Sources

Soler et al. explore the negative effects that distanced learning during the COVID-19 pandemic had on Columbian students across different percentiles of the test score distribution. By utilizing public datasets from the Columbian Ministry of Education, their study finds that the negative effects of distanced learning were more pronounced for students in the middle (and upper end) of the test score distribution and less pronounced for students on the tails (mostly the lower tail). This result is surprising because we might expect students on the lower end of the distribution to be the most affected, and thus the study hypothesizes that perhaps students in the middle of the distribution (whose test scores were most affected) had working parents who struggled to both work and take care of their kids’ education at home, resulting in stress and impacting their kids’ academic performance. The study’s findings contribute to our research question by telling us how different parts of the distribution performed, information that simply isn’t available to us in our dataset.https://doi.org/10.1080/09645292.2024.2356231.

Fahle et al. explore the connections between community factors, “the economic, social, health, and schooling context of students”, and the variation in test score declines across US school districts during COVID-19. Their study used data from the Stanford Educational Data Archive and several advanced statistical techniques to find that the two primary factors that drove test score decline were the community death-rate from the virus and COVID-19 disruptions to daily life, which the study defines as the extent to which local businesses and institutions were restricted/shut down during the pandemic. These results show that many if not most of the reasons why students struggled during the pandemic were because of events occurring outside of school, completely out of the control of schools and districts. Because our group is using the same dataset that this study did, we can learn from and compare our results to the study’s, helping us to critically evaluate the conclusions we draw (and that the study drew) from the data. https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681251369937.

Halloran et al. seek to analyze what contributed to test score declines and recoveries across the United States following the COVID-19 pandemic. The study examines “district-level state standardized assessment,” funding, schooling mode, and demographic data, finding that the largest predictor of a student’s test score recovery was their state. The study admits that it isn’t clear on why this was the case, but with 1 additional year of data, our group might be able to make a map-type visualization of these regional differences in test score recovery to try and uncover some sort of pattern.

The article argues that students’ academic performance were affected by COVID-19 pandemic and covered multiple subgroups such as race, mental health, substance use. The resource uses survey data from middle and high schools in the US. The resource is important because it measures the mental health of students during the COVID-19 period. We can use the data to look at the academic performances and the factors behind why students aren’t learning. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.13243

The article argues that teacher support directly improves students’ academic achievement,  and that this relationship becomes stronger when students have a higher growth mindset. The authors analyzed survey data from 1,456 Lithuanian middle school students, using structural equation modeling to test how growth mindset moderates the link between perceived teacher support and academic outcomes. This study provides proof that mindset theory can enhance the impact of teacher–student relationships, suggesting that fostering a collaborative environment is essential for sustainable education. This helps our project by showing a tested model between teacher behavior and student psychology, illustrating how external support and internal beliefs affect learning performance. It offers a well-established claim and evidence that we can draw on to explore how classroom practices influence motivation and achievement. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413632

The article argues that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted young children’s language environments and is likely associated with declines in multiple domains of language development, which can be seen in socioeconomic statuses. Approximately 94 studies from 2020–2023 are used, drawing on data regarding children/adolescents. This study offers an overview of how the pandemic altered children’s developmental trajectories, creating learning gaps that can have detrimental side-effects later on. All in all, this research gives us an overview of how COVID affects the early development of the brain, and how that can manifest itself later on. It shows some of the challenges that COVID imposed that especially impacted younger students, and we can draw on that information for our study. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.14102

The article argues that COVID-19 highlighted the disparities in socioeconomic status when it comes to outcomes in education throughout the U.S., disproportionately harming students of color and from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Throughout the article, various sources documenting disparities in access to in-person learning, digital technology and academic outcomes were used. This article is important because it brings together emerging evidence on the intersection of race, class, and education during the pandemic, showing that all issues aren’t made the same and some have to be addressed more urgently than others. Overall, this article gives us a framework for understanding how crisis events can interact with (and emphasize) disparities to produce uneven educational outcomes. It gives us concrete proof in which unexpected events like COVID might differentially affect students depending on systemic supports and constraints, which we can highlight in our study. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101643

This book argues that certain demographics during the COVID-19 pandemic (in America) faced more adversity than others, often indicated by whether or not they fell into a marginalized group. Primarily, this was supported through different studies all conducted during or directly after the pandemic. This included sources like polls and surveys from 2020 and 2021 detailing income and food security. This source is very good at highlighting the inequities present in the country and how many of them were only amplified due to the pandemic. It puts into perspective how much more impactful this time was for certain communities and how it wasn’t just a time at home, but a time of struggle. In particular, this book helps to explain/rationalize the findings of our data; it serves as the story behind the data. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003324096

