Developmental psychologist Margarita Azmitia is worried about the disproportionate impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on low-income families, children, and people of color. In addition to experiencing higher rates of COVID-19 infection and death, the most vulnerable among us are losing ground in schooling, learning, and development, according to Azmitia and the coauthors of a new policy brief aimed at lawmakers.
Last fall, Azmitia responded to a call to participate in a "rapid response" network to brief legislators on issues related to families, children, adolescents, and communities. Initially convened to address the impacts of deportation and immigrant detention policies, the group pivoted to incorporate the challenges posed by the pandemic. The latest of eight short policy briefs, "Mitigating the Implications of Coronavirus Pandemic on Families," has just been published.
"I saw this as a chance to work with other scholars who were trying to influence federal and state policies that were increasing the vulnerabilities of essential worker families and people of color," said Azmitia, a member of the steering committee of the Latinx Caucus of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). "I especially wanted to do something to try to make a difference for everyday people."
Concerned with how the crisis might increase the "opportunity gap" between low-income and middle- and upper-income students and families, Azmitia dug into the academic literature, followed the news, and provided feedback on drafts of the briefs, which were published every three weeks over the past few months. She helped write the last brief, which is focused on families.
"Gaps in performance have widened during the pandemic, so teachers will have a tremendous job in fall to bring kids up to speed," said Azmitia. "There are already summer losses in learning; now they have been compounded by winter and spring losses."
The pace of the outbreak left schools and universities struggling to meet the challenge of remote teaching as schools and campuses closed from coast to coast.
As the authors of the policy brief wrote, "The emergence of COVID-19 is not just a reminder of the digital divide in our community; it also highlights the inequities in accessing technology and online educational resources. School closures have disproportionately affected rural and ethnic minority families, placing these youths’ futures at risk."
Although some communities, including Santa Cruz, distributed laptops to students, that didn't ensure that students could learn, noted Azmitia. "Not all students, or teachers, have access to reliable internet or devices," she said. "Students with learning differences or whose parents don't have much schooling have been especially affected. Overall, students dislike distance learning, and motivation has declined."
Among the recommendations included in the policy brief are providing tech support to students who are learning remotely, extending free "hotspots" that provide internet access, leveraging public libraries to help with remote education, supporting students with disabilities and learning differences, and prioritizing closing the "learning gap" when the pandemic subsides.
School closures and shelter-in-place orders are having additional impacts, Azmitia noted: "Families aren't used to spending so much time together and are more irritable, so another scary issue is that domestic abuse has increased."
The pandemic's effects are overwhelming, she said.
"I fear that the gains that people living in poverty and their children have made in the last decades are being erased by school closures, loss of employment, food insecurity, and homelessness," she said. "The reality is that the problems are cascading on people that were already vulnerable, economies that were already failing, and to get out of this mess we need good leadership and funds, which are absent at the federal level."
Community-building during the pandemic
Closer to home, Azmitia is seeing some of the educational challenges play out in her "Adolescent Development" course this quarter, a large class with more than 150 students.
Many of her students are struggling and trying to learn in difficult circumstances. "They had to unexpectedly return home, and for several of my students, a closet or a bathroom is the only place where they have quiet space," she said, adding that "internet woes" abound, particularly for those who share space with other students who have classes at the same time. Attendance is below normal, students' capacity to focus is strained during Zoom lectures, and students are missing deadlines, despite repeated reminders, she said.
"I have gotten a lot of emails from students who are anxious or depressed or providing significant care to siblings or parents, or grandparents, who are ill," said Azmitia.
At the same time, Azmitia is hearing about creative problem solving. Students have found that learning in their cars near places that have good wi-fi, like McDonald's, is a good strategy. She is also seeing students help each other during lectures by providing resources and explanations in chat boxes, and the tone of students' emails to her and her teaching assistant are more polite than usual. "They ask how we are and share their challenges," she said, adding that some come to Zoom office hours just to chat for a few minutes and let her know how they are doing.
"So there is a sense of caring for each other that I only experience in my smaller senior seminar or graduate classes," she said. "In general, I think we are coping by being compassionate and caring, and students are coping by being honest and humble with their requests."
