Lived Experiences of Boston Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic

PI: Yasuko Kanno, Associate Professor, Language and Literacy Education, BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
Co-PI: Jonathan Zaff, Research Professor, Applied Human Development; Director, CERES Institute for Children & Youth, BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development

While the COVID pandemic has disrupted the education of all U.S. youth, it has disproportionately impacted racially and linguistically minoritized youth. Within the Boston Public Schools, the latest report shows that 30% of Black students and 31% of Latinx students are chronically absent compared with 12% of White students. Similarly, 30% of English Learners (ELs) are chronically absent compared with 25% of native-English-speaking students. These numbers are devastating. The pandemic’s disproportionate impact on minoritized students and the pervasive educational inequities that it has exposed are so patently clear that the expression, “The pandemic has shone a spotlight on existing inequities,” has become a cliche.

Anecdotally, Kanno and Zaff hear that young people are juggling work and familial responsibilities; they are facing loss, isolation, and mental health challenges; overwhelming barriers stand in their way of pursuing an education. However, there has been surprisingly little systematic assessment of how young people are navigating through life during the pandemic and the barriers they face to engage fully in their education. They know from their previous youth-centered research that anecdotes fail to tell the full story. In their systematic and rigorous research with disconnected youth, they heard a different, strength-based narrative from youth who had left high school without graduating.

Through exploring the lived experiences of Black and Latinx high school students and English learners (ELs) in Boston who have stopped attending school or are tenuously engaged with school during the pandemic, Kanno and Zaff will be able to share insights with education and youth development leaders in Boston. These insights will inform their strategic planning efforts and aid in their collective goal of supporting young people of color and ELs once schools re-open fully in the fall; providing educational and other life supports that can be more personalized to each young person’s needs.

The intention for this project is to provide information to BPS leadership and the leadership of youth-focused CBOs to inform their efforts to re-engage youth with substantive, personalized educational opportunities and prepare for these youth for the fall. Once data collection and analyses are complete, Kanno and Zaff will conduct briefings with BPS leadership and the leadership from partner CBOs. The briefings will be supported by a white paper that will be posted to the CERES Institute website. In addition, they will leverage CERES Institute’s and BU Wheelock’s social media properties to promote the findings and the need to attend to the authentic lived experience of youth.

Publications

Kanno, Y., David, N., Chen, H., Mullens, I., & Zaff, J. (2022). I Miss The Sound of Our Bells: Massachusetts High School Students Reflect on Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic . BU Ceres Institute for Children & Youth.
Report.

See more of our 2021 Early Stage Urban Research Award recipients