2021 NAEP School and Teacher Questionnaire Special Study

In March and April 2021, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) surveyed a sample of school administrators and teachers about ways education was provided and supported during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This report addresses the following:

  1. What support did schools provide for distance learning?
    Half or more schools in most participating states and districts provided digital devices to all students for the 2020–21 school year.
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  2. How did schools and teachers support students to address gaps in learning that may have occurred because of school closures?
    More than 50 percent of teachers in most states and districts in the study used diagnostic assessments monthly to evaluate gaps.
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  3. How confident were teachers in facing the challenges of distance learning?
    Ninety percent or more of teachers in most states and districts in the study indicated confidence in conducting distance-learning lessons.
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  4. About the 2021 NAEP School and Teacher Questionnaire Special Study
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The findings in this report are limited to states/jurisdictions and districts that agreed to participate in the study and met reporting standards. Sections I–III present school and/or teacher percentages for selected survey responses in participating states/jurisdictions and districts with reportable results. Significance tests are not performed on response percentages, and states/jurisdictions and districts are not compared to one another. However, state/jurisdiction response percentages are compared to the median state percentage for each variable. Section IV provides details about this study, including information about state and district participation and criteria for reportable results.

Thirty-three states/jurisdictions and seven large urban districts participated in this study. While national results cannot be provided, school responses are reportable for 29 states/jurisdictions and six large urban districts at grade 4, and for 27 states/jurisdictions and five large urban districts at grade 8. Teacher responses are reportable for 30 states/jurisdictions and six large urban districts at grade 4, and for 30 states/jurisdictions and five large urban districts at grade 8. Throughout this report, states/jurisdictions are simply referred to as “states.”

This report describes just some of the efforts schools and teachers made during a period of widespread academic disruption. Activities during this disruption may have varied between schools, and between and within participating states and districts. Factors outside of the schools may have also influenced activities. The study data can be explored further in the NAEP Data Explorer.

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I. What Support Did Schools Provide for Distance Learning?

This section highlights some of the ways that schools supported their students and teachers for distance learning. For the 2020–21 school year, half or more schools in most participating states and districts provided digital devices to all students. Likewise, half or more schools in many states and districts in the study worked with internet providers to get students connected at home, trained teachers and staff, and adapted existing curriculum for distance learning. Training for students and/or their parents or guardians on the use of digital devices was less prevalent.

Also described are the ways that schools supported their students and teachers when schools closed in the 2019–20 school year.

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II. How Did Schools and Teachers Support Students To Address Gaps in Learning That May Have Occurred Because of School Closures?

School administrators were asked about modifications to their school year and teachers were asked about what measures they took during the 2020–21 school year to address gaps in learning that may have occurred because of school closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This section highlights a few of these measures.

There was a wide range across participating states and districts in the percentages of schools that reported providing additional programs or classes. Teacher responses for the use of diagnostic assessment were similar for both grades and across participating states and districts; however, teacher responses for providing daily individualized support to students varied between grades 4 and 8.

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III. How Confident Were Teachers in Facing the Challenges of Distance Learning?

Teachers were asked to indicate their degree of confidence when teaching in a distance-learning format during the 2020–21 school year. Results suggest that by the 2020–21 school year, teachers felt confident in their skills for teaching and interacting with students in a distance-learning environment. (Note that these results reflect teachers’ confidence in their own ability to teach, not their confidence in students’ distance learning.)

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IV. About the 2021 NAEP School and Teacher Questionnaire Special Study

In the spring of 2020, many schools across the United States closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shifted to teaching their students through distance learning for the remainder of the 2019–20 school year. By the 2020–21 school year, schools and teachers were continuing to operate under uncertainty, with ongoing concerns about whether and how to open schools to in-person instruction; how to deliver education and support students in a distance-learning environment; and how to address potential learning gaps due to pandemic-related school closures. These issues were the basis for the 2021 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) School and Teacher Questionnaire Special Study. All states/jurisdictions and Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) districts were invited to take part in the study, which was conducted from March 2021 to April 2021. Thirty-three states/jurisdictions and seven large urban districts agreed to participate.

Content of the 2021 NAEP School and Teacher Questionnaires

NAEP is a congressionally mandated project administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education. It is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what our nation’s students know and can do in select subjects at grades 4, 8, and 12.

Although the 2021 NAEP mathematics and reading assessments at grades 4 and 8 were postponed, NCES leveraged the online NAEP survey questionnaires for the School and Teacher Questionnaire Special Study to collect information from school administrators and teachers about how they were meeting the academic challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19–related questions were added to the NAEP school and teacher questionnaires that had been administered as part of the 2019 mathematics and reading assessments at grades 4 and 8.

Reporting Results

This report summarizes selected COVID-19 survey findings from the 2021 NAEP school and teacher questionnaires for participating states and districts with reportable results. Results are based on a survey sample consisting of teachers and schools that serve fourth- and eighth-grade students in participating states and districts. The report primarily presents state and district percentages of teachers and/or state and district percentages of schools for certain response categories of the survey questions. Results are reported separately for each grade.

State and district results are reportable for school survey questions when the participation rate for sampled schools is 70 percent or higher. Additionally, state and district results are reportable for teacher survey questions when the percentage of schools that agreed to let their teachers be contacted to complete the questionnaire and the percentage of teachers in the participating schools that responded to the questionnaire are both 70 percent or higher.

A total of 33 states/jurisdictions and seven large urban districts participated in this study. Based on the percentage criteria noted above, school survey responses are reportable for 29 states and six large urban districts at grade 4, and for 27 states and five large urban districts at grade 8. Teacher survey responses are reportable for 30 states and six large urban districts at grade 4, and for 30 states and five large urban districts at grade 8. School and teacher responses for private schools did not meet the response rate standard, so they are not included in the report.

Because 20 states out of 53 states/jurisdictions declined to participate in this study, including two large states (New York and Florida), and because some participating states did not meet the percentage criteria for reportable results (e.g., California, Iowa, and South Carolina at grade 4), the resulting aggregate of participating states is not representative of the nation. Therefore, accurate and unbiased estimates of school and teacher questionnaire results at the national level would likely be misleading and are not reported for this study.

The survey questionnaire variables highlighted in this report are just a few of many variables available in the full 2021 NAEP School and Teacher Questionnaire dataset. Significance tests are not performed on response percentages, and states/jurisdictions and districts are not compared to one another in this report. However, state/jurisdiction response percentages are compared to the median state percentage for each variable. The study data can be explored and analyzed further via the NAEP Data Explorer. State- and district-level data are available for schools and teachers at grades 4 and 8, and for mathematics teachers and reading teachers at grade 8.

Technical details about the 2021 NAEP School and Teacher Questionnaire Special Study, including information about sampling, weighting, and data collection, are available in the Technical Documentation PDF.