This fact sheet shares key findings from a study that assessed how school climate changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Pennsylvania Department of Education’s (PDE’s) Office for Safe Schools partnered with REL Mid-Atlantic to conduct a study using data from PDE’s school climate survey. This survey, which is available on a voluntary basis to any school in the state, collects data from students, teachers, and other school staff to help a school monitor its climate. The REL study analyzed changes in scores from a pre-pandemic year (2018/19) to the 2020/21 and 2021/22 school years. The results were surprising. In a sample of Pennsylvania schools using the survey, students and teachers alike reported more positive perceptions of school climate in the 2020/21 school year, during hybrid and remote learning, compared to 2018/19 (before the pandemic) and 2021/22 (when schools had returned largely to fully in-person operation). This was an unexpected positive bump in the year in which schools experienced the most pandemic-related disruption.

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