RAPID: Investigating the Impact of Hurricanes and School Responses on Students in Texas and North Carolina

在一场重大自然灾害之后，学龄儿童的生活和心理受到的影响比成年人更大。然而，关于自然灾害对学校学生机能影响的研究很少，对学校和地区反应的研究就更少了。这一快速反应研究(RAPID)项目是一项独特的努力，旨在收集不同学区的数据，这些学区受到2017年8月哈维飓风和2016年10月马修飓风的不同程度影响。该项目将使人们了解学校目前采用的灾后恢复战略，以及学校和学区工作人员对其有效性的判断。这项研究还将提供对开展更大规模的研究至关重要的数据，以了解飓风对学生学校功能的影响以及灾难恢复在减轻这种影响方面的作用。该项目将对德克萨斯州和北卡罗来纳州受飓风影响严重的20个区的学校、学区和州政府机构的人员进行访谈、焦点小组和调查。这项拟议的研究将寻求解决的研究问题是：(1)风暴有什么影响？(2)学校如何回应对学生的支持？以及(3)这些回应有多成功？研究人员将对德克萨斯州和北卡罗来纳州的学校、学区和州政府机构的人员进行90-100次访谈和20个焦点小组，以收集有关飓风的影响以及学校和学区层面采取的救援工作类型的数据。研究小组将使用恒定比较法对定性数据进行分类和比较，分配代码，并开发数据中发现的后续主题。编码主题将涉及(1)飓风对学生和学校的影响(例如，学校遭到物理破坏、无家可归的学生和心理困扰)，(2)学校的反应和提供的支持，以及(3)被认为是恢复工作的成功和联邦、州和地方机构的支持。研究人员将使用这些代码来识别和比较不同级别的政府和各州的主题。同样，研究人员将使用指示学校人口统计数据的代码来确定学校层面的主题。此外，研究小组将使用代码来识别和统计跨站点使用各种策略的情况。在北卡罗来纳州，研究人员将对10个区的学校人员进行封闭式调查，以收集人们对飓风马修一年后复苏成功缓解学生影响的看法。调查数据将与学校和地区层面的人口统计数据、所服务的年级水平和社区特征相结合。此外，定性分析的数据将被用来创建分类变量，根据对学生和学校的影响类型(例如，对学校的物理破坏)以及学校对学生的反应和向学生提供的支持(例如，提供咨询服务)，对地区和地区内的个别学校进行分组。研究团队将使用比例的z检验、卡方检验和多元回归模型来描述性地比较不同人口统计数据、社区特征、年级跨度、影响以及应对和支持策略的学校和地区之间对学生的感知影响和感知的恢复努力的成功。德克萨斯州和北卡罗来纳州的研究人员将讨论这些发现，并利用合并后的结果生成科学出版物和政策报告，为未来的灾难规划和恢复提供信息。

In the wake of a significant natural disaster, schoolchildren experience substantial disruption to their lives and psychological impacts at greater rates than adults do. However, studies of the effect of natural disasters on students' functioning in schools are rare and studies of the responses of schools and districts are even rarer. This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project is a unique effort to collect data across diverse school districts with varied degrees of impacts from Hurricane Harvey in August 2017 and Hurricane Matthew in October 2016. The project will provide an understanding of the current strategies employed by schools for disaster recovery and their effectiveness as judged by school and district personnel. This study will also provide data that is critical to the pursuit of the larger study to understand the impact of hurricanes on the school functioning of students and the role of disaster recovery in mitigating that impact.The project will conduct interviews, focus groups, and surveys with personnel from schools, districts, and state agencies in a sample of 20 districts in Texas and North Carolina that were heavily impacted by the hurricanes. The research questions the proposed study will seek to address are: (1) What impacts did the storms have? (2) How did schools respond to support students? and (3) How successful were those responses? The researchers will conduct 90-100 interviews and 20 focus groups with personnel from schools, districts, and state agencies in Texas and North Carolina to collect data on the effects of the hurricanes and the types of relief efforts undertaken at the school and district level. The research team will use the Constant Comparative Method to categorize and compare qualitative data, to assign codes and to develop subsequent themes found in the data. Coded themes will be related to (1) impacts of the hurricanes on students and schools (e.g., physical destruction of the schools, homeless students, and psychological distress), (2) school responses and supports provided, and (3) the perceived success of the recovery efforts and support from federal, state, and local agencies. Researchers will use the codes to identify and compare themes across different levels of government and across states. Similarly, researchers will use codes indicating school demographics to identify themes at the school level. Additionally, the research team will use codes to identify and tally the use of various strategies across sites. In North Carolina, researchers will administer closed-ended surveys to school personnel in 10 districts to collect perceptions of the success of the recovery in mitigating effects on students one-year after Hurricane Matthew. Survey data will be combined with school and district level data on demographics, grade levels served, and community characteristics. Also, data from the qualitative analysis will be used to create categorical variables to group districts and individual schools within districts by the types of impacts on students and schools (e.g., physical destruction of the school) and the school response and supports provided to students (e.g., provision of counseling services). The research team will use z-tests of proportions, chi-squared tests, and multivariate regression models to descriptively compare the perceived impacts on students and perceived success of the recovery efforts across schools and districts with different demographics, community characteristics, grade spans, impacts, and response and support strategies. Researchers in Texas and North Carolina will discuss findings and use the combined results to generate scientific publications and policy reports that can inform future disaster planning and recovery.