Rand Corporation Survey Reveals Persistent Trends Impacting Schools

On Tuesday, the Rand Corporation released selected findings from their fifth American School District Panel Survey. Results show that challenges from the fall of 2021 persisted in the spring of 2022. These include teacher shortages; political polarization over classroom lessons on history and critical race theory; students’ mental health, behavior, and attendance; and unfinished instruction. Over 90 percent of district leaders remained concerned about the mental health of students and teachers in the spring of 2022 and expressed major concern that communities offer insufficient services to help. Likewise, student discipline issues have increased relative to pre-pandemic levels. Staff expansion by more than three-quarters of the districts surveyed has led roughly half of the districts to anticipate “a fiscal cliff” when relief funds expire, especially in areas where districts have been “trying to backfill long-term shortages… such as special education.” While most surveyed have increased or intend to increase special education staff, forty-six percent of districts surveyed are not trying to do so.

Read the report here.