current issues in education 2020

7 Education Policy Issues That Need to Be Solved in 2020

The greatest challenge facing educators—and the rest of the world—in 2020 is defeating the coronavirus. All of today’s pressing education policy issues relate directly to fulfilling educators’ mission to provide students with the most effective teaching possible. As the pandemic rages, that mission becomes more important than ever.

Educators’ short-term focus is on establishing distance learning procedures that serve all students. However, the long-term impact of the pandemic remains unclear. Issues related to school funding, teacher training and retention, workforce development, and providing safe and welcoming education environments are too important to be shunted aside as the world focuses on combating the coronavirus.

The times of greatest challenge can also be the times of greatest opportunity for effecting lasting, positive change. Educators and education leaders must face this catastrophe head-on and prepare to reimagine how communities can best serve the education needs of their children.

#1: Education’s Response to the Coronavirus

The initial response to the shift from classroom instruction to distance learning has highlighted the disparity in online access that threatens to widen the digital divide between rich and poor students. The Associated Press reports that 17 percent of US students do not have access to computers at home, and 18 percent do not have broadband internet access from their homes.

The problem extends beyond ensuring students have the necessary computers and internet access. Even when students have access to online learning resources via internet-connected devices, family circumstances may hinder their ability to complete coursework remotely.

The New York Times recounts the experiences of students in the same political science class at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. One student was able to log into the videoconferencing app the college relied on for its online classes from her parent’s vacation home in Maine, while another had to turn her full attention to helping her parents operate the family food truck in Florida. This student told the professor for whom she worked as a teaching assistant that keeping the family business running jeopardized her return to school.

The National Conference of State Legislatures describes the response of state governments to school closures related to the coronavirus:

• The US Department of Agriculture has exempted states from prohibitions against large gatherings so schools can continue to provide students with meals they would have received in school.
• The US Department of Education is considering one-year waivers on assessment and accountability requirements that are intended to identify low-performing schools.
• Many colleges have announced they will remove ACT and SAT testing requirements for admissions and instead will consider the test scores optional.

#2: K-12 Funding

Funding for public education faced serious pressures prior to the coronavirus outbreak, and as the Brookings Institution reports, those pressures will only become worse as the full impact of the pandemic hits funding sources. States anticipate steep declines in the revenue they will collect from income and sales taxes to fund the 2020-2021 school year.

K-12 schools will be competing for funding with emergency public health efforts, higher education, and Medicaid, which is expected to experience a big jump in enrollment as the economy falters. The funding shortfall is exacerbated by schools’ increased reliance on state funding as local property taxes continue to represent a smaller share of their total need. School districts are even more vulnerable to economic downturns than other public institutions because many are committed to multiyear teacher pay raises, according to the Brookings Institution.

#3: Training and Retaining Qualified Teachers

While long-term commitments to teacher salary increases may put added pressure on school district finances, the failure to compensate teachers fairly threatens schools’ ability to ensure their students receive the quality education they need to serve their families and communities in the future. New America points out that the negative effects of low teacher salaries have gained the attention of the public, but other factors can be just as vital to attracting and retaining quality teachers.

A report from the Economic Policy Institute found that the gap between the supply of teachers and the demand increased from 20,000 per year in 2012-2013 to 64,000 per year in 2016-2017 and 110,000 in 2017-2018. The rate of teachers leaving the profession and declining enrollments in teacher education programs are only two of many factors contributing to the shortage. The disparities in teacher quality and the uneven distribution of highly qualified teachers in schools serving low-income students make the critical shortage of teachers even more dire.

#4: Ensuring Safe and Nurturing Education Environments

For students to reach their full potential, schools must provide them with a learning environment that is free from threats, fear, intimidation, bullying, violence, and crime. The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) states that creating and maintaining a warm, welcoming, and orderly school setting is principals’ top priority. However, school leaders, teachers and other staff, and the community at large also play important roles in ensuring safe, well-run schools.

Keeping schools safe and allowing students to learn without fear of violence requires establishing trust. The NASSP calls for increased funding and support for mental health services, crisis identification programs, and enhanced school safety programs. The National School Climate Center has created a school climate improvement process that supports leadership shared by school districts, individual schools, individual classrooms, students, and the community.

#5: Childcare and Universal Pre-K Education

Universal preschool starting at age three is gaining the support of a growing number of politicians after being championed by former Democratic presidential candidates Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders. However, resistance to extending free public education from age five to age three centers on concerns of higher taxes and the belief that three- and four-year-olds are too young to be in school.

The New York Times reports that both government-subsidized childcare and universal pre-K education are winning more support as research shows the benefits of high-quality care and education to the development of very young children. In addition, children in low-income families currently have “significantly less access” to these services. As childcare becomes more expensive, it is believed that expanding pre-K education would allow more women to join the workforce while alleviating the growing burden on families of escalating childcare costs.

