Survey Shows In-Person Pandemic Restrictions Challenged Some Students
Montana education officials surveyed students and teachers this spring about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings aren’t representative of Montana’s student and teacher populations, but state school officials say they provide insight into the last school year.
The informal survey of roughly 4,800 students and about 850 teachers asked about everything from professional development opportunities for teachers learning how to educate via Zoom, to how often students shifted between in-person and remote learning.
Most of the responding students were in elementary or middle school, and a majority said they had good internet access while learning remotely.
Julie Murgel is Montana Office of Public Instruction’s school innovation and improvement senior manager. She says one finding that stuck out to her was that a little over half of the responding students said in-person learning was harder with masking, social distancing and other pandemic-related restrictions.
“Conditions really matter for students in terms of how they learn together. I thought that was one piece that they had indicated that it made it a little bit harder this year.”
However, in a separate question, a majority of students said they learned the same amount or even more this school year. Murgel says OPI plans to conduct more formal surveys for students and teachers but that it is unclear when and how that will happen.
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