While the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on student academic growth since abruptly ending in-person school in March, negative impacts on student well-being has been assumed, but less well understood.

This fall, EmpowerK12, in partnership with seven DC charter school networks and local school-based mental health experts, set out to learn how DC students feel about and experience life and school. This blog post summarizes key findings from the fall survey and shares promising practices implemented at participating schools as a result of the data.

This blog post is the first in a series of 4 to be released over the next couple weeks focused on ways DC schools can reboot strong throughout this year and beyond by utilizing the strength of strategic collaboration and intentional data collection to power the continuous improvement of District students’ educational engagement no matter the hybrid learning context.

Distance learning, while an unanticipated response to mandated COVID-19 school closures since March, will likely be a fundamental component of schooling for the foreseeable future. We expect distance learning to be employed in various regimens as the virus ebbs and flows and social distancing requirements prevent the traditional school day schedule at different times over the next year. It can also be a tool for delivering additional instruction during breaks and weekends. The purpose of this blog post is to provide distance learning recommendations to schools from a data-driven perspective.