@article{89205cc2f01a4980a0bac06f6a71f2e6,
title = "The effect of school closures on standardised student test outcomes",
abstract = "The school closures owing to the 2020 COVID-19 crisis resulted in a significant disruption of education provision, leading to fears of learning losses and of an increase in educational inequality. This article evaluates the effects of school closures based on standardised tests in the last year of primary school in the Dutch-speaking Flemish region of Belgium. Using a 6-year panel, we find that students of the 2020 cohort experienced significant learning losses in three out of five tested subjects, with a decrease in school averages of mathematics scores of 0.17 standard deviations and Dutch scores (reading, writing, language) of 0.19 standard deviations as compared to previous cohorts. This finding holds when accounting for school characteristics, standardised tests in Grade 4 and school fixed effects. Given the large observed effect sizes, the effect of school closures appears to be a combination of lost learning progress and learning loss. Moreover, we observe that inequality both within schools and across schools rises by 7% for mathematics and 8% for Dutch. The learning losses are correlated with observed school characteristics, as schools with a more disadvantaged student population experience larger learning losses.",
keywords = "COVID-19, school closures, learning losses, standardised tests",
author = "Maldonado, {Joana Elisa} and {De Witte}, Kristof",
note = "Funding Information: The data for this study is protected by a confidentiality agreement and we are precluded from sharing the data with others. The authors received funding from the Flemish Science Organisation (Grant No. S000617N). The authors declare that they have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this article. Funding Information: We would like to thank Marijke De Meyst, Maarten Penninckx, Jerissa de Bilde, Anton Derks, Steven Groenez, Bieke De Fraine, Pieter Vos, Johan Geets, Teun Pauls, Andr? Decoster, Geraint Johnes, Tommaso Agasisti, Jan Van Damme, Rianne Janssen, Dirk Van Damme, Luka Boeskens, William Thorn, Bastian Betthauser, Per Engzell, Arun Frey, Mark Verhagen, Dieter Verhaest and Diego Gambetta, participants of the OECD Education and Skills Forum, participants of the Flemish Ministry of Education Seminar, the Flemish Education Inspectorate, Flemish Parliament, Dutch Education Inspectorate, participants of the ICFES Seminar 2020, participants of the KU Leuven Centre of Educational Effectiveness and Evaluation Seminar, participants of the University of South Florida Economics Seminar, participants of the ECSR Spring School on The Impact of Covid-19 on Social Inequality and participants of the ULB Workshop on Political Economics for their valuable comments and suggestions. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 British Educational Research Association.",
year = "2022",
month = feb,
doi = "10.1002/berj.3754",
language = "English",
volume = "48",
pages = "49--94",
journal = "British Educational Research Journal",
issn = "0141-1926",
publisher = "Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group",
number = "1",
}