Student Engagement During COVID-19

Student engagement is a key lever for increasing academic achievement and other student outcomes (e.g., graduation rates, attendance). This session will examine student engagement and the ways in which students demonstrated engagement in their learning during the 2020-2021 school year, a time when most students participated in distance learning during the pandemic. The presenters will share findings on an engagement survey administered in 792 schools to 162,420 students in grades 3-12 across 33 states. Data will be presented by grade span (elementary, middle, high), by domain, and by engagement type to better highlight potential associations .

Beginning with an overview of academic research and models of student engagement, participants will join the presenters in exploring three domains of engagement (behavioral, cognitive, emotional) and three types of engagement (committed, compliant, disengaged). These domains allow for a more nuanced understanding of how students engage in the classroom via conduct and effort (behavioral), strategic thinking (cognitive), and feelings (emotional).

Collectively, participants and presenters will then interrogate data to discern noteworthy insights and findings. The session will conclude with a brief view of longitudinal data incorporating survey results prior to and following the 2020-2021 school year. Participants will be able to provide feedback and suggestions regarding in-progress research questions describing the relationship between engagement and learning during the pandemic.