@techreport{c66c3e697c8d4f2898988ae7b4a37b4c,
title = "A full year COVID-19 crisis with interrupted learning and two school closures: The effects on learning growth and inequality in primary education",
abstract = "After more than a year of COVID-19 crisis and the school closures that followed all around the world, the concerns about lower learning growth and exacerbated inequalities are larger than ever. In this paper, we use unique data to analyse how one full year of COVID-19 crisis in Dutch primary education has affected learning growth and pre-existing inequalities. We draw on a dataset that includes around 330,000 Dutch primary school students from about 1,600 schools, with standardized test scores for reading, spelling and mathematics, as well as rich (family) background information of the students. The results show a lower learning growth over a full year for all three domains, varying from 0.06 standard deviations for spelling to 0.12 for maths and 0.17 standard deviations for reading. Furthermore, we find that the lower learning growth is (much) larger for vulnerable students with a low socioeconomic background. This implies that pre-existing inequalities between students from different backgrounds have increased. These results are quite alarming and suggest that distance learning could not compensate for classroom teaching, although it prevented some damage that would have occurred if students had not enjoyed any formal education at all.",
keywords = "school closures, Covid-19 crisis, learning growth, inequality, socioeconomic status (SES), family situation, primary education",
author = "Carla Haelermans and Madelon Jacobs and {van Vugt}, Lynn and Bas Aarts and Henry Abbink and Chayenne Smeets and {van der Velden}, Rolf and {van Wetten}, Sanne",
year = "2021",
month = nov,
day = "9",
doi = "10.31219/osf.io/78fje",
language = "English",
series = "ROA External Reports",
publisher = "Center for Open Science",
address = "United States",
type = "WorkingPaper",
institution = "Center for Open Science",
}