Opportunity to Learn (OTL)

and COVID-19 Impact

Research Update
Delaware State Board of Education
October 21, 2021

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Background
 Project is a collaboration between CRESP, the Delaware Data Forum,
and the Delaware Department of Education
 Aim was to document approach to COVID-19 in Delaware education for
the 2020/2021 School year and provide needed context to future data
analysis
 Collected Qualitative data from LEAs this summer regarding
enrollment, instructional models, technology, and other policies for
analysis

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Enrollment Findings
 DE Public School enrollment has increased steadily (~1,000 students
each year) over the past decade
 Last year was vastly different(about 2,500 less students)
 Elementary grades and Grade 9 experienced larger drops
 Little evidence of student demographics playing a role
 Both newly enrolled students and reenrolled students saw a significant
drop

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Instructional Findings
 Thanks to the cooperation of the vast majority of LEAs, we have this
information
 It cannot be stressed enough the vast difference in instruction that occurred
last year compared to previous school years
 In-person instruction, once the norm, decreases significantly
 For the first time, we see large groups of students receiving instruction via a wide range
of sometimes changing instructional modes
 LEAs mostly started the school year remotely and then transitioned to Hybrid Model
 Students experiencing a great deal asynchronous learning for the first time

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Instructional Findings
 LEAs did mostly use a common approach to Hybrid Learning
 Cohort Model- AABB with one largely asynchronous day (usually Weds.)

 Remote Learning consisted of asynchronous and synchronous instruction

 Synchronous was either “face to face” or “roomer/zoomer” approach

 LEAs prioritized in-person instruction for students with special needs, EL

students, or special circumstances
 LEAs largely utilized similar approaches to technology and attendance policies

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Student Achievement Findings
 Most important finding: SBAC assessment participation saw a
significant drop from previous years
 Makes it very hard to draw conclusions
 ~60+% rate of taking SBAC compared to 95+% in previous years
 Missing students (students who did not test) not random
 Extremely likely to have received Virtual instruction for most of the school year
 More likely to be Black, racially
 Older students (8th grade) less likely to take assessment because more likely to be Virtual

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Student Achievement Findings
 Matched scores provide evidence of decreased performance
 In other words, we matched student-specific SBAC performance from 2021 to
2019 when possible (~22,000 students; grades 5 to 8)
 For example, an 8th grade score in 2021 matched to how that student did as a 6th
grader in 2019
 More regression in Math Performance Levels versus ELA
 NOTE: only reflects students that tested last year!

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ELA Matched

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Math Matched

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Next Steps
 Does Sept 30th enrollment normalize this year (2021/2022SY)?
 If not, investigate why parents are not enrolling students
 Deeper investigation/More advanced modeling of SBAC performance
 For example, descriptive statistics on SBAC performance by instructional type
not enough and could be misleading
 Relationship between SBAC performance and student response on OTL
survey items
 Further collection of OTL data

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