Analyzing The COVID-19 Effects on Education Quality with Arizona Class Sizes

COVID-19 impacted various aspects of public post-secondary education, yet there is a lack of both mixed evaluation of that impact in Arizona high schools. According to Arizona State Senator Christine Marsh, there is currently no disaggregated data for Arizona high school class sizes that excludes special education classes and includes virtual or hybrid classrooms. This study aims to collect and analyze data on class sizes, student-teacher ratios, and per-pupil revenue to test how the coronavirus pandemic has afflicted education quality in Arizona high schools. For methods, we will utilize both mixed data regarding educational funding from databases from the AZ Department of Education. We predict our results to demonstrate that these rising class sizes, student-teacher ratios and per-pupil revenue costs will decrease the quality of education in Arizona high schools. This analysis allows for other possible determinants to be identified as covariates of educational quality in order for a more effective and safe learning environment for students amidst the pandemic. We hypothesize that we will find an inverse relationship between student-to-teacher ratios and school funding within public high schools of Arizona due to factors induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, as faculty performance and teacher quality decline