#6: Readying Students for Tomorrow’s Workforce

A primary goal of educators at all levels is to provide students with the skills they will need to thrive and succeed once they enter the workforce. However, We Are Teachers cites a McKinsey study that found 40 percent of employers struggle to find qualified candidates to fill their open positions. One approach to ensuring students learn the skills necessary to qualify for the in-demand jobs of the future is to encourage more collaboration between private companies and educators.

AT&T proposes five strategies for developing the twenty-first-century workforce:

• Start developing workforce skills in K-12 education by focusing on competencies rather than on grade levels and by increasing hands-on training programs.
• Implement mentoring programs that connect students with professionals in various fields via partnerships with organizations such as Girls Who Code.
• Give students first-hand experience with workforce technologies through internships and other programs that immerse them in technology environments.
• Encourage collaboration that benefits students and employers by sharing research and practice in data science and other cutting-edge technologies.
• Help bridge the gap between technology haves and have-nots by connecting public school teachers with donors willing to fund creative educational projects.

#7: Charter Schools vs. Traditional Public Schools

Few education policy issues are more polarizing than the debate about the benefits of charter schools vs. traditional public schools. The Brookings Institution defines charter schools as tuition-free, publicly funded institutions whose leaders “accept greater accountability in exchange for greater autonomy.” While public school students are typically assigned to a school based on where they live, charter schools accept students regardless of location.

Teachers’ unions are among the staunchest opponents to charter schools, only 11 percent of which employ unionized teachers. Opponents claim that charter schools take funds away from traditional public schools, and they object to for-profit management, which currently represents about 12 percent of charter schools.

Whether charter schools offer quality education equal to or greater than that provided by traditional public schools remains unsettled. However, a study conducted by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that students in charter schools and public schools perform about equally in similar tests, although students in urban charter schools outperform their counterparts in public schools, and students enrolled in online charter schools underperform public school students with comparable demographic characteristics.

Preparing Students to Become Education Policy Makers

The role of education leaders has never been more critical to students’ success. American University’s online Doctorate in Education Policy and Leadership (EdD) program is geared to teaching the practical skills education leaders need to drive policy that improves education outcomes in the most vulnerable communities. The program emphasizes strategic budgeting, collaborative inquiry, talent development, partnership building, and other key education leadership skills.

Learn more about the benefits of the American University online Doctorate in Education Policy and Leadership for educators who aspire to leadership roles in schools, school districts, and communities.

EdD vs. PhD in Education: Requirements, Career Outlook, and Salary

Teacher Retention: How Education Leaders Prevent Turnover

Education Policy Issues in 2020 and Beyond

American Association of State Colleges and Universities, “Top 10 Higher Education State Policy Issues for 2020”

Associated Press, “3 Million US Students Don’t Have Home Internet”

AT&T, “Leading the Future for Students, for Educators, and in Technology”

Brookings Institution, “Education May Be Pivotal in the 2020 Election. Here’s What You Need to Know.”

Brookings Institution, “How the Coronavirus Shutdown Will Affect School District Revenues”

Brookings Institution, “What Are Charter Schools and Do They Deliver?”

Economic Policy Institute, “The Teacher Shortage Is Real, Large and Growing, and Worse Than We Thought”

Economic Policy Institute, “U.S. Schools Struggle to Hire and Retain Teachers”

EdSource, “California Education Issues to Watch in 2020 — and Predictions of What Will Happen”

Education Commission of the States, 2020 Trending Topics in Education

Education Week , “Districts Brace for Crash in State K-12 Revenue Due to Coronavirus”

Education Week , “12 Critical Issues Facing Education in 2020”

Education Writers Association, “History and Background: School Safety & Security”

Lumina Foundation, “Six Predictions for Higher Ed in 2020 w/ Jesse O’Connell”

National Association of Secondary School Principals, School Climate and Safety

National Conference of State Legislatures, Public Education’s Response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic

National School Climate Center, Shared Leadership Across Contexts

New America, “How the Presidential Candidates Fare on Education Policy Issues”

New York Times , “College Made Them Feel Equal. The Virus Exposed How Unequal Their Lives Are.”

New York Times , “Public School Is a Child’s Right. Should Preschool Be Also?”

Southern Regional Education Board, “Top Five State Education Issues for 2020”

WeAreTeachers, “3 Ways Industry & Education Can—and Are—Collaborating to Prepare Students for the Workforce”

Request Information

AU Program Helper

This AI chatbot provides automated responses, which may not always be accurate. By continuing with this conversation, you agree that the contents of this chat session may be transcribed and retained. You also consent that this chat session and your interactions, including cookie usage, are subject to our  privacy policy .

The pandemic has had devastating impacts on learning. What will it take to help students catch up?

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, megan kuhfeld , megan kuhfeld director of growth modeling and data analytics - nwea jim soland , jim soland assistant professor, school of education and human development - university of virginia, affiliated research fellow - nwea karyn lewis , and karyn lewis vice president of research and policy partnerships - nwea emily morton emily morton research scientist - nwea.

March 3, 2022

As we reach the two-year mark of the initial wave of pandemic-induced school shutdowns, academic normalcy remains out of reach for many students, educators, and parents. In addition to surging COVID-19 cases at the end of 2021, schools have faced severe staff shortages , high rates of absenteeism and quarantines , and rolling school closures . Furthermore, students and educators continue to struggle with mental health challenges , higher rates of violence and misbehavior , and concerns about lost instructional time .

