Abstract
Significance School closures have been a common tool in the battle against COVID-19. Yet, their costs and benefits remain insufficiently known. We use a natural experiment that occurred as national examinations in The Netherlands took place before and after lockdown to evaluate the impact of school closures on students’ learning. The Netherlands is interesting as a “best-case” scenario, with a short lockdown, equitable school funding, and world-leading rates of broadband access. Despite favorable conditions, we find that students made little or no progress while learning from home. Learning loss was most pronounced among students from disadvantaged homes.
Keywords
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)PandemicDemographyDemographic economicsSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)Mathematics educationPsychologyMedicineEconomicsSociology
MeSH Terms
COVID-19ChildFemaleHumansLearningMaleNetherlandsPandemicsQuarantineSARS-CoV-2Schools
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Publication Info
- Year
- 2021
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 118
- Issue
- 17
- Citations
- 1476
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Per Engzell,
Arun Frey,
Mark D. Verhagen
(2021).
Learning loss due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, 118
(17)
.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2022376118
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.2022376118
- PMID
- 33827987
- PMCID
- PMC8092566