Educators and teachers are often front-line responders with children and families in a crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic was no exception. An effect-response model with adaptation can be applied to this multi-role challenge that educators faced to educate, protect, connect, and foster the well-being mentally and otherwise for students. This evidence can be used to explore the hypothesis that educators are high-performers and functionally elevate their performance under duress to serve the public. The relative importance of teacher performance during the COVID-19 pandemic was examined using scientific synthesis tools. An effect-response-adaptation model was used to model all research, and the relative importance of various responses implemented by teachers was explored. Research gaps and opportunities to better support and enable education in future are proposed.