As we outline in our new research study released in January, the cumulative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ academic achievement has been large. We tracked changes in math and reading test scores across the first two years of the pandemic using data from 5.4 million U.S. students in grades 3-8. We focused on test scores from immediately before the pandemic (fall 2019), following the initial onset (fall 2020), and more than one year into pandemic disruptions (fall 2021).

Average fall 2021 math test scores in grades 3-8 were 0.20-0.27 standard deviations (SDs) lower relative to same-grade peers in fall 2019, while reading test scores were 0.09-0.18 SDs lower. This is a sizable drop. For context, the math drops are significantly larger than estimated impacts from other large-scale school disruptions, such as after Hurricane Katrina—math scores dropped 0.17 SDs in one year for New Orleans evacuees .

Even more concerning, test-score gaps between students in low-poverty and high-poverty elementary schools grew by approximately 20% in math (corresponding to 0.20 SDs) and 15% in reading (0.13 SDs), primarily during the 2020-21 school year. Further, achievement tended to drop more between fall 2020 and 2021 than between fall 2019 and 2020 (both overall and differentially by school poverty), indicating that disruptions to learning have continued to negatively impact students well past the initial hits following the spring 2020 school closures.

These numbers are alarming and potentially demoralizing, especially given the heroic efforts of students to learn and educators to teach in incredibly trying times. From our perspective, these test-score drops in no way indicate that these students represent a “ lost generation ” or that we should give up hope. Most of us have never lived through a pandemic, and there is so much we don’t know about students’ capacity for resiliency in these circumstances and what a timeline for recovery will look like. Nor are we suggesting that teachers are somehow at fault given the achievement drops that occurred between 2020 and 2021; rather, educators had difficult jobs before the pandemic, and now are contending with huge new challenges, many outside their control.

Clearly, however, there’s work to do. School districts and states are currently making important decisions about which interventions and strategies to implement to mitigate the learning declines during the last two years. Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) investments from the American Rescue Plan provided nearly $200 billion to public schools to spend on COVID-19-related needs. Of that sum, $22 billion is dedicated specifically to addressing learning loss using “evidence-based interventions” focused on the “ disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underrepresented student subgroups. ” Reviews of district and state spending plans (see Future Ed , EduRecoveryHub , and RAND’s American School District Panel for more details) indicate that districts are spending their ESSER dollars designated for academic recovery on a wide variety of strategies, with summer learning, tutoring, after-school programs, and extended school-day and school-year initiatives rising to the top.

Comparing the negative impacts from learning disruptions to the positive impacts from interventions

To help contextualize the magnitude of the impacts of COVID-19, we situate test-score drops during the pandemic relative to the test-score gains associated with common interventions being employed by districts as part of pandemic recovery efforts. If we assume that such interventions will continue to be as successful in a COVID-19 school environment, can we expect that these strategies will be effective enough to help students catch up? To answer this question, we draw from recent reviews of research on high-dosage tutoring , summer learning programs , reductions in class size , and extending the school day (specifically for literacy instruction) . We report effect sizes for each intervention specific to a grade span and subject wherever possible (e.g., tutoring has been found to have larger effects in elementary math than in reading).

Figure 1 shows the standardized drops in math test scores between students testing in fall 2019 and fall 2021 (separately by elementary and middle school grades) relative to the average effect size of various educational interventions. The average effect size for math tutoring matches or exceeds the average COVID-19 score drop in math. Research on tutoring indicates that it often works best in younger grades, and when provided by a teacher rather than, say, a parent. Further, some of the tutoring programs that produce the biggest effects can be quite intensive (and likely expensive), including having full-time tutors supporting all students (not just those needing remediation) in one-on-one settings during the school day. Meanwhile, the average effect of reducing class size is negative but not significant, with high variability in the impact across different studies. Summer programs in math have been found to be effective (average effect size of .10 SDs), though these programs in isolation likely would not eliminate the COVID-19 test-score drops.

Figure 1: Math COVID-19 test-score drops compared to the effect sizes of various educational interventions

Source: COVID-19 score drops are pulled from Kuhfeld et al. (2022) Table 5; reduction-in-class-size results are from pg. 10 of Figles et al. (2018) Table 2; summer program results are pulled from Lynch et al (2021) Table 2; and tutoring estimates are pulled from Nictow et al (2020) Table 3B. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals are shown with vertical lines on each bar.

Notes: Kuhfeld et al. and Nictow et al. reported effect sizes separately by grade span; Figles et al. and Lynch et al. report an overall effect size across elementary and middle grades. We were unable to find a rigorous study that reported effect sizes for extending the school day/year on math performance. Nictow et al. and Kraft & Falken (2021) also note large variations in tutoring effects depending on the type of tutor, with larger effects for teacher and paraprofessional tutoring programs than for nonprofessional and parent tutoring. Class-size reductions included in the Figles meta-analysis ranged from a minimum of one to minimum of eight students per class.

