Distance learning instructional minutes under COVID-19

EAB researchers searched publicly available studies and articles on best practices for allocating age-appropriate distance learning instructional minutes and report an absence of robust research literature on this topic. While we did find related studies that discuss optimal video length in distance learning—such as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study How Video Production Affects Student Engagement—we did not find studies that discuss how to differentiate overall instructional time among grade levels in distance learning. To that end, our research shifted to investigate how educational institutions—including multiple school districts—have adjusted their instructional minute allocations as they shift to distance learning.