Study Limitations

Because of the small study size (47 people), these findings cannot be generalized to the entire student body. The sample was also limited in its demographic range; as a mostly white and female sample, it is not reflective of the Silberman student body. Because this study was conducted during the COVID-19 crisis, recruitment was conducted mostly online through email and by posting on a school Facebook group. This recruitment design may have excluded those without high-speed connections or who are not members of the Facebook group. Additionally, the unprecedented nature of the pandemic presents challenges that continue to compound and drastically evolve day to day. The timeline of when the study was conducted may be limited in addressing challenges and areas of need that continue to develop. There was also a limited ability to draw conclusions about the impact of Silberman’s response on student experiences because this was not explicitly asked about. Students did free-write in their concerns about Silberman when given the option, which suggests that this was a larger issue than we originally anticipated.