Figure 2 displays a similar comparison using effect sizes from reading interventions. The average effect of tutoring programs on reading achievement is larger than the effects found for the other interventions, though summer reading programs and class size reduction both produced average effect sizes in the ballpark of the COVID-19 reading score drops.

Figure 2: Reading COVID-19 test-score drops compared to the effect sizes of various educational interventions

Source: COVID-19 score drops are pulled from Kuhfeld et al. (2022) Table 5; extended-school-day results are from Figlio et al. (2018) Table 2; reduction-in-class-size results are from pg. 10 of Figles et al. (2018) ; summer program results are pulled from Kim & Quinn (2013) Table 3; and tutoring estimates are pulled from Nictow et al (2020) Table 3B. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals are shown with vertical lines on each bar.

Notes: While Kuhfeld et al. and Nictow et al. reported effect sizes separately by grade span, Figlio et al. and Kim & Quinn report an overall effect size across elementary and middle grades. Class-size reductions included in the Figles meta-analysis ranged from a minimum of one to minimum of eight students per class.

There are some limitations of drawing on research conducted prior to the pandemic to understand our ability to address the COVID-19 test-score drops. First, these studies were conducted under conditions that are very different from what schools currently face, and it is an open question whether the effectiveness of these interventions during the pandemic will be as consistent as they were before the pandemic. Second, we have little evidence and guidance about the efficacy of these interventions at the unprecedented scale that they are now being considered. For example, many school districts are expanding summer learning programs, but school districts have struggled to find staff interested in teaching summer school to meet the increased demand. Finally, given the widening test-score gaps between low- and high-poverty schools, it’s uncertain whether these interventions can actually combat the range of new challenges educators are facing in order to narrow these gaps. That is, students could catch up overall, yet the pandemic might still have lasting, negative effects on educational equality in this country.

Given that the current initiatives are unlikely to be implemented consistently across (and sometimes within) districts, timely feedback on the effects of initiatives and any needed adjustments will be crucial to districts’ success. The Road to COVID Recovery project and the National Student Support Accelerator are two such large-scale evaluation studies that aim to produce this type of evidence while providing resources for districts to track and evaluate their own programming. Additionally, a growing number of resources have been produced with recommendations on how to best implement recovery programs, including scaling up tutoring , summer learning programs , and expanded learning time .

Ultimately, there is much work to be done, and the challenges for students, educators, and parents are considerable. But this may be a moment when decades of educational reform, intervention, and research pay off. Relying on what we have learned could show the way forward.

Related Content

Megan Kuhfeld, Jim Soland, Beth Tarasawa, Angela Johnson, Erik Ruzek, Karyn Lewis

December 3, 2020

Lindsay Dworkin, Karyn Lewis

October 13, 2021

Early Childhood Education Education Access & Equity Education Policy K-12 Education

Governance Studies

U.S. States and Territories

Brown Center on Education Policy

Ayanna Platt, Rachel M. Perera

October 8, 2024

Briana Ballis

October 7, 2024

Rachel Dyl, Ghulam Omar Qargha

October 4, 2024

Peter DeWitt's

Finding common ground.

A former K-5 public school principal turned author, presenter, and leadership coach, Peter DeWitt provides insights and advice for education leaders. Former superintendent Michael Nelson is a frequent contributor. Read more from this blog .

12 Critical Issues in Education Due to the Coronavirus

• Share article

At the end of December, I posted a column focusing on 12 critical issues facing education in 2020 . Although I stick by all of them, I clearly missed a very big critical crisis that we are now facing in 2020, and that is Covid-19.

If you told me that we would be seeing thousands of people around the world contracting a disease, the NBA suspending its season, March Madness canceled (although we are experiencing our own March Madness right now), Disney World and Disneyland closing, countries closing their borders to prevent the spread of the disease, and the U.S. president doing briefing sessions every single day to announce new precautions, I would have thought it was the trailer to a new Hollywood blockbuster.

I kept waiting for Will Smith to enter into the movie at any time. We now know that this is our reality, and not a movie at all.

For full disclosure, I go through a daily dose of feeling optimistic that we will all get through this and a few moments of sadness at the state of the world. So, because I clearly missed a critical issue on my list from the end of 2019, I thought I would offer a list of critical issues that are developing because of the coronavirus.

Most times, writing is my way of working through an issue, and one of the feelings that I am consistently trying to come back to is that, through all of the devastation this has occurred around the world, we need to find moments of positivity.

12 Critical Issues These education- and child-focused issues are not written in any particular order, although there are a few that are unlike anything we have ever seen. Every day we learn more, and that contributes to the list because so much of our world is living through the unknown, but we know that that will change soon and we will have much more information.

The most important issue in the world, and for humanity, is the health and safety of everyone. There have been thousands of deaths due to the Coronavirus, which is devastating. The world has stopped, tried to come together, and we are all trying to take every precaution we can to be healthy and safe. The list that follows is not meant to minimize the deaths, but rather open up a discussion about how this virus has impacted leaders, teachers, families and students where education is concerned.

