Student Achievement in the COVID-19 Pandemic Era: An Exploration into Racial and Ethnic Achievement Gaps in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

This thesis explores the impact of remote schooling necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic on racial/ethnic achievement gaps in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. The research will provide insight into what policies or mechanisms may have contributed to any differential changes in achievement that may have been associated with remote learning. I use a mixed method approach to analyze the achievement of Black and Hispanic students as compared to that of White students between the 2018-2019 academic year and the 2020-2021 academic year. Proficiency rates of each student subgroup were derived from end-of-grade and end-of-course assessments in Reading and Math across grades 3 through 8, as well as English II and Math III, for the aforementioned years. Educator perceptions of student achievement were derived from a survey administered to CHCCS educators in order to better understand their experience with student learning during the pandemic, as well as explore mechanisms that may have facilitated differential changes in achievement across student groups. An analysis of proficiency rates found that academic achievement fell across all students. While this meant the narrowing of some Black-White achievement gaps, a majority of Hispanic-White achievement gaps saw widening, and relative to initial achievement, Hispanic and Black students fell much more than White students. The educator survey noted that while access to technological resources may not have been a large barrier to achievement, factors such as household support, lack of engagement, and inability to navigate technology could have explained greater drops in students of color. As school districts look to the future of technology-supported learning and achievement coming out of the pandemic, it is crucial for educators to look at outside factors, including educating students on how to use technology and ensuring methods of supervision to encourage engagement and promote equitable education.Bachelor of Art