Description
Using a large dataset from around 300,000 Dutch primary students from about 1300 schools, we analyse the effect of school closures on growth in proficiency rates of standardized tests for arithmetics, reading and spelling in Dutch primary education. Using rich (social) background information on both the students and the school, we analyse differential effects by SES of the student, and by different school level variables. We find that the school closures have a negative effect on percentage growth in proficiency score for arithmetics, reading and spelling, and a composite score of these three. This implies that students on average had 15 percent lower growth during the school closures than the years before, corresponding to about 6 weeks of school. These negative effects are in line with what previous studies have found using similar Dutch data. The negative effect of school closures is larger for students from a low and average SES than for students from a high SES. Students that attend schools with a higher share of first-generation immigrants, a higher share of second-generation immigrants and a higher share of students with low-educated parents are more negatively affected by the school closures than students at schools with lower shares. When studying possible interaction effects between student SES and school characteristics, we find that average SES students in schools with many first-generation immigrants and schools with many students with low educated parents are affected more negatively by the school closures than low-SES students.| Period | 9 Jan 2022 |
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| Event title | AEA-ASSA Virtual Meeting 2022 |
| Event type | Conference |
| Degree of Recognition | International |