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Middle and high school students say that they鈥檙e not doing as well in school as they were before the pandemic, and that they want more opportunities for connection with their teachers, according to new research from the National Education Association and the National PTA.
The survey, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research in October, asked 800 public school students ages 13-18 about the academic, emotional, and economic effects of COVID-19 for themselves and their families. Researchers also conducted focus groups with the teenagers.
On the whole, students said they weren鈥檛 doing as well in school now as they were before the pandemic.

This change was especially pronounced for the younger students in the sample, ages 13-15, and for students whose parents or guardians didn鈥檛 have college degrees.
When asked what would be most helpful to their learning right now, students emphasized student-teacher connections and individual support. The top four things that students said would be 鈥渧ery helpful鈥� were:

• More interaction between teachers and students
• Additional tutoring to help them catch up and stay on track
• Faster grading and feedback from teachers
• More one-on-one time with teachers

On a call with reporters, NEA president Becky Pringle said it鈥檚 incumbent on school leaders to create schedules that meet these needs.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not talking about adding onto a teacher鈥檚 day,鈥� Pringle said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about collaborating with educators in the way that they restructure a day, so that they can provide those kinds of things that the students are asking for.鈥�
Research has shown that intensive tutoring is also one of the most effective ways to help students make up ground academically鈥攁nd experts suggest that it鈥檚 a promising strategy for combatting learning loss due to school shutdowns, as Education Week鈥檚 Stephen Sawchuk reported earlier this year.

Fears and Disparate Impact

The majority of students also wanted some time in school buildings. When asked what mode of schooling they鈥檇 prefer assuming that 鈥渘othing changes with the coronavirus,鈥� 38 percent said they would want to be full-time in person and 27 percent preferred a hybrid model with some time in both environments. Still, 35 percent said they would want full-time online school.
In focus groups, many students connected hesitancy about in-person learning to fears about the virus, said Missy Egelsky, a senior vice president at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, on a call with reporters. 鈥淭he anxiety wasn鈥檛 so much about fear of themselves getting it, but that they would bring it home and impact their family,鈥� she said.
Egelsky shared quotes from the students: 鈥淚 want to keep my family safe and my parents are both higher risk, so it鈥檚 not worth it to go to school,鈥� said one white student in a rural school system.
A Black student in an urban school system said that online learning was safer: 鈥淢y parents also support that [i.e., online learning] if it鈥檚 still an option 鈥� . Stuff changes when the virus ends,鈥� the student said.
About 1 in 10 teenagers surveyed said that someone in their household had gotten sick with COVID-19, and more reported that the virus had affected people they knew: 40 percent said they had a friend who got sick with COVID-19, and 36 percent said a family member who doesn鈥檛 live with them had contracted the virus.
More than half of the students polled, 56 percent, said they were 鈥渄oing OK鈥� (as opposed to 鈥渨ell鈥� or 鈥渟truggling鈥�).
But the survey also found that Black students, in particular, were more likely to have experienced economic hardships as a result of the pandemic: 37 percent of Black students said that at least one of the adults in their household had lost their job due to the coronavirus, compared to 27 percent of Latino students, 23 percent of white students, and 16 percent of Asian American and Pacific Islander students.