ERIC Number: ED616320
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Aug
Pages: 33
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-
EISSN: N/A
The Revealed Preferences for School Reopening: Evidence from Public-School Disenrollment. CEPA Working Paper No. 21-06
Dee, Thomas S.; Huffaker, Elizabeth; Philips, Cheryl; Sagara, Eric
Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis
Before the 2020-21 school year, educators, policymakers, and parents confronted the stark and uncertain trade-offs implied by the health, educational, and economic consequences of offering instruction remotely, in person, or through a hybrid of the two. Most public schools in the U.S. chose remote-only instruction and enrollment fell dramatically (i.e., a loss of roughly 1.1 million K-12 students). We examine the impact of these choices on public-school enrollment using unique panel data that combine district-level enrollment trajectories with information on their instructional modes. We find offering remote-only instead of in-person instruction reduced enrollment by 1.1 percentage points (i.e., a 42 percent increase in disenrollment from -2.6 to -3.7 percent). The disenrollment effects of remote instruction are concentrated in kindergarten and, to a lesser extent, elementary schools. We do not find consistent evidence that remote instruction influenced middle or high-school enrollment or that hybrid instruction had an impact. [Student work on this project was funded by the Brown Institute for Media Innovation.]
Descriptors: COVID-19, Pandemics, School Closing, Educational Change, Public Schools, Enrollment, Distance Education, Conventional Instruction, Enrollment Trends, Blended Learning, Middle Schools, High Schools
Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis. 520 Galvez Mall, CERAS Building, 5th Floor, Stanford, CA 94305. Tel: 650-736-1258; Fax: 650-723-9931; e-mail: contactcepa@stanford.edu; Web site: http://cepa.stanford.edu
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education; High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A