A Working Paper from EPIC

School Turnaround in a Pandemic: An Examination of the Outsized Implications of COVID-19 on Low-Performing Schools and Their Communities

Updated July 2023

Posted: October 2022

Using survey and administrative data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, we document some of the ways in which the students in Michigan’s turnaround districts were adversely impacted by the pandemic, hindering their ability to engage in schooling and districts’ abilities to improve student achievement. We show that the communities in which turnaround schools are located were hardest hit by the pandemic and school and district operations were substantially disrupted. This resulted in high rates of student absenteeism, low student and parent engagement, and, ultimately, significantly smaller gains on math and reading benchmark assessments than in non-turnaround districts, although turnaround districts fared comparably to demographically similar districts. Our findings have implications for policy as states amplify school and district turnaround efforts that were disrupted by the pandemic.