The Los Angeles Unified School District welcomed back students for the upcoming academic year. The nation’s second largest school district faces an uncertain future in the wake of COVID-19 school shutdowns, decreasing enrollment and increased resentment toward educators. USC education policy and standards experts comment on the current status of K-12 education and some of the issues facing schools across the country.

Julie A. Marsh, Professor of Education Policy, University of Southern California

“In looking at seven different school districts across California during the first 14 months of the pandemic, one clear trend emerged. Despite them being quite different in a lot of respects, people from across these districts responded in very similar ways during the early pandemic period. They all talked about early coping strategies of addressing the students and families’ hierarchy of needs. People also started realizing the real trauma that some families had been facing, and the kind of exhaustion teachers were facing as well. Our cases further showed that relationships with key stakeholders – community, labor, and leadership – mattered greatly for district responses.

“But even the best of relationships couldn’t overcome a broader set of challenges and infrastructure limitations that strained districts in their ability to respond. They couldn’t overcome the fact there were certain areas that simply did not have WiFi access. They could try to provide hotspots, but they really needed higher-level action to ensure universal access, and also health and human services and housing.

“Finally, the kind of polarization that we saw emerge out of the early phases of the pandemic points to the need for building broader support for public education. How do we ensure that we have better information, more civil discourse in our meetings and our board meetings? The state, county agencies, and state associations could play a role in providing targeted support for districts to counter the ugly politics and disinformation that’s out there.”

Morgan Polikoff, Associate Professor of Education, University of Southern California

“As LAUSD students get back to school, educators have to continue the hard work of addressing the negative effects of the pandemic on kids. By all accounts these negative effects have been steeper for students who were already underserved by our schools: low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities. And these effects have been directly related to the length of school closures and to students’ ongoing attendance issues. By far the biggest priority has to be getting children back to school in person and keeping their attendance up.

“The district needs to talk to families and figure out what is driving persistent absenteeism and work to break down barriers to good attendance. At the same time, the district needs to support teachers to use high-quality curriculum materials and other resources to address students’ lost learning opportunities.”