Publications
The COVID-19 pandemic changed all aspects of our everyday lives, including teaching and learning. TERA's research in this area focuses on understanding teacher and student experiences during and after the pandemic, including the long-term impacts on teacher and student outcomes in the post-pandemic years.
English Learners in Tennessee: A Case Study of Four Districts
This brief presents findings across four districts about the characteristics of EL students, how they perform in school compared to their native English-speaking peers (non-ELs), and the distribution of English as a Second Language (ESL)-endorsed teachers across these districts.
TERA partnered with four districts in Tennessee that have a high EL student population to learn more about the schooling experiences of their EL students through a series of data analyses and discussions with district leaders. This brief presents findings across all four districts about the characteristics of EL students, how they perform in school compared to their native English-speaking peers (non-ELs), and the distribution of English as a Second Language (ESL)-endorsed teachers across these districts.
TERA partnered with ten Tennessee districts to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of their 2022 summer learning camps. In this brief, we present aggregate findings from analysis of student enrollment rosters, attendance records, staff surveys, and student benchmark assessments. Eight of the ten districts administered staff surveys, and nine had complete enrollment and attendance data. The achievement analysis includes data from four districts who had similarly scaled pre- and post-test benchmark assessments that could be combined for aggregate analysis.
To help inform and support district decision-making and future planning throughout the 2020-21 school year, the Tennessee Education Research Alliance (TERA) worked with six school districts in Tennessee by monitoring, analyzing, and reporting on key trends in their data. As part of a continued effort to understand the ways the pandemic may have impacted student outcomes, this final report from our work with these partner districts presents trends in student attendance and achievement during the 2020-21 school year. Specifically, we describe key patterns in attendance data from six districts and state assessment data from five districts.
This brief analyzes results from the 2021 Tennessee Educator Survey and discusses educator perspectives and insights into COVID-related concerns during the 2020-21 school year. Several concerns, including growing educational inequities and challenges with technology, continued into and throughout the 2020-2021 school year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many aspects of schooling in Tennessee and nationwide since the initial school closures took place in March 2020. To learn more about the student experience during the pandemic, we worked with nine school districts in Tennessee to administer a student survey in the fall and spring of the 2020-21 school year. This report series discusses the results of these surveys, giving voice to thousands of Tennessee students who had their lives turned upside down by the pandemic.
This report highlights key takeaways from TERA's work with six partner districts during the 2020-21 school year that demonstrate both the limitations of the data collected during a difficult year, and how we adapted our approach to make use of available data to learn more about student engagement in a year of immense change. We discuss three key recommendations for districts as they reflect on data use from the 2020-21 school year and make plans for future years.
TERA worked with six school districts in Tennessee during the 2020-21 school year to inform evidence-based decision making as they seek to best support their students during and after the pandemic. As part of this effort, we analyzed data typically collected by schools-such as enrollment, attendance, and teacher retention data-and supported districts in conducting surveys to better understand the experiences of students and teachers. In this report, we summarize key patterns within and across these sources of data from the six districts that capture the experiences of students and educators during the first half of this school year.
2020 - With the unprecedented school closures due to COVID-19, Tennessee educators had to fundamentally alter how they do their jobs. To understand ore about how educators across the state have addressed the challenges related to the closures, TERA asked teachers and school leaders to report on their experiences as part of the 2020 Tennessee Educator Survey. This brief analyzes educator responses to the questions specific to COVID-19, and provides insights on how teachers and principals worked to support their students while school buildings were closed in the spring of 2020.