Since 2014, the University of Southern California Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research has administered the Understanding America Study (UAS). The UAS is a longitudinal, national probability-based panel of approximately 10,000 U.S. residents, collecting information at multiple time points each year on economic, attitudinal, health, political, and other measures. Of the full sample, approximately 1,700 households include at least one child in grades K-12. 

Between April 2020 and January 2023, we have administered nearly 30 rounds of questions to UAS panel parents/caregivers asking about COVID's effects on their children?s K-12 educational experiences. Between April and December 2022, funded by NSF RAPID Grant 2214168, we administered three additional rounds of questions to panel caregivers of K-12 children in the household. We asked about children?s academic standing and mental health. We also asked levels of caregiver concern about children?s academic progress, mental health, and physical health. Finally, we collected measures of children's participation in interventions intended to mitigate negative COVID impacts on child well-being including tutoring, summer school, and mental health supports. 

Children's academic achievement. Caregivers, who typically do not know what a child is ?supposed? to be learning in each grade level, rely primarily on their children?s teachers to let them know how their child is progressing and areas of concern. Caregivers do not always reach out to teachers to ask about their children?s progress, particularly if grades indicate satisfactory process. Notably, in summer 2022, approximately 90% of UAS respondents reported children in the home are earning grades of B or higher overall (Silver et al, 2022). These results stand in contrast to widespread evidence unfinished learning, with particularly concerning delays in math and for minoritized and economically disadvantaged students. They also suggest caregivers may not have reason to be as concerned about their children's academic standing as education policymakers and researchers (Polikoff & Houston, 2022; Silver et al, 2022).  

Children's mental health. The mental health consequences of the pandemic for children have been serious, with ?dramatic? increases in mental health emergency room visits and suicide attempts. In spring 2022, we administered the well-validated "Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire" (SDQ) to caregivers, asking about their children?s mental health. Our findings document worsening of mental health since 2013 across both genders, with domain-specific results shedding light on areas of particular concern (e.g., anxiety and depression) and a troubling pattern among girls (Rapaport & Silver, 2022). National Public Radio interviewed Rapaport about our work (pending for public release). We again administered the SDQ in winter 2022/23.  

Concerns about children. With prior RAPID grant No. 2120194, we learned that by spring 2021, caregivers of remote and hybrid learners were more concerned than caregivers of in-person learners about the amount their children were learning in school (overall and within ELA, mathematics, and science subject areas), as well as their engagement with school, social well-being, and emotional well-being. While in most areas, concerns have not rebounded to their heights in winter 2021, concerns about children?s psychological health are showing patterns of increase across groups. We built an interactive data platform to visualize ?caregiver concerns? data collected over time, https://usc-care.shinyapps.io/uas_data_explorer/.  

Children's participation in interventions/programs. Starting in spring 2021 and again in spring, summer, and fall 2022, we have been collecting data on caregivers? interest in enrolling their children in interventions including tutoring, summer school, and mental health supports. We have also been asking whether caregivers opted to enroll their children in these programs. Our results have consistently over time documented low caregiver interest and child enrollment in interventions intended to mitigate pandemic effects--we were among the first to document this finding (Polikoff & Saavedra, 2021; Polikoff & Silver, 2022; Silver et al, 2022; Silver et al, 2023).  

Longitudinal summary of results. Overall, we find that caregiver concern for students? academic and socioemotional wellbeing dropped sharply from fall 2020 to fall 2021 and has been relatively low since then. Students? academic and socioemotional wellbeing, as measured by caregiver-reported grades and a caregiver-completed SDQ, have remained fairly flat since the 2021-2022 school year. Schools? offers of tutoring have increased over the past school year while their offers of mental health services have remained steady (Silver et al, 2023).

Public UAS data. To date over our three RAPID grants, we have developed and harnessed our technological and human capital to enable rapid-cycle collection, cleaning, analysis, and reporting. A substantial proportion of the knowledge about the nationally representative educational experiences of American children during COVID is due to our research. In addition, our expansive data repository is an invaluable public good in the wake of COVID, with the potential to continue to grow in utility over time. UAS data are publicly available for download without cost shortly after completion of administration (i.e., within days), enabling any researcher from anywhere in the world to access UAS data. http://uasdata.usc.edu/education

Last Modified: 03/08/2023
Modified by: Anna R Saavedra