Too Difficult a Task? Principals’ Commitment to Sustaining Academic Standards during Distance Learning and the Role of Disadvantaged Contexts

Abstract

During the COVID-19-related distance learning in 2020, it was assumed that sustaining academic learning would be particularly challenging for schools serving disadvantaged communities (SSDC). One effect may be that educators at SSDC lowered their standards, and thus students had fewer learning opportunities during distance learning. Using quantitative data from Austria, we analyzed principals’ commitment to sustaining academic learning during distance learning. The data showed that principals were less likely to be committed to that goal the more disadvantaged their students were. This was affected by their expectation toward students’ ability to learn as well as organizational factors of the schools.