Date
8-6-2025
Department
School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)
Chair
Breck Perry
Keywords
Abraham Maslow, COVID-19, Education, Hierarchy of Needs, Virtual and Remote Learning
Disciplines
Education
Recommended Citation
Ratliff, Cody Ryan, "The Influence of School Closing Mandates on Student Performance During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7274.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7274
Abstract
The purpose of this embedded single case study was to describe the lack of student needs support during the COVID-19 pandemic for parents of middle school students at a county board of education in West Virginia. (Chiwona et al., 2020; Devereux et al., 2020; Dunn et al., 2020). The theory guiding this study was Abraham Maslow’s (1943) theory on the hierarchy of needs, which demonstrated an impact on student performance. This qualitative single-case study utilized an embedded approach. The central research question this study aimed to answer was to describe how a lack of necessary resources affected students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample for this study was selected using a purposeful sampling method. Fourteen participants were chosen for this study. The data collection methods utilized in this study were individual interviews, focus groups, and a letter-writing prompt. The data was analyzed using Saldaña’s (2021) first- and second-order coding methods to show themes describing the time the participants lived during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data from this study revealed themes of anxiety, isolation, and inconsistencies.
