Learning from Outliers: Identifying and Learning from Alabama High Schools with Exceptional Learning Resiliency

This study examines how some schools in highly challenging environments avoided learning loss—or even improved—during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using an explanatory mixed-methods research design, we first analyzed statewide administrative data to identify schools that demonstrated exceptional post-pandemic learning resiliency. Quantitative models incorporating multiple levels of school, health, and environmental data explained relatively little variation in resiliency outcomes, with district fixed effects accounting for a large share of the observed differences. To better understand these unexplained patterns, the second phase of the study involved qualitative fieldwork in four high schools identified as positive outliers. Interviews, observations, and document analysis revealed several organizational practices common across these schools, including strong relational continuity between schools and communities, visible and engaged leadership, sustained teacher collaboration, and structured routines for addressing attendance and learning loss. These findings suggest that stronger-than-expected academic recovery was not driven by prevailing demographic trends or new instructional programs, but rather by the mobilization of existing organizational assets that supported student engagement before and after the pandemic.