The rollout of remote teaching in New Jersey during the COVID-19 pandemic was haphazard, under-resourced, inequitably delivered, contributed to student and teacher stress and may exacerbate digital and social inequality, according to a Rutgers study. By analyzing responses from structured interviews with a sample of 21 K-12 public school teachers, the researchers found students in lower-income school districts experienced inequities in online teaching and learning opportunities, compared with students in middle-income and wealthier districts. The open-access study was published in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. “While the pandemic created challenging emergency remote teaching conditions for students across income backets, teachers from lower-income districts reported more challenges in students’ consistent access to working, functioning computers, issues with networking connectivity and bandwidth, and gaps in prior student and family digital literacy needed to effectively use e-learning tools,” said Rebecca Reynolds, an associate professor in the Rutgers School of Communication and Information and lead author of the study. To read the full story.