll not only on K-12 students but also on public school educators. Remote learning, maintaining COVID protocols, politicization of the classroom environment, and addressing students’ socio-emotional needs have increased the stress and strain felt by educators. Across the nation, reports have suggested that these intense pressures have led to increased dissatisfaction, burnout, turnover, and early retirement among educators (Santoro and Price, 2021). Are these patterns reflected in Connecticut? This study will investigate public school teachers’ and school administrators’ perceptions regarding current sources of support and strain in their work lives, how the pandemic has shaped their practices in the classroom/school, and their mobility over time.

Researchers

  • TBD

Report

  • September 30, 2024
Theories of Action in ARP-ESSER plans
In each section of the ARP-ESSER plans, districts were asked to justify their strategies with expected outcomes. Investigating the strategies to address district needs along with the outcomes illuminate each district’s theory of action for change. District visions for how resources, practices, and policies influence student and district outcomes reveals how plan writers and educational leaders in the district understand levers for change. This study seeks to understand district theories of action in the plans and, through follow up interviews, explore the effectiveness of the implementation of those theories of action. Using organizational lenses, this study can contribute to understandings of whether and how change occurs in districts, especially in the context of major increases to resources. This project offers an opportunity to provide space for plan writers, implementers, and district and school leaders to connect across districts through the process of data collection (e.g., cross-district focus groups), allowing for group reflection and support on successes, challenges, and inconsistencies regarding theories of action for change and district improvement initiatives.

Researchers

  • TBD

Report

  • June 1, 2024