The pandemic magnified an irrefutable truth: student well-being and academic performance are wholly intertwined. In the wake of a year-long odyssey that closed down schools, forced students online, and limited in-person social interactions, school communities now face the daunting task of playing catch up on the road to academic recovery. Schools cannot address academic recovery without addressing modern life skills, and schools cannot address modern life skills without acknowledging social media and technology’s pervasive influence. Moving forward, the intersection of student well-being with social media and technology and the subsequent impact on academic performance demands a reimagined focus for educators.
This report includes:
- The latest research measuring COVID’s impact on lost learning
- Evidence-based factors contributing to a rise in faculty fatigue and burnout
- Systemic factors contributing to the ineffective teaching of modern life skills
- Social media and technology’s growing role in student well-being
- Details on unprecedented federal relief for K-12 schools
- Solutions for addressing well-being for students and teachers
Today’s students face unprecedented challenges and pressures not understood or experienced by any previous generation. That’s why schools confronting post-pandemic realities must account for teaching life skills that reflects modern student experiences. This is how they can do it.