For my Final Project, I chose to focus on the inequity in education that became apparent with the shift to eLearning amid the pandemic. Students from low income households may not be able to afford access to the internet and devices that allow them to have a robust eLearning experience.

Additionally, BIPOC experienced the highest unemployment rates during the pandemic as well as the highest death rates. Both of these factors have been proven to have detrimental effects on children and their remote learning experience. Even parents that have jobs often cannot afford childcare to enforce that their child is getting their coursework done.

Although eLearning provided a flexible remote experience, it only benefited more privileged students while low income and BIPOC students fell behind. Reading and math grades slipped at the highest rates among BIPOC students.

“For example, in math, Latino third graders performed 17 percentile points lower in spring 2021 compared with the typical achievement of Latino third graders in the spring of 2019. The decline was 15 percentile points for Black students, compared with similar students in the past, and 14 for Native students, according to the NWEA report.” (NYTimes)

There is so much more to learn and only time will tell what lasting impacts eLearning will have and on which students.