The 12 critical issues we are seeing are: One billion students out of school - Perhaps out of all the issues, this is the one that is most critical. UNESCO reports “1,254,315,203 affected learners, 72.9 percent of total enrolled learners, and 124 countrywide closures.

We don’t we have coronavirus toolkits - Leaders, teachers, and staff had to scramble because they did not have coronavirus toolkits. The reality is that this is not something you learn about in your preservice teaching programs, nor do you learn about it in leadership school. Leaders learn how to work through most emergencies (i.e., flooding, school shootings, sudden death of a student or staff member, etc), but a virus that prevents students from going to school for months is not one of them. Corwin Press created a free resource kit for leaders in case they still need one. Please find it here .

Feed the children - According to US News and World Report , over 30 million students across the country receive free and reduced-price lunch. For those of us who work or have worked in schools, we know there are families that do not always fill out the paperwork, so that is why I put over 30 million students. When all is said and done, this will be one of the saddest issues that most people will learn during this crisis. I have had many friends and family members who said they had no idea that so many children go hungry. Thank you to the thousands of volunteers across the country who are working to get these students fed.

Parents as homeschool teachers - My niece is a bartender at a popular restaurant chain that has closed down. She and her husband have three children who are really great kids, and as much as she loves them, she never considered homeschooling. Now she doesn’t have a choice, along with millions of other parents and caregivers around the world. It’s important that they remember that they are not expected to do all of the things that teachers do during the day. Many school districts are making this a time of review for students. Kudos to all of the parents and caregivers who are stepping up to the plate during this difficult time.

Teacher appreciation - Over the last decade, I have felt like people do not appreciate teachers, or even, public education. The rhetoric around teaching has not been kind, but over the last two weeks, a lot of that has changed. People are now understanding that teaching is not easy, and they have seen their child’s teachers step up and provide opportunities for learning through online resources, and all of this happened during a time when they had zero time to prepare. Can we please start appreciating our teachers and leaders a bit more?

High-stakes tests canceled - On March 15 th , I wrote this blog asking if this is now the time to cancel high-stakes testing . At that time, most state education departments had not canceled high-stakes testing although students were at home learning through quickly developing online methods. Thankfully, all standardized-testing requirements have been waived.

Too many resources, too little time - This will be addressed again later in the list, but one of the issues taking place this week is that parents and caregivers were hit with too many resources. We know this is better than having none at all, which is what other parents and caregivers may be experiencing right now. To further exacerbate the issue, many organizations and consultants are offering resources to teachers and leaders. Most are in an effort to help, so we just need to do our best to choose one that is credible and we can use, and begin using it.

Seniors in high school lose out - Remember your senior year in high school or college? Our present seniors in high school and college are losing out on their last semester. There have been many on social media who say they need to get over it, but the reality is that this is a time when they would be experiencing closure with their friends and their studies and getting ready to transition into the next phase of their lives. Now that next phase seems so uncertain. This is when we long for the simple times, but their simple times will have one less experience to long for.

Inequities - The coronavirus pandemic is highlighting one thing that most of us knew already. Some schools have countless resources to share with families and caregivers, and other schools have very little at all. Some families have wireless, and one parent or caregiver can stay home and work, while they try to homeschool at the same time, and others are being forced to stay home, and only have homework packets to provide to their children.

Habits need to change - We have finally found the time to say that students can play several times a day, and it is OK. Teachers have found that they need to home in on what is most important when it comes to educating students from afar, and that the control freak in all of us needs to take a break, because we do not have full control in this situation. Principals and school leaders are finding that there are many issues that can be solved in emails, and others that need more clarity.

Science - There has been a steady push for STEM over the last decade, and a global pandemic is one more way to get our students interested in science and technology. Whether it be helping more in isolation learn how to connect, or the next doctor who will create a vaccine, this is a time when people are greatly understanding the role of science.

Additionally, what we are learning is that the world is healing itself a bit these days . Carbon emissions are down for obvious reasons, and cities like Venice are seeing that the water is clearer than it has in decades, and there has been an increase in sea life showing up. Perhaps a bit of a silver lining in a cloud of doubt?

Social-emotional learning - One of the topics that I write about quite often is that of social-emotional learning, and it is the topic that gets the most pushback, because critics say there is no place for it in school. During this time, social-emotional learning is one of the most important things we can learn.

In the end When all of this is said and done, I hope we do not have to hear the words “social distancing” and “self-quarantine” for a long, long time. For most of us, this may be one of the most difficult times we will experience. When I am feeling overwhelmed, I turn to my meditation practices and connect with family.

I hope that you are all finding your way through this, doing your best to stay healthy and not hoard toilet paper, and will learn to slow down and continue the slowdown after all of this is over.

In the wildly popular play “Hamilton,” the famous line is, “Immigrants. We get the job done.” Maybe we can change that a bit and say, “Humans. We get the job done.”

If you would like a moment to take a break from the stress of watching news, Check out this fun video created by the Salinas Union High School district’s Japanese teachers in Salinas, Calif.

