Covid-19 and Inequality between Low- and High-Achieving Students

If school closures and social-distancing experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic impeded the development of children’s cognitive and socio-emotional skills, they may leave a lasting legacy in human capital. The available evidence suggests that unless remediated, the school closures will persistently reduce skill development, lifetime income, and economic growth and increase inequality. 

Low-achieving students may be particularly affected by the lack of educator support during school closures. Based on detailed time-use information, we find that while students on average reduced their daily learning time of 7.4 hours by about half, the reduction was significantly larger for low-achievers (4.1 hours) than for high-achievers (3.7 hours). Low-achievers disproportionately replaced learning time with detrimental activities such as TV or computer games rather than with activities more conducive to child development. The learning gap was not compensated by parents or schools who provided less support for low-achieving students. 

Here you can find a short non-technical overview on this topic. 

Research papers: 

The Legacy of Covid-19 in Education (with K. Werner). Economic Policy 38 (115): 609-668, 2023 [tweet1] [tweet2] [more on Covid]

COVID-19 and Educational Inequality: How School Closures Affect Low- and High-Achieving Students (with E. Grewenig, P. Lergetporer, K. Werner, and L. Zierow). European Economic Review 140: 103920, 2021 [tweet] [video]

Non-technical contributions:  

COVID-19 and Pupils’ Learning (with K. Werner). In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023

Will the Covid-19 Pandemic Leave a Lasting Legacy in Children’s Skill Development? (with K. Werner). CESifo Forum 22 (6): 33-40, 2021

COVID-19 School Closures Hit Low-achieving Students Particularly Hard (with E. Grewenig, P. Lergetporer, K. Werner, and L. Zierow). VoxEU.org, 15.11.2020

Costs of Past and Future Learning Losses (with E.A. Hanushek). Education Next Blog, 10.9.2020

Report on the economic impacts of learning losses:

The Economic Impacts of Learning Losses (with E.A. Hanushek). Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2020 [video]

Newspaper articles:

Return to In-person Schooling as Quickly as Possible. foreignpolicy.com, 5.9.2020

Students Have Already Been Saddled with Economic Losses from School Closures (with E.A. Hanushek). The Hill, 10.9.2020

Material available only in German

Non-technical contributions:

Die Situation der Schulkinder während der Schulschließungen in der Pandemie: Ergebnisse zweier Elternbefragungen (with L. Zierow). Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht 68 (4): 297-305, 2021

Bildung in der Coronakrise: Wie haben die Schulkinder die Zeit der Schulschließungen verbracht, und welche Bildungsmaßnahmen befürworten die Deutschen? (with V. Freundl, E. Grewenig, P. Lergetporer, K. Werner, and L. Zierow). ifo Schnelldienst 73 (9): 25-39, 2020

Folgekosten ausbleibenden Lernens: Was wir über die Corona-bedingten Schulschließungen aus der Forschung lernen können. ifo Schnelldienst 73 (6): 38-44, 2020

Newspaper article:

Schulen auf? Schulen zu? Wirtschaftswoche, 15.1.2021, pp. 42-43