Impact of COVID-19 on Educators’ Comfort with Racial Issues in Two Urban School Districts

This study explores the challenges that two small-city school districts attempting to address racial disparities in education encountered in mentoring new teachers and educators’ attitudes toward social justice before and during Covid-19. Funded by a national education association, this four-year pilot project’s primary goals are to develop tools that districts can use to support new teachers around educational disparities and create more inclusive school environments, with a particular focus on improving academic and disciplinary outcomes for youth who are black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Disparities in educational outcomes, which are influenced by educators’ beliefs and behavior, are strongly related to health disparities. Observational and survey data from this project allows comparisons of educators’ attitudes and behavior in Spring 2019 and 2021. Located in districts 70 miles apart in upstate New York, the labor-management leadership teams joined the pilot project in hopes of improving their retention of new teachers through professional development and mentoring around racial and social justice. The districts serve between 6,000-9,000 students in grades pre-Kindergarten to 12th, with over 60% coming from economically disadvantaged families and steadily growing BIPOC populations exceeding or reaching 50% of students. Focusing on early career educators and their mentors, the project piloted a series of 90-minute workshops designed to deepen participants’ understanding of historic systematic inequalities, provide them with guided reflection on experiences shaping their identities, and explore strategies for improving relationships with diverse students. These workshops were halted in Spring 2020 when schools were forced to pivot to online instruction due to the pandemic but were held virtually in one of the districts during the 2020-2021 school year. In addition to the professional development workshops, all educators in these districts were invited to participate in school climate surveys focused on racial and ethnic issues conducted in March 2019 and two years later in March 2021. Around 450 teachers responded to the anonymous survey in each year, which allows comparisons of trends at two points in time. Preliminary analyses reveal some interesting trends. Despite incidents of racial injustice prompting increased social unrest during 2020, teachers’ reports of their comfort levels discussing racial and/or ethnic issues with family members, their students and colleagues did not change significantly from 2019 to 2021. They indicated feeling more comfortable discussing these issues with their families than with colleagues or students, but the relative differences did not change over the two years. In contrast, survey responses in 2021 indicated that teachers, especially early career teachers, were less likely to feel that “multicultural or BIPOC issues are receiving too much attention” than they did two years earlier. Additional analyses provide context for understanding these trends with examination of changes related to communication with colleagues, students, and their families. Combined, the results of this study suggest that, while a greater awareness of the digital divide and unequal access to resources has occurred due to the pandemic, the influence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the murder of George Floyd have also brought these issues to prominence nationally