Peter DeWitt, Ed.D. is the author of several books including his newest release Instructional Leadership: Creating Practice Out Of Theory (Corwin Press. 2020). Connect with him on Twitter or through his YouTube channel .

Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

The opinions expressed in Peter DeWitt’s Finding Common Ground are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Sign Up for EdWeek Update

The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2020

We reviewed hundreds of educational studies in 2020 and then highlighted 10 of the most significant—covering topics from virtual learning to the reading wars and the decline of standardized tests.

Your content has been saved!

In the month of March of 2020, the year suddenly became a whirlwind. With a pandemic disrupting life across the entire globe, teachers scrambled to transform their physical classrooms into virtual—or even hybrid—ones, and researchers slowly began to collect insights into what works, and what doesn’t, in online learning environments around the world.

Meanwhile, neuroscientists made a convincing case for keeping handwriting in schools, and after the closure of several coal-fired power plants in Chicago, researchers reported a drop in pediatric emergency room visits and fewer absences in schools, reminding us that questions of educational equity do not begin and end at the schoolhouse door.

1. To Teach Vocabulary, Let Kids Be Thespians

When students are learning a new language, ask them to act out vocabulary words. It’s fun to unleash a child’s inner thespian, of course, but a 2020 study concluded that it also nearly doubles their ability to remember the words months later.

Researchers asked 8-year-old students to listen to words in another language and then use their hands and bodies to mimic the words—spreading their arms and pretending to fly, for example, when learning the German word flugzeug , which means “airplane.” After two months, these young actors were a remarkable 73 percent more likely to remember the new words than students who had listened without accompanying gestures. Researchers discovered similar, if slightly less dramatic, results when students looked at pictures while listening to the corresponding vocabulary. 

It’s a simple reminder that if you want students to remember something, encourage them to learn it in a variety of ways—by drawing it , acting it out, or pairing it with relevant images , for example.

2. Neuroscientists Defend the Value of Teaching Handwriting—Again

For most kids, typing just doesn’t cut it. In 2012, brain scans of preliterate children revealed crucial reading circuitry flickering to life when kids hand-printed letters and then tried to read them. The effect largely disappeared when the letters were typed or traced.

More recently, in 2020, a team of researchers studied older children—seventh graders—while they handwrote, drew, and typed words, and concluded that handwriting and drawing produced telltale neural tracings indicative of deeper learning.

“Whenever self-generated movements are included as a learning strategy, more of the brain gets stimulated,” the researchers explain, before echoing the 2012 study: “It also appears that the movements related to keyboard typing do not activate these networks the same way that drawing and handwriting do.”

It would be a mistake to replace typing with handwriting, though. All kids need to develop digital skills, and there’s evidence that technology helps children with dyslexia to overcome obstacles like note taking or illegible handwriting, ultimately freeing them to “use their time for all the things in which they are gifted,” says the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

3. The ACT Test Just Got a Negative Score (Face Palm)

A 2020 study found that ACT test scores, which are often a key factor in college admissions, showed a weak—or even negative —relationship when it came to predicting how successful students would be in college. “There is little evidence that students will have more college success if they work to improve their ACT score,” the researchers explain, and students with very high ACT scores—but indifferent high school grades—often flamed out in college, overmatched by the rigors of a university’s academic schedule.

Just last year, the SAT—cousin to the ACT—had a similarly dubious public showing. In a major 2019 study of nearly 50,000 students led by researcher Brian Galla, and including Angela Duckworth, researchers found that high school grades were stronger predictors of four-year-college graduation than SAT scores.

The reason? Four-year high school grades, the researchers asserted, are a better indicator of crucial skills like perseverance, time management, and the ability to avoid distractions. It’s most likely those skills, in the end, that keep kids in college.

4. A Rubric Reduces Racial Grading Bias

A simple step might help undercut the pernicious effect of grading bias, a new study found: Articulate your standards clearly before you begin grading, and refer to the standards regularly during the assessment process.

In 2020, more than 1,500 teachers were recruited and asked to grade a writing sample from a fictional second-grade student. All of the sample stories were identical—but in one set, the student mentions a family member named Dashawn, while the other set references a sibling named Connor.

Teachers were 13 percent more likely to give the Connor papers a passing grade, revealing the invisible advantages that many students unknowingly benefit from. When grading criteria are vague, implicit stereotypes can insidiously “fill in the blanks,” explains the study’s author. But when teachers have an explicit set of criteria to evaluate the writing—asking whether the student “provides a well-elaborated recount of an event,” for example—the difference in grades is nearly eliminated.

5. What Do Coal-Fired Power Plants Have to Do With Learning? Plenty

When three coal-fired plants closed in the Chicago area, student absences in nearby schools dropped by 7 percent, a change largely driven by fewer emergency room visits for asthma-related problems. The stunning finding, published in a 2020 study from Duke and Penn State, underscores the role that often-overlooked environmental factors—like air quality, neighborhood crime, and noise pollution—have in keeping our children healthy and ready to learn.

