Publication Year: 2023

Dr. Aaron Leo presented research from NYKids’ latest study of Adaptation and Innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic at the American Anthropological Association’s annual conference held in Toronto, Canada in November, 2023. The paper, co-written with Dr. Kristen C. Wilcox was entitled “Educators’ stress and emotional labor during the COVID-19 pandemic” and drew on data gathered among 88 educators across New York State. Dr. Leo delivered the paper alongside other researchers on a panel focusing on teacher and student agency during the pandemic.

This presentation, entitled “Advancing Educational Equity Research, Policy, and Practice,” was delivered by NYKids Director Kristen C. Wilcox and longtime collaborator Hal A. Lawson at the Educational Leaders without Borders conference held in Athens, Greece in April, 2023. The presentation discusses the importance of equity-focused research and recounts over two decades of NYKids scholarship.

NYKids Assistant Director Aaron Leo and Director Kristen C. Wilcox attended participated in a roundtable at the 2023 AERA Annual Conference held in April, 2023. The presentation was titled “Family Engagement during the Pandemic: Challenges and Opportunities” and drew on data from NYKids’ latest study of pandemic-related adaptations among six schools throughout New York State.

NYKids team members Kristen C. Wilcox, Maria I. Khan, and Jessie Tobin presented this poster at the 2023 Carnegie Summit held in San Diego. The poster, titled “Addressing Differential Impacts of COVID via a National Research-Practice Partnership Network” outlines research improvement work NYKids has connected as part of a collaboration with Tech Valley High School, Chatham City School District, and American Institutes for Research.

This research brief outlines the major findings from NYKids’ latest study on the effects of the pandemic on the educator workforce. The full report, “Opportunities and Challenges to Adapt and Innovate: How Educators Confronted the COVID-19 Pandemic,” was published in December, 2022 and is available on our website. The brief succinctly describes the four drivers for adaptation and innovation found in positive outlier schools that participated in the study: Empowerment and Collective Responsibility; Responsiveness and Flexible Problem Solving ; A Relationship- and Connection-Centered Orientation; and Adaptive and Innovative Systems.

In this presentation, Maria I. Khan and Kristen C. Wilcox discuss findings from an research conducted at an urban, diverse elementary school with high rates of poverty. The presentation “Remote Schooling during the COVID-10 Pandemic: A Case Study of Impacts on Children in a High Poverty, High Diversity School” was presented at the Comparative and International Education Society’s Annual Conference.

In this presentation titled “Stakeholder Empowerment: Research Results on Adaptive Leadership During Change” NYKids Director Kristen C. Wilcox and Associate Professor at Russell Sage College Francesca Durand discuss findings related to leadership drawn from NYKids’ study of the pandemic’s impacts on educators throughout New York State.

NYKids team members Kristen C. Wilcox and Maria I. Khan presented findings from an ongoing research study at the Comparative and International Education Society. The presentation, entitled “Improving Educational Equity through Research-Practice Partnerships & University-School Collaborations in the Post-Pandemic Era,” explores the research-practice partnership between NYKids, Chatham Central School District, and Tech Valley High School. This work is also being conducted with the support of the American Institutes for Research.