WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:01.125 --> 00:00:02.040 Niu Gao: Slide 1  00:00:02.040 --> 00:00:06.900 Sorry, I forgot to unmute myself. Good morning  and good afternoon. Thank you again for having me.   00:00:06.900 --> 00:00:12.540 My name is Niu Gao and I'm with the Public Policy  Institute of California. In the next 10 minutes or   00:00:12.540 --> 00:00:17.940 so I will be presenting some of the key findings  from our recent work looking at the impact of   00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:25.080 COVID-19 onscience education. This is joint work  with Kathy DiRanna from WestEd and Maria Chang Fay   00:00:25.080 --> 00:00:30.900 who's a doctoral student at UC Davis. Slide 2:  00:00:30.900 --> 00:00:36.360 So recently, if you opened up a newspaper,  you may see some major headlines talking   00:00:36.360 --> 00:00:41.160 about the test score declines. As you  read through those articles, you notice   00:00:41.160 --> 00:00:45.600 that there has been some really dramatic test  score declines, but then most of the articles   00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:50.520 are talking about the test scores declines in  math or ELA- English Language Arts. So far,   00:00:50.520 --> 00:00:56.160 there has been very little evidence talking about  or studies looking at how the pandemic has really   00:00:56.160 --> 00:01:02.640 affected science education. We all know that  even before the pandemic, science had taken   00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:08.580 the back seat to math and English Language Arts  so because of a lack of prioritization, we think   00:01:08.580 --> 00:01:14.160 the pandemic's impact might be more dramatic. So  in this study, we're trying to fill this research   00:01:14.160 --> 00:01:20.640 gap and we're hoping to achieve four goals. Each  goal would correspond to one research question.  00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:25.680 So the first goal we're trying to understand is:  what are some of the impacts of the COVID-19 on   00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:31.140 science education. The second goal: we're  trying to understand some of the challenges   00:01:31.140 --> 00:01:36.780 facing high needs districts - those are districts  that serve a large share of low-income students,   00:01:36.780 --> 00:01:42.120 English learners, and also foster youth  students. The third goal we're trying to   00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:48.300 understand or explore districts' plans to support  science recovery. So for example, what are some of   00:01:48.300 --> 00:01:54.060 the common strategies and also programs have  those districts developed or adopted to help   00:01:54.060 --> 00:01:59.400 students recover from the pandemic? The last part  is we're trying to identify what are some of the   00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:05.820 policy levers we can actually leverage in order  to support a more equitable science recovery?  00:02:07.380 --> 00:02:10.740 Slide 3: In this study, we're using - our   00:02:10.740 --> 00:02:15.840 the data for this study are coming from three  primary data sources. The first one is in the   00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:22.140 fall of 2021 we launched the statewide survey  of school districts. In this in the survey, we   00:02:22.140 --> 00:02:28.620 asked them about how COVID-19 really affects your  operation and also your programming for science   00:02:28.620 --> 00:02:35.760 education. In California, we have about a thousand  districts. Those districts serve about 6 million   00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:42.540 students. In our survey response we got about  213 just responded and those districts in total   00:02:42.540 --> 00:02:48.720 served about half of the K-12 student population. We all know that nationwide, there has been a very   00:02:48.720 --> 00:02:54.360 dramatic decline in survey response rate  due to COVID-19. Even though 213 doesn't   00:02:54.360 --> 00:03:00.120 look alike a lot, we're pretty pretty happy  with the results. Importantly, there's no   00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:06.180 significant difference in terms of the district  characteristics. For example, high need or poor   00:03:06.180 --> 00:03:11.100 districts were just as like likely to respond to  the survey. Most of the differences were coming   00:03:11.100 --> 00:03:18.420 from district size or locale. For example, rural  districts, which tend to be smaller - they were   00:03:18.420 --> 00:03:23.580 less likely to respond to the survey. We know  this has been true even before the pandemic.  00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:28.080 The second piece of data are coming  from districts' annual accountability   00:03:28.080 --> 00:03:33.600 documents. Those are called the local control  accountability plans. All of the districts   00:03:33.600 --> 00:03:39.780 were required to develop and also post their  plans on their website. We were able to obtain   00:03:39.780 --> 00:03:46.200 about close to 900 plans and those plans, they  include a lot of details about what districts   00:03:46.200 --> 00:03:52.020 are trying to do and also the types of programs  and services that they are providing to students.  00:03:52.980 --> 00:03:58.140 The last piece of information is the  semi-structured interviews with educational   00:03:58.140 --> 00:04:03.780 partners. We talked to nearly all of the county  offices of education's regional leads for science.   00:04:03.780 --> 00:04:09.240 We also interviewed a sample of a high need  districts and also some of the districts who   00:04:10.260 --> 00:04:15.060 were really leaders in terms of implementing the  state's new science standards, also called the   00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:20.940 California Next Generation Science Standards.  