The “Silent Epidemic” Finds Its Voice - Demystifying How Students View Engagement in Their Learning

Oct 15, 2026

McREL International research report examines how students understand and experience engagement in learning, especially under the disruptions created by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. The study centers on students as co-researchers, exploring how changes in the school community affect perceived connection, participation, and academic effort. It addresses the “Silent Epidemic” of chronic disengagement, clarifies engagement from the student perspective, and analyzes supports and barriers students report, using focus groups and student-driven research questions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages32

Reading Time1 h 21 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Defining Engagement From the Student Perspective

Supports and Barriers to Student Engagement in Learning

Student Engagement in Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Conclusion

References

Appendix: Methods

~~ ~~RESEARCH~~ ~~REPORT~~ ~~ The “Silent Epidemic” Finds Its Voice Demystifying How Students View Engagement in Their Learning Samantha E. Holquist, Jared Cetz, Santiago D. O’Neil, Dana Smiley, Laney M. Taylor, and Marisa K. Crowder The “Silent Epidemic” Finds Its Voice Demystifying How Students View Engagement in Their Learning Samantha E. Holquist, PhD, McREL International Jared Cetz, Oregon Student Voice Santiago D. O’Neil, Prichard Committee Student Voice Team Dana Smiley, Oregon Student Voice Laney M. Taylor, Prichard Committee Student Voice Team Marisa K. Crowder, PhD, McREL International © 2020, McREL International. All rights reserved. To use a portion of this document for noncommercial purposes, please cite as follows: Holquist, S. E., Cetz, J., O’Neil, S. D., Smiley, D., Taylor, L. M., & Crowder, M. K. (2020) . The “silent epidemic”finds its voice: Demystifying how students view engagement in their learning. McREL International. 20201214 Consulting students to support engagement in their learning I’m pleased to share this special McREL research report on student engagement, which is unique in several ways: It was researched and written by students supported by McREL researchers, and it is an artifact of a unique moment in modern history, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. The report arose from something we talk a lot about at McREL, curiosity (in this case, mine). How, I wondered, was student engagement—already a too-rare commodity among older students—being impacted by the shifting demands students endured between home, school, and the virtual world? If engagement is a gauge of how connected students are to the school community, what happens to it when the very nature of the community changes suddenly and fundamentally? McREL researchers Samantha Holquist and Marisa Crowder collaborated with members of student voice organizations in Oregon and Kentucky with whom they had worked previously. The student voice movement seeks to involve students in education decision-making, such as research and policy-making, so that they are full participants in education, not mere objects of adults’ decisions. “With their wealth of firsthand experiences, students should be consulted on research concerning policies and practices designed to support their learning,” according to Dr. Holquist.“We partnered with four students to write research questions, draft focus group protocols, facilitate focus groups, analyze data, and write the report. This partnership provided us with a deeper level of understanding about what may be shaping students’engagement in the school community.” Among the many eye-openers in the pages that follow, I was struck that engagement and change seemed to have an inelastic relationship: Students who were highly engaged in bricks-and-mortar school continued to be so in virtual school and vice-versa. This suggests that future research on student engagement should probably delve into the qualities of interpersonal interactions that make them succeed or fail rather than dwell on the site of the interaction. I think this team’s findings will prove valuable to future scholars and practitioners in understanding what happened to schools, and the people in them, in 2020. Bryan Goodwin, President & CEO McREL International [www.mcrel.org](www.mcrel.org) TABLE OF CONTENTS 01 13 18 21 23 Introduction Defining Engagement From the Student Perspective Supports and Barriers to Student Engagement in Learning Student Engagement in Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic Conclusion References Appendix: Methods Introduction Approximately 40 to 60 percent of America’s high school students are chronically disengaged (i.e., inattentive, exert little to no effort, do not complete tasks, and claim to be bored; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, 2004). Disengagement is so widespread that it has been labeled the Silent Epidemic (Bridgeland et al., 2006) . Students

FAQs

What is the “Silent Epidemic” discussed in the report?

The report describes widespread chronic disengagement among U.S. high school students, characterized by inattention, low effort, incomplete work, and claims of boredom, and it links disengagement to misbehavior and dropping out.

How does the report investigate student engagement during COVID-19?

It examines how students’ engagement shifts when the school community changes between home, school, and the virtual world, using student voice collaborations, focus groups, and data analysis.

What relationship does the report find between engagement and schooling environments?

Students who were highly engaged in in-person schooling tended to remain engaged in virtual school, and vice versa, suggesting engagement is influenced by qualities of interpersonal interactions more than the interaction site.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Alex Sinclair