At scale, the opportunity cost is staggering: About 2.3 million children in the United States still attend a public elementary or middle school located within 10 kilometers of a coal-fired plant.

The study builds on a growing body of research that reminds us that questions of educational equity do not begin and end at the schoolhouse door. What we call an achievement gap is often an equity gap, one that “takes root in the earliest years of children’s lives,” according to a 2017 study . We won’t have equal opportunity in our schools, the researchers admonish, until we are diligent about confronting inequality in our cities, our neighborhoods—and ultimately our own backyards.

6. Students Who Generate Good Questions Are Better Learners

Some of the most popular study strategies—highlighting passages, rereading notes, and underlining key sentences—are also among the least effective. A 2020 study highlighted a powerful alternative: Get students to generate questions about their learning, and gradually press them to ask more probing questions.

In the study, students who studied a topic and then generated their own questions scored an average of 14 percentage points higher on a test than students who used passive strategies like studying their notes and rereading classroom material. Creating questions, the researchers found, not only encouraged students to think more deeply about the topic but also strengthened their ability to remember what they were studying.

There are many engaging ways to have students create highly productive questions : When creating a test, you can ask students to submit their own questions, or you can use the Jeopardy! game as a platform for student-created questions.

7. Did a 2020 Study Just End the ‘Reading Wars’?

One of the most widely used reading programs was dealt a severe blow when a panel of reading experts concluded that it “would be unlikely to lead to literacy success for all of America’s public schoolchildren.”

In the 2020 study , the experts found that the controversial program—called “Units of Study” and developed over the course of four decades by Lucy Calkins at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project—failed to explicitly and systematically teach young readers how to decode and encode written words, and was thus “in direct opposition to an enormous body of settled research.”

The study sounded the death knell for practices that de-emphasize phonics in favor of having children use multiple sources of information—like story events or illustrations—to predict the meaning of unfamiliar words, an approach often associated with “balanced literacy.” In an internal memo obtained by publisher APM, Calkins seemed to concede the point, writing that “aspects of balanced literacy need some ‘rebalancing.’”

8. A Secret to High-Performing Virtual Classrooms

In 2020, a team at Georgia State University compiled a report on virtual learning best practices. While evidence in the field is "sparse" and "inconsistent," the report noted that logistical issues like accessing materials—and not content-specific problems like failures of comprehension—were often among the most significant obstacles to online learning. It wasn’t that students didn’t understand photosynthesis in a virtual setting, in other words—it was that they didn’t find (or simply didn't access) the lesson on photosynthesis at all.

That basic insight echoed a 2019 study that highlighted the crucial need to organize virtual classrooms even more intentionally than physical ones. Remote teachers should use a single, dedicated hub for important documents like assignments; simplify communications and reminders by using one channel like email or text; and reduce visual clutter like hard-to-read fonts and unnecessary decorations throughout their virtual spaces.

Because the tools are new to everyone, regular feedback on topics like accessibility and ease of use is crucial. Teachers should post simple surveys asking questions like “Have you encountered any technical issues?” and “Can you easily locate your assignments?” to ensure that students experience a smooth-running virtual learning space.

9. Love to Learn Languages? Surprisingly, Coding May Be Right for You

Learning how to code more closely resembles learning a language such as Chinese or Spanish than learning math, a 2020 study found—upending the conventional wisdom about what makes a good programmer.

In the study, young adults with no programming experience were asked to learn Python, a popular programming language; they then took a series of tests assessing their problem-solving, math, and language skills. The researchers discovered that mathematical skill accounted for only 2 percent of a person’s ability to learn how to code, while language skills were almost nine times more predictive, accounting for 17 percent of learning ability.

That’s an important insight because all too often, programming classes require that students pass advanced math courses—a hurdle that needlessly excludes students with untapped promise, the researchers claim.

10. Researchers Cast Doubt on Reading Tasks Like ‘Finding the Main Idea’

“Content is comprehension,” declared a 2020 Fordham Institute study , sounding a note of defiance as it staked out a position in the ongoing debate over the teaching of intrinsic reading skills versus the teaching of content knowledge.

While elementary students spend an enormous amount of time working on skills like “finding the main idea” and “summarizing”—tasks born of the belief that reading is a discrete and trainable ability that transfers seamlessly across content areas—these young readers aren’t experiencing “the additional reading gains that well-intentioned educators hoped for,” the study concluded.

So what works? The researchers looked at data from more than 18,000 K–5 students, focusing on the time spent in subject areas like math, social studies, and ELA, and found that “social studies is the only subject with a clear, positive, and statistically significant effect on reading improvement.” In effect, exposing kids to rich content in civics, history, and law appeared to teach reading more effectively than our current methods of teaching reading. Perhaps defiance is no longer needed: Fordham’s conclusions are rapidly becoming conventional wisdom—and they extend beyond the limited claim of reading social studies texts. According to Natalie Wexler, the author of the well-received 2019 book  The Knowledge Gap , content knowledge and reading are intertwined. “Students with more [background] knowledge have a better chance of understanding whatever text they encounter. They’re able to retrieve more information about the topic from long-term memory, leaving more space in working memory for comprehension,” she recently told Edutopia .