This source is primarily used to emphasize the power behind online technological sources during the covid-19 pandemic and how they especially benefited those in a lower socioeconomic class. The main source of evidence for this entire book are four case studies detailing the different effects of crowdsourcing during 2020, one of which was regarding a tutoring resource for schools, popular among lower-income students. In these case studies, the authors highlight the real tangible impact of crowdsourcing in the pandemic and how immensely helpful it proved to be given the circumstances. This only highlights the emphasis on educational inequity present during the pandemic and how needed it was to even begin leveling the playing field. This resource helps us as it details the amount of students affected (and helped) through resources, giving a rough estimate of how many students were in need of extra help during the time. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003290872

This resource goes into detail about specific outcomes in education as a result of the 2020 covid pandemic. In particular, there were many changes to education and how it was approached, specifically as it applies to marginalized groups. This book takes different points of statistical data and utilizes them to create an image and rough picture of what remote education and learning looked like for both students and teachers. It also specifically looks at the change in attendance at public vs private schools and how the demographics changed greatly as far as homeschooling goes. This book goes through many different types of people in the U.S. and describes their individual experiences in education as they relate to covid. Thus, it provides a lot of context for the statistics and data of the time. In essence, it is the digital humanities behind the numbers. https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=bf4957e6-b824-3978-a807-3f9a184b0939

This source specifically details the effects of Covid-19 on K-12 schools all around the world (including the U.S.) including how test scores were affected as well as how access to resources was unequally distributed. This is supported using data (mostly surveys and census polls) from 2020 that indicates the tangible impact covid had on American households. This resource is incredibly important as it directly measures the change in test scores, attendance, and wealth gaps during the pandemic, directly showing how covid affected education. This will provide much context needed to understand our data set and statistics as it reports and details how much American schools were impacted and in what ways. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-81500-4#bibliographic-information

Francis and Weller argue that the COVID-19 pandemic will exacerbate existing racial wealth inequality and educational disparities by race and ethnicity, due to the switch to remote learning for K-12 students during the pandemic. They use data from the U.S. Census’ weekly Household Pulse Survey as evidence, highlighting how Black and Hispanic/Latinx households have less reliable internet and devices available (known as the digital divide), which reduces the hours children could spend on remote learning. This leads to less educational opportunities for Black and Hispanic/Latinx students overall, reducing their likelihood for high-earning career opportunities in the future and thus exacerbating racial wealth inequalities. The work of Francis and Weller is important because it illuminates what the digital divide is and how the digital divide has emerged as a key reinforcing mechanism that exacerbates educational disparities based on wealth and resource access. These findings are particularly important for our research as they explain the relationship between wealth, technology access, and race/ethnicity, allowing us to contextualize the disparities we find through our data visualizations. https://doi.org/10.1177/00346446211017797

Balayar and Langlais state that, as a whole, children’s academic performances, motivation for participating in teaching learning activities, socialization with friends and prosocial behavior with parents and family members all decreased during the COVID-19 period—however, the behavior and life circumstances of parents during this period also played a significant role in influencing individual outcomes. For example, the amount of parental support and motivation provided to students—affected by levels of family stress, family poverty status, and parent depression—proved to be the most influencing factors in developing positive emotions that affected children’s learning attainment. These results come from the study conducted by Balayar and Langlais, an online questionnaire distributed to parents of elementary and middle school students. Their findings and conclusions are important because they allow us to more deeply understand the connection between parental behavior/circumstances and children’s educational/social outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is especially important for our research as our data concerns younger students in 3rd and 8th grade, and as we seek to uncover what factors could contribute to these demographics’ academic performance. https://doi.org/10.1177/10664807211052496

Blundell et al. argue that the COVID-19 pandemic interacted with and exacerbated deep, pre-existing social and economic inequalities across multiple domains of life such as socioeconomic status, education, age, gender, ethnicity and geography. To describe these impacts holistically, they use evidence from various data sources, namely the Labour Force Survey, the Family Resources Survey from 2017–18, and the IFS tax and benefit microsimulation model, TAXBEN. The work of Blundell et. al is important because it highlights how crucial it is to take into account underlying inequalities as we attempt to understand the complex and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. For our research specifically, particular findings they highlight—such as bringing attention to the fact that parents across social classes reacted to childcare responsibilities differently because of their socioeconomic status—will prove critical in allowing us to articulate the differences in student educational outcomes across various social divides. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12232