Last, we also interviewed about 15 statewide   00:04:20.940 --> 00:04:25.500 organizations and also statewide policy makers. Slide 4:  00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:31.020 In the next few slides I will just walk you  through some of the key findings. Let me   00:04:31.020 --> 00:04:36.000 just start with some more encouraging  news. In 2013, almost 10 years ago,   00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:41.460 California adopted new science standards. Those  are called the Next Generation Science Standards   00:04:41.460 --> 00:04:49.020 or NGSS. If implemented well, NGSS has the  potential of transforming science teaching   00:04:49.020 --> 00:04:55.380 and learning. In 2016, we did an initial study  looking at districts' implementation. Back then,   00:04:55.380 --> 00:05:01.320 you can see that 78% of districts said they  were in the implementation phase as defined   00:05:01.320 --> 00:05:07.080 by the state. In our recent survey, we asked  them: before the pandemic which phase were   00:05:07.080 --> 00:05:12.180 you in? You can see that 94% of the districts  said they were in the implementation phase.   00:05:12.180 --> 00:05:17.940 So over time the NGSS implementation was  progressing which is really encouraging.  00:05:19.260 --> 00:05:21.120 Slide 5: Then there came the pandemic,   00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:27.060 which pretty much derailed science education.  In our survey, we asked districts compared to   00:05:27.060 --> 00:05:33.900 pre-pandemic to what extent has science education  became a higher priority, lower priority,   00:05:33.900 --> 00:05:41.160 stayed about the same priority? In this chart,  you can see that 62% of districts said science   00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:48.120 had it became a even lower priority compared to  before the pandemic. There is not much variation   00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:54.720 across districts and the only interesting thing  we're seeing here is the urban-rural divide. To   00:05:54.720 --> 00:06:00.000 the right of the of this slide, you will see  the breakdown for rural districts. About half   00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:06.480 or close to half (47%) of the rural districts  said science stayed about the same priority,   00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:11.400 which is great. And fewer of them said  science became a priority compared to   00:06:11.400 --> 00:06:18.000 statewide. Interestingly, about 13% of the  rural districts said science actually became   00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:23.880 a higher priority. So we did some interviews  with some rural counties and districts - they   00:06:23.880 --> 00:06:28.620 basically said because the remote location  and also the lower population density,   00:06:28.620 --> 00:06:34.740 they were actually able to reopen much earlier. As  a background, in California, the vast majority of   00:06:34.740 --> 00:06:41.460 students spent the entire 2020-21 school year  online. So for some rural districts - one of   00:06:41.460 --> 00:06:45.840 the rural districts we talked to - they actually  only closed for about two weeks and then they were   00:06:45.840 --> 00:06:52.860 able to bring students back right away. Also  because in rural areas there's ample outdoor   00:06:52.860 --> 00:06:57.600 space. So we've seen some of the rural districts  getting really innovative. They started doing a   00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:04.440 lot of science education and also science summer  camps, trying to try prioritize science education.  00:07:05.820 --> 00:07:09.180 Slide 6: Another way COVID-19   00:07:09.180 --> 00:07:14.580 has really derailed science education is that  during the time of crisis, districts provide a   00:07:14.580 --> 00:07:19.860 very limited support for science education. In  this figure we're showing here are some very   00:07:19.860 --> 00:07:26.400 commonly used or evidence-based strategies to help  students learn. The green bars we're showing is   00:07:26.400 --> 00:07:30.780 the share of districts that are providing those  kind of supports for math or English language   00:07:30.780 --> 00:07:36.780 arts. The orange bars are the numbers for science.  You can see that just getting through the chart,   00:07:36.780 --> 00:07:42.240 you see that fewer districts actually provided  support for science education. One other thing   00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:48.540 I will highlight is the small group instruction  or the high dosage tutoring. This was considered   00:07:48.540 --> 00:07:54.360 as one of the best, if not the best, strategies  to help students recover, but we found that only   00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:59.280 25% of the districts were actually providing  this kind of service for science education.  00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:02.520 Slide 7: Last in our survey,   00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:09.060 we also asked districts: looking ahead, to what  extent do you plan to prioritize math, ELA,   00:08:09.060 --> 00:08:14.760 or science in your recovery plans? This  chart summarizes the findings. Overall,   00:08:14.760 --> 00:08:22.620 you can see that over 80% of districts said math  or ELA is a high priority in their recovery plans,   00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:28.440 but when you look at the science it is really  heartbreaking. Only 27% of the district said   00:08:28.440 --> 00:08:35.160 science is a priority in their recovery plans.  We're also seeing that 40% of district said   00:08:35.160 --> 00:08:40.260 science is a low priority or not a priority  at all. So all of this taken together is   00:08:40.260 --> 00:08:44.880 really showing a very dramatic impact of  the pandemic on science education. It also   00:08:44.880 --> 00:08:51.180 points to a very long recovery ahead given the  lack of prioritization in science education.  00:08:52.620 --> 00:08:55.320 Slide 8: This is the end of   00:08:55.320 --> 00:09:01.680 my presentation and you may find more additional  results and also analysis in our report, together   00:09:01.680 --> 00:09:07.260 with our policy recommendations. Thank you all  again and I'm looking forward to the Q&A later.