NYKids Advisory Board Subgroup Provides Feedback on Proposed Pandemic Response Phase Two Study
By Kristen C. Wilcox, Aaron Leo, Jessie Tobin, & Maria Khan
On September 16th, a subgroup of NYKids Advisory Board members and NYKids researchers convened to discuss results from our Discovering Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Education Workforce study and receive feedback regarding a proposed next phase of research.
Along with the NYKids team, attendees included Dr. Michael Piccirillo of the Capital Area School Development Association (CASDA), Superintendent Ken Slentz of the Ballston Spa School District, and Dr. Gayle Simidian, Research Analyst for New York State School Boards Association.
Feedback on Preliminary Results
During the first portion of the meeting, NYKids Research and Development Director Kristen C. Wilcox presented findings from the survey study of educators’ responses to the pandemic.
As shared in previous blogs, this mixed-methods study was designed to explore the impact of the COVID pandemic on the educator workforce. It focused on three lines of inquiry: educators’ experiences of stress, levels of job satisfaction, and qualities and facilitators for adaptations in policies, programs, and practices.
Focusing on the analysis of the first two lines of inquiry, our findings from over 600 educators in state indicate that work-related stress and job dissatisfaction increased due to the pandemic. Notably, these levels differed across schools serving different percentages of students living in poverty. Those on the higher end of the poverty spectrum indicated higher levels of stress and job dissatisfaction than others, yet the results were not linear (i.e. the lowest poverty schools indicated higher stress and job dissatisfaction than those in the middle-range).
In discussing these findings, members of the Advisory Board suggested that these differences could be resulting from a number of factors including disparities among students as well as the demands put on educators by family and community members in different school contexts. Several Advisory Board members emphasized the need to understand the capacities within particular schools and communities to tease apart how these contextual differences might have impacted school staffs differently.
Gearing up for the Next Phase of Research
With this valuable Advisory Board feedback, NYKids is preparing a follow-up study which will explore these contextual differences in more depth, focusing on a set of positive outliers from the phase one survey results. These positive outliers are schools that have significantly lower levels of educator stress and job dissatisfaction taking into account important demographic variables such as levels of poverty and ethnic and linguistic diversity in the population served.
The phase two study plan includes interviews and focus groups with teachers, support staff, and district and school leaders, with the aim to better understand how school staff adapt and innovate in the face of crises like the pandemic. In response to this plan, Advisory Board members urged the NYKids team to consider the different demographics and organizational structures of each school as we draw comparisons and look to include student voices if possible.
NYKids is honored to receive such valuable feedback from our Advisory Board members and we highlight some of their own exemplary work in supporting NY’s kids including:
- NYSSBA’s recent back-to-school brief discusses learning loss and gauging student well-being;
- Superintendent Slentz’s inspirational letter to Ballston Spa students and families at the beginning of the 2021-2021 school year;
- Piccirillo’s recent blog post on school reopenings.
Please see our Research Results page for additional findings related to our COVID study and stay tuned for our phase two study updates.
As always, we thank you for your interest in our research and we invite you to reach out to nykids@albany.edu for your improvement and research partnership needs.