Press release

Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report 2020

Fewer than 10% of countries have laws that help ensure full inclusion in education, according to UNESCO’s 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report: Inclusion and education – All means all.

The report provides an in-depth analysis of key factors for exclusion of learners in education systems worldwide including background, identity and ability (i.e. gender, age, location, poverty, disability, ethnicity, indigeneity, language, religion, migration or displacement status, sexual orientation or gender identity expression, incarceration, beliefs and attitudes). It identifies an exacerbation of exclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic and estimates that about 40% of low and lower-middle-income countries have not supported disadvantaged learners during temporary school shutdown. The 2020 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report urges countries to focus on those left behind as schools reopen so as to foster more resilient and equal societies.

Persistence of exclusion: This year’s report is the fourth annual UNESCO GEM Report to monitor progress across 209 countries in achieving the education targets adopted by UN Member States in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It notes that 258 million children and youth were entirely excluded from education, with poverty as the main obstacle to access. In low- and middle-income countries, adolescents from the richest 20% of all households were three times as likely to complete lower secondary school as were as those from the poorest homes. Among those who did complete lower secondary education, students from the richest households were twice as likely to have basic reading and mathematics skills as those from the poorest households. Despite the proclaimed target of universal upper secondary completion by 2030, hardly any poor rural young women complete secondary school in at least 20 countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Also according to the report, 10-year old students in middle and high-income countries who were taught in a language other than their mother tongue typically scored 34% below native speakers in reading tests. In ten low- and middle-income countries, children with disabilities were found to be 19% less likely to achieve minimum proficiency in reading than those without disabilities. In the United States, for example, LGBTI students were almost three times more likely to say that they had stayed home from school because of feeling unsafe.

Inequitable foundations: Alongside today’s publication, UNESCO GEM Report team launched a new website, PEER, with information on laws and policies concerning inclusion in education for every country in the world. PEER shows that many countries still practice education segregation, which reinforces stereotyping, discrimination and alienation. Laws in a quarter of all countries require children with disabilities to be educated in separate settings, rising to over 40% in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in Asia.

Blatant exclusion: Two countries in Africa still ban pregnant girls from school, 117 allowed child marriages, while 20 had yet to ratify the Convention 138 of the International Labour Organization which bans child labour. In several central and eastern European countries, Roma children were segregated in mainstream schools. In Asia, displaced people, such as the Rohingya were taught in parallel education systems. In OECD countries, more than two-thirds of students from immigrant backgrounds attended schools where they made up at least 50% of the student population, which reduced their chance of academic success.

Parents’ discriminatory beliefs were found to form one barrier to inclusion: Some 15% of parents in Germany and 59% in Hong Kong, China, feared that children with disabilities disturbed others’ learning. Parents with vulnerable children also wished to send them to schools that ensure their well-being and respond to their needs. In Queensland, Australia, 37% of students in special schools had moved away from mainstream establishments.

The Report shows that education systems often fail to take learners’ special needs into account. Just 41 countries worldwide officially recognized sign language and, globally, schools were more eager to get internet access than to cater for learners with disabilities. Some 335 million girls attended schools that did not provide them with the water, sanitation and hygiene services they required to continue attending class during menstruation.

Alienating learners: When learners are inadequately represented in curricula and textbooks they can feel alienated. Girls and women only made up 44% of references in secondary school English-language textbooks in Malaysia and Indonesia, 37% in Bangladesh and 24% in the province of Punjab in Pakistan. The curricula of 23 out of 49 European countries do not address issues of sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.

Teachers need and want training on inclusion, which fewer than 1 in 10 primary school teachers in ten Francophone countries in sub-Saharan Africa said they had received. A quarter of teachers across 48 countries reported they wanted more training on teaching students with special needs.

Chronic lack of quality data on those left behind: Almost half of low- and middle-income countries do not collect enough education data about children with disabilities. Household surveys are key for breaking education data down by individual characteristics. But 41% of countries – home to 13% of the world’s population – did not conduct surveys or make available data from such surveys. Figures on learning are mostly taken from school, failing to take into account those not attending.

Signs of progress towards inclusion: The Report and its PEER website note that many countries were using positive, innovative approaches to transition towards inclusion. Many were setting up resource centres for multiple schools and enabling mainstream establishments to accommodate children from special schools, as was the case in Malawi, Cuba and Ukraine. The Gambia, New Zealand and Samoa were using itinerant teachers to reach underserved populations.

Many countries were also seen to go out of their way to accommodate different learners’ needs: Odisha state in India, for example, used 21 tribal languages in its classrooms, Kenya adjusted its curriculum to the nomadic calendar and, in Australia, the curricula of 19% of students were adjusted by teachers so that their expected outcomes could match students’ needs.

The report includes material for a digital campaign, All means All, which promotes a set of key recommendations for the next ten years.

Related items

• Country page: Pakistan
• UNESCO Office in Islamabad
• SDG: SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

This article is related to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals .

More on this subject

Other recent press releases