Learning Loss during the Pandemic: A Round Up of Recent Work

Learning Loss during the Pandemic: A Round Up of Recent Work | (News and Research 341)

Unequal Learning Loss: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Influenced the Academic Growth of Learners at the Tails of the Achievement Distribution | Peters, Langi, Kuhfeld, Lewis |The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial unfinished learning for U.S. students, but to differing degrees for various subgroups. For example, students of color, from low-income families, or who attended high-poverty schools experienced greater unfinished learning. This study examines the degree of unfinished learning for students who went into the pandemic scoring in the top or bottom 10% in the math or reading achievement distributions. The results show that students who scored at or below the 10th percentile grew less during the pandemic than their similarly-scoring, pre-COVID peers and, as of the end of the 2021 – 2021 school year, had yet to rebound toward pre-COVID levels of growth or achievement. Conversely, students who scored at or above the 90th percentile largely grew at rates closer to their pre-COVID peers. These students were harmed less academically and have recovered more quickly than their peers scoring at or below 10th percentile.

World-class no more: This global reading test highlights the damage of Ontario’s school closures | Bennett | Canada’s reputed “world-class” school system has recently suffered another indignity. When the global results of the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) assessment were released in May 2023, Canada was nowhere to be found on the rankings and Ontario registered an “incomplete.” That matters because it is the most widely recognized assessment of international literacy standards comparing the reading ability of nine and 10-year-olds in 57 states, covering 43 different countries.

Less Academic Progress Overall, Student and Teacher Strain, and Implications for the Future | GAO | Compared to a typical school year, teachers reported that more of their students started the 2020-21 school year behind and made less academic progress, according to GAO’s generalizable survey of K-12 public school teachers. Teachers also reported that many students ended the year behind grade level expectations (see figure). Educators and parents also shared their insights and experiences about student struggles and learning loss during the year.

The Economic Cost Of The Pandemic: State By State | Hanushek | The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows the significant impact of the pandemic on learning. The abstract nature of test score declines, however, often obscures the huge economic impact of these learning losses. NAEP results indicate large differences in learning losses across states, and this analysis provides state-by-state estimates of the economic impacts of the losses. Students on average face 2-9 percent lower lifetime incomes depending on the state in which they live. By virtue of the lower skilled future workforce, the states themselves are estimated to face a GDP that is 0.6 to 2.9 percent lower each year for the remainder of the 21st Century compared to the learning expectations derived from pre-pandemic years. The present value of future losses for states depends directly on the size of each state’s economy. At the extreme, California is estimated to have lost $1.2 trillion dollars because of learning losses during the pandemic. The losses are permanent unless a state’s schools can get better than pre-pandemic levels. 

Exacerbated Inequalities: the Learning Loss from COVID-19 in Italy | Carlana, La Ferrara, Lopez | This paper focuses on learning losses experienced by middle schoolers in Italy, analyzing differential impacts by students’ socioeconomic status (SES), gender, and immigration status. Italy was one of the first countries to close schools in March 2020 and students were offered exclusively remote instruction until the end of the school year (around 14 weeks). Using administrative data on the universe of 8^th graders, the achievement for two cohorts is compared: one that graduated middle school in 2019 and one in 2021. There is an average learning loss of 0.14 SD in math and 0.05 SD in reading for 8th grade students in 2021 compared to 8th grade students in 2019.

Learning during the Pandemic: Evidence from Uzbekistan | Iqbal, Patrinos | School closures induced by the COVID-19 pandemic led to concerns about student learning. This paper evaluates the effect of school closures on student learning in Uzbekistan, using a unique dataset that allows assessing change in learning over time. The findings show that test scores in math for grade 5 students improved over time by 0.29 standard deviation despite school closures. The outcomes among students who were assessed in 2019 improved by an average of 0.72 standard deviation over the next two years, slightly lower than the expected growth of 0.80 standard deviation. The paper explores the reasons for no learning loss.

Reduced in-person learning in COVID-19 widens student achievement gaps in schools | Shin, An, Oh | This study aims to examine the impact of reduced in-person learning during COVID-19 on students’ academic achievement gaps focusing on rural–urban and in-school disparities. To this end, first, we investigated the regional disparity of student performance between Seoul and Gangwon, representative areas of urban and rural regions in South Korea, using t test analysis. Second, we conducted a regression analysis to analyze how the number of in-school days is associated with the student performance gap by controlling the regions. Our findings from the two analyses can be summarized as follows: First, we observed a difference in patterns between the two regions. In Seoul, student performance was polarized at the two ends of the grade spectrum, whereas in Gangwon Province, achievement declined overall between pre- and post-COVID-19. Second, in the case of Seoul, the proportion of mid-range achievement students decreased after COVID-19, whereas in Gangwon Province, COVID-19 did not have a significant effect on students’ B, C, and D grades. Third, regardless of region, more in-person learning was associated with a higher portion of mid-range grades. Based on the findings, we suggested several policy implementations to cope with student performance gaps, which can facilitate the governmental response to nationwide crises that may emerge in the future.

Socioeconomic disparities in the reopening of schools during the pandemic in Chile | Kuzmanic et al | The COVID-19 pandemic produced the most significant disruption in education in history. More than 190 countries suspended in-person instruction, affecting an estimated 1.6 billion students. The reopening of schools has been unequal. Schools in more affluent areas reopened sooner than poorer ones, exacerbating preexisting inequalities. There is limited research about the reopening processes in Latin America, where schools were closed for extended periods. Using a rich administrative dataset, the gaps in the resumption of in-person instruction in Chilean schools across socioeconomic groups in the fall of 2021 is examined. Schools with lower socioeconomic status were significantly less likely to offer in-person instruction. Disparities in reopening decisions were associated with administrative factors rather than economic or local epidemiological conditions.

COVID Brief: School Closures and Learning Loss Connected Worldwide, New Report Shows | Yahoo News | “Patrinos looks at 11 factors potentially increasing or mitigating learning loss, which is defined using test score data via country-specific …

School Closures and Learning Loss Connected Worldwide, New Report Shows | The 74 | “Patrinos finds that each additional week of school closure increased learning loss by a further 1% of a standard deviation.

**********

ECA Talk Returns to Education Turns 50 on March 29, 2023, Event Replay. Watch the discussion from earlier this week reassessing progress made on measuring the benefits of education 50 years after the publication of George Psacharopoulos’ pivotal study Returns to Education. Timestamps for remarks and panel discussions during the event replay are marked under the Agenda tab.

Submit a Manuscript to the Journal Education Economics for a Special Issue on the 50th Anniversary of the Returns to Education: An International Comparison | Manuscript deadline: 31 October 2023 | Special Issue Editor: Harry Patrinos, World Bank | Submit An Article | This year is the 50th anniversary of the publication of the book, Returns to Education: An International Comparison, by George Psacharopoulos (assisted by Keith Hinchliffe). Education Economics is publishing a special issue to mark this occasion and the contributions of Professor Psacharopoulos. The focus of this special issue is research on the returns to education. Research on international comparisons and /or  returns to education in less developed economies are especially welcome.