ERIC Number: ED624151
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Sep
Pages: N/A
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Assessing School District Decision-Making: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic. Working Paper 30520
Christian, Alvin; Jacob, Brian; Singleton, John D.
National Bureau of Economic Research
The COVID-19 pandemic drew new attention to the role of school boards in the U.S. In this paper, we examine school districts' choices of learning modality--whether and when to offer in-person, virtual, or hybrid instruction--over the course of the 2020-21 pandemic school year. The analysis takes advantage of granular weekly data on learning mode and COVID-19 cases for Ohio school districts. We show that districts respond on the margin to health risks: all else equal, a marginal increase in new cases reduces the probability that a district offers in-person instruction the next week. Moreover, this negative response is magnified when the district was in-person the prior week and attenuates in magnitude over the school year. These findings are consistent with districts learning from experience about the effect of in-person learning on disease transmission in schools. We also find evidence that districts are influenced by the decisions of their peers.
Descriptors: COVID-19, Pandemics, School Districts, Adjustment (to Environment), Distance Education, Blended Learning, In Person Learning, Disease Control, Peer Influence, Decision Making
National Bureau of Economic Research. 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-5398. Tel: 617-588-0343; Web site: http://www.nber.org
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Identifiers - Location: Ohio
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A

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