The Politics of School Reopening During COVID-19 - A Multiple Case Study of Five Urban Districts in the 2020–21 School Year

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by acoobca

Nearly all schools in the United States closed in spring 2020 at the onset of COVID-19. The study analyzes how traditional public and charter schools reopened during the 2020–21 school year across five urban districts, explaining how and why educational leaders made reopening decisions. Data come from a multiple-case study (March 2020–July 2021) using 56 interviews, public sources, and additional parent/guardian interview data. Qualitative coding and single- and cross-case analyses show reopening shaped by public health guidance, stakeholder interests, and local political dynamics.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages52

Reading Time2 h 11 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Purpose

Research Methods

Findings

Implications

Introduction

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The Politics of School Reopening During COVID-19: A Multiple Case Study of Five Urban Districts in the 2020–21 School Year Educational Administration Quarterly 2023, Vol. 59(3) 542–593 © The Author(s) 2023 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)DOI: 10.1177/0013161X231168397 [journals.sagepub.com/home/eaq](journals.sagepub.com/home/eaq) Jeremy Singer 1 , Julie A. Marsh2, David Menefee-Libey3, Jacob Alonso2, Dwuana Bradley2, and Hanora Tracy4 Abstract Purpose: Nearly all schools in the United States closed in spring 2020, atthe onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyze traditional public and charter school reopenings for the 2020–21 school year in ﬁve urban districts. We provide a rich and theoretically grounded description of how and why educational leaders made reopening decisions in each of our case districts. Research Methods: We used data from a multiple-case study from March 2020 to July 2021. The research team conducted 56 interviews with school, district, and system-level leaders; triangulated with publicly available data; and also drew on interview data from a subsample of parents and guardians in each of our sites. We analyzed these data through qualitative coding and memo writing and conducted detailed single-and cross-case analyses. Findings: School system leaders in our case sites generally 1 Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA 2University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA 3Pomona College, Claremont, CA, USA 4Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA Corresponding Author: Jeremy Singer, Michigan State University, 620 Farm Ln \#134, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. Email: jeremylsinger@gmai[l.com](l.com) consulted public health authorities, accounted for state-level health and educational guidance, and engaged with and were responsive to the interests of different stakeholders. Districts’ adherence to and strategic uses of public health guidance, as well as a combination of union-district relations and labor market dynamics, inﬂuenced reopening. Parents, city, and state lawmakers, and local institutional conditions also played a role, helping to explain differences across cases. Implications: In contrast to the “politics or science” framing that has dominated research and public discourse on school reopening, we show that local pandemic conditions and local political dynamics both mattered and in fact were interrelated. Our ﬁndings have some implications for how educational leaders might navigate future crises. Keywords COVID-19, school reopening, school closures, educational leadership, multiple case study Introduction Nearly all schools in the United States closed and ceased in-person learning in spring 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (Grossmannet al., 2021) . For the 2020–21 school year, educational leaders needed to decide when and how to “reopen” their schools, or reintroduce in-person learning options. These decisions were politically and ethically difﬁcult, as leaders weighed the social, emotional, and academic consequences for students along with the health threat to students, parents, educators, and the community at large (Freidus & Turner, 2022) .1 So, how did educational leaders decide when and how to reopen their schools, and what factors inﬂuenced their decisions? An initial wave of research has identiﬁed how COVID-19 rates and a number of political and demographic factors are associated with reopening status. Yet the existing studies offer limited descriptions ofthe process of reopening and limited explanations for how various factors (e.g., COVID-19 rates, partisanship, union strength, demographics) led to reopening decisions (Singer, 2022) . This makes interpretations of existing ﬁndings on school reopening during the pandemic less clear and limits their usefulness for informing educational decision-making in future crises. In this study, we exam

FAQs

What is the study’s main purpose regarding school reopening during COVID-19?

To analyze how and why educational leaders in five urban districts decided to reopen traditional public and charter schools during the 2020–21 school year.

What research methods were used in the multiple-case study?

The study used multiple-case data from March 2020 to July 2021, including 56 interviews with school and district/system leaders, triangulation with publicly available data, and interviews with subsamples of parents and guardians.

Which factors influenced reopening decisions according to the findings?

Educational leaders consulted public health authorities, accounted for state guidance, and responded to stakeholders. Reopening was also influenced by adherence to public health guidance, union–district relations, labor market dynamics, and local institutional conditions.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by acoobca