This article produced by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) details the response of schools to the Covid-19 Pandemic on K-12 education. It outlines the chronological shift from in-person learning to online instruction, both synchronous and asynchronous, and explains how these methods were implemented and later transitioned as schools reopened for in-person learning.  Further, it analyzes the issues faced by both instructors and students in being able to relay information, digital inequities and cybersecurity. Supplementing the text are data tables that visually represent these issues. As a nonpartisan entity, CRS bases its analysis on education policy reports provided by the U.S. Department of Education. www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46883

Online and Distance Learning during Lockdown Times: COVID-19 Stories (Volume 1), edited by Palitha Edirisingha, provides an international perspective on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on K–12 education. The text establishes the context through which researchers can frame the responses of students, teachers, and parents to the sudden shift to remote learning. Combining empirical evidence with numerous case studies, Edirisingha compiles a comprehensive volume that highlights the teaching and learning strategies employed during these unprecedented times. Data is presented through tables and charts that effectively visualize the quantitative findings of each case study. https://mdpi-res.com/bookfiles/book/6088/Online_and_Distance_Learning_during_Lockdown_Times_COVID19_Stories_Volume_1.pdf?v=1760663183

Published by the National Academies Press (NAP), this report provides a research-based framework for reopening K–12 schools following the COVID-19 pandemic. Written during the height of the crisis, it acknowledges the diversity of opinions and uncertainties surrounding reopening decisions. Grounded in scientific evidence essential for effective policy-making, the publication synthesizes findings from various research studies to offer a comprehensive understanding of the pandemic’s impact on student learning. https://doi.org/10.17226/25858

The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment (NCIEA) article “Issues and Considerations that the COVID-19 Pandemic Presents for Measuring Student Growth” examines how the pandemic disrupted standardized testing and affected the validity of student growth measurements. It discusses challenges such as digital inequities, inconsistent participation, and varying testing conditions across states. The authors emphasize the need for caution when interpreting post-pandemic data and recommend using multiple years of evidence to ensure fairness in educational policy decisions.www.nciea.org/blog/issues-and-considerations-that-the-covid-19-pandemic-presents-for-measuring-student-growth/

This study examines why “Asian American students often report lower self-esteem than their peers even though” they are outperforming them academically. The study attributes this “self-esteem” gap to a pressure to improve upon oneself and conform to a “model minority,” along with poorer ability to cope with “perceived” failure. In other words, the study found that Asian American students were more likely to perceive minor shortcomings as failures, hurting their self-esteem. In our project, we use this source to explain the source of some of the outperformance of Asian students relative to their peers during the pandemic, as well as the consequences of this outperformance.

This essay explores the gender gap in math test scores on standardized tests such as the SAT. Specifically, the essay writes, previous studies found that female students should be catching up to male students, and indeed are at par with them in many math aptitude tests, but still fall short in standardized tests. The essay discusses the possibility that this gender gap may be attributed to the different ways in which male and female students interact with competitive test taking environments; male students tend to seek out competitions, while female students tend to shy away from them. For our project, we use this essay to help understand why female students underperformed in mathematics in our data.

This study investigated differences between males’ and females’ coping strategies for dealing with anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the effects that those coping strategies had on anxiety scores for each group in the United States. The study found that women experienced significantly higher levels of anxiety than men, but that their utilization of passive coping strategies greatly helped them. Meanwhile for men, they experienced much less anxiety, but those men who used active coping strategies were significantly more anxious. For our project, we use this study to contextualize why women might have been more anxious than men during the pandemic. 

This survey study examines the gender differences in adolescents’ consumption of digital media, and more specifically the implications of this consumption on their psychological well-being. The study found that adolescent girls tend to spend more time on smartphones and social media, while adolescent boys tend to spend more time gaming online. It also found that digital media consumption negatively affected adolescent girls’ well-being significantly more than it did for adolescent boys. We use this study in our project to explain how social media use may have negatively affected female students’ well-being and academic performances more than males’.

In this book, Drucker discusses the Digital Humanities field, as well as what should theoretically make up a Digital Humanities project. She breaks down projects in the field into making materials accessible for use, processing those materials and converting them into digitally tractable formats, and presenting processed materials on online platforms. We use the guidelines discussed in the book to help guide our entire project, and to discuss our own visualizations critically.

In this book, Cairo explores how the design of data visualizations, or “charts”, can be made, intentionally or not, to easily mislead readers. Throughout the book, Cairo explores the critical elements of charts, how to read them, and the consequences of being unable to read them critically. We use Cairo’s insights in our project to ensure that our visualizations are clear and not misleading, as well as critically consider the gaps that our visualizations fail to explain.