69ý

School & District Management From Our Research Center

As Delta Variant Spreads, Twice as Many K-12 Leaders Pivot to Hybrid Learning

By Holly Kurtz — August 09, 2021 4 min read
First-grade teacher Megan Garner-Jones, left, and Principal Cynthia Eisner silent clap for their students participating remotely and in-person at School 16, in Yonkers, N.Y., on Oct. 20, 2020.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Hybrid learning is on the rise—again. Mask requirements may be more common in districts serving higher concentrations of students of color. And educator COVID-19 vaccination rates, though higher than the U.S. average, are lagging in certain parts of the country.

These are just a few of the findings from the 20th nationally-representative, online survey the EdWeek Research Center has fielded during the pandemic to track practices and perceptions of K-12 educators during this difficult time. A total of 1,242 educators (148 district leaders, 88 principals, and 1,006 teachers) participated in this most recent survey, which was conducted July 28 to Aug. 4.

District and school leaders’ plans for hybrid learning double since June

As the COVID-19 Delta variant has spread rapidly across the country over the summer months, a rising percentage of district leaders are saying they’re planning to offer both remote and in-person learning, so-called hybrid learning.

Twenty percent of school and district leaders who’ve decided on their reopening plans now report that they’ll adopt hybrid models, up from 10 percent a month earlier. Most continue to report that a relatively small share of students (10 percent or less) are expected to participate in remote instruction.

The share of leaders planning on full-time remote learning remains very low at 0.5 percent.

Compared with their peers in districts serving more-affluent populations, leaders in districts where the majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals are more than twice as likely to report they will start the school year with hybrid instructional models (12 percent versus 28 percent).

Mask requirements more common for students of color

With COVID-19 patients once again filling hospitals, district leaders and principals are grappling with the politically charged decision about whether to require masks at the start of the 2021-22 school year. As of the first week of August, roughly a third of school and district administrators will require masks of at least some or all employees and students, a third won’t require anyone to wear masks, and a third remain undecided.

Compared with their peers in districts where half or more of the students are white, administrators in districts where the majority of the enrollment is students of color are nearly four times as likely to say students and staff alike will be required to wear masks, regardless of vaccination status (11 percent vs. 41 percent).

Administrators in “majority-minority” districts are roughly half as likely to say no one will be required to wear masks when compared with their colleagues in districts where half or more students are white (20 percent vs. 38 percent). This emphasis on mask-wearing in districts serving larger shares of students of color is likely related to the relatively higher rates of COVID-related for people who are Black, Latinx, Native American, and Native Alaskan.

Pandemic-related changes to grading policies unlikely to persist

In theory, the pandemic could have been a major opportunity to revamp grading policies as changes adopted to cope with the disruptions and realities of remote learning led to a broader rethinking of the purposes and philosophies of traditional approaches.

However, while 39 percent of school and district leaders say they did change grading policies as a result of the pandemic, just 5 percent say those changes will be permanent.

Leaders who said their districts did make changes (temporary or permanent) were most likely to report that the revised policies provided additional opportunities for students to improve their grades by revising work. Other common changes included removing penalties for late work and switching the focus of grading from completing a certain quantity of work to mastering standards, an approach known as competency-based learning.

Educator COVID-19 vaccine rates lag in Southern, high-poverty, rural areas

Throughout the nation, the vast majority of educators have been vaccinated against COVID-19 now for several months. Overall, 86 percent of teachers, principals, and district leaders now say they’re fully vaccinated. An additional 1 percent are partially vaccinated. Three percent plan to get vaccinated. And 10 percent do not plan to get vaccines.

However, as with the general population, educator vaccination rates vary by region, from a low of 79 percent in the South to 91 percent in the Northeast and Western United States.

There are also disparities in the share of fully vaccinated educators between the lowest-poverty districts (91 percent) and the highest-poverty districts (76 percent). Nearly 1 in 5 educators in the nation’s highest-poverty districts say they have no plans to get vaccinated.

And, while 95 percent of urban educators and 90 percent of their suburban peers are fully vaccinated, those rates fall to 81 percent in rural communities.

In the highest-poverty rural Southern school districts, 68 percent of teachers, principals, and district leaders are fully vaccinated.

However, even in those districts, educator vaccination rates are higher than rates for the United States as a whole, where

District leaders are embracing virtual events during the pandemic

As the pandemic has continued to persist, educators are immersing themselves in virtual events, especially at the administrative level.

More than half of district leaders (55 percent), 46 percent of school leaders, and 24 percent of teachers say they have been attending at least four virtual events a month during the pandemic. And that doesn’t even count meetings with their work colleagues.

More than 1 in 5 district leaders report attending more than ten virtual events each month.

A version of this article appeared in the August 25, 2021 edition of Education Week

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI and Educational Leadership: Driving Innovation and Equity
Discover how to leverage AI to transform teaching, leadership, and administration. Network with experts and learn practical strategies.
Content provided by 
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
Investing in Success: Leading a Culture of Safety and Support
Content provided by 
Assessment K-12 Essentials Forum Making Competency-Based Learning a Reality
Join this free virtual event to hear from educators and experts working to implement competency-based education.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

School & District Management Spooked by Halloween, Some 69ý Ban Costumes—But Not Without Pushback
69ý are tweaking Halloween traditions to make them more inclusive to all students.
4 min read
A group of elementary school kids sitting on a curb dressed in their Halloween costumes.
iStock/Getty
School & District Management 69ý Take a $3 Billion Hit From the Culture Wars. Here’s How It Breaks Down
Culturally divisive conflicts in schools have led to increased legal and security costs, as well as staff time spent on the fallout.
4 min read
Illustration of a businessman with his hands on his head while he watches dollars being sucked down into a dark hole.
DigitalVision Vectors
School & District Management Opinion The Blind Spot More Educators Need to Recognize
A simple activity in a training session caused a chain reaction that strengthened an educator's leadership for decades to come.
5 min read
Screen Shot 2024 10 29 at 9.19.10 AM
Canva
School & District Management Opinion 9 Ways 69ý Can Improve Life for Teachers and 69ý
Educators suggest low-cost strategies to improve the education experience for teachers and learners alike.
8 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
Sonia Pulido for Education Week