A Preliminary Examination of Student Engagement Before and During COVID-19 in the U.S

The purpose of this study was to examine students’ self-reported cognitive and affective engagement before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Student engagement was examined in three ways: Fall 2020 survey responses for digital and in-person instruction were compared to those from Fall 2018 and Fall 2019; the engagement of students who remained in the same school (n = 49,161) from fall 2019 to fall 2020 was examined; and among those students in the same schools with prior year responses, we examined predictors of a change in their self-reported engagement. Students were also asked to rate their perceptions of learning and support compared to before their district transitioned to remote learning in March of 2020. All in-person student responses showed slight to large increases across grades for Teacher-Student Relationships and some slight declines on other factors. For students responding for the same schools across years, overall engagement decreased, with in-person students reporting consistent increases in Teacher-Student Relationships but varied changes across other factors. Statistical models indicated prior engagement predicted nearly all of the variance in fall 2020 engagement. Student reflections on the spring 2020 transition to online learning found the continued digital learners (into fall 2020) reporting worse engagement and support. In general, changes in student engagement were more positive for students receiving in-person instruction, and greater initial student engagement was related to greater subsequent engagement.