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The impact of COVID-19 on student learning in New South Wales primary schools: an empirical study
The COVID-19 pandemic produced widespread disruption to schooling, impacting 90% of the world’s students and moving entire school systems to remote and online learning. In the state of New South Wales, Australia, most students engaged in learning from home for at least eight weeks, with subsequent i...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Springer Netherlands
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7952260/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33727761 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13384-021-00436-w |
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author | Gore, Jennifer Fray, Leanne Miller, Andrew Harris, Jess Taggart, Wendy |
author_facet | Gore, Jennifer Fray, Leanne Miller, Andrew Harris, Jess Taggart, Wendy |
author_sort | Gore, Jennifer |
collection | PubMed |
description | The COVID-19 pandemic produced widespread disruption to schooling, impacting 90% of the world’s students and moving entire school systems to remote and online learning. In the state of New South Wales, Australia, most students engaged in learning from home for at least eight weeks, with subsequent individual and intermittent school closures. However, while numerous claims have circulated in the popular media and in think tank reports, internationally, about the negative impacts on learning, there is limited empirical evidence of decreased student achievement. Drawing on data from more than 4800 Year 3 and 4 students from 113 NSW government schools, this paper compares student achievement during 2019 and 2020 in a sample of matched schools to examine the effects of the system-wide disruption. Somewhat surprisingly, our analysis found no significant differences between 2019 and 2020 in student achievement growth as measured by progressive achievement tests in mathematics or reading. A more nuanced picture emerges when the sample is examined by dis/advantage (ICSEA) and Year level. The Year 3 cohort in the least advantaged schools (ICSEA < 950) achieved 2 months less growth in mathematics, while the Year 3 students in mid-ICSEA schools (950–1050) achieved 2 months’ additional growth. No significant differences were identified for Indigenous students or students located in regional locations. These results provide an important counter-narrative to widespread speculation about alarming levels of ‘learning loss’ for all students. While the lower achievement growth in mathematics for Year 3 students in lower ICSEA schools must be addressed as a matter of urgency to avoid further inequities, most students are, academically, where they are expected to be. Our findings are a testament to the dedicated work of teachers during the 2020 pandemic to ensure that learning for most students was not compromised, despite unusually trying circumstances. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7952260 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Springer Netherlands |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-79522602021-03-12 The impact of COVID-19 on student learning in New South Wales primary schools: an empirical study Gore, Jennifer Fray, Leanne Miller, Andrew Harris, Jess Taggart, Wendy Aust Educ Res Article The COVID-19 pandemic produced widespread disruption to schooling, impacting 90% of the world’s students and moving entire school systems to remote and online learning. In the state of New South Wales, Australia, most students engaged in learning from home for at least eight weeks, with subsequent individual and intermittent school closures. However, while numerous claims have circulated in the popular media and in think tank reports, internationally, about the negative impacts on learning, there is limited empirical evidence of decreased student achievement. Drawing on data from more than 4800 Year 3 and 4 students from 113 NSW government schools, this paper compares student achievement during 2019 and 2020 in a sample of matched schools to examine the effects of the system-wide disruption. Somewhat surprisingly, our analysis found no significant differences between 2019 and 2020 in student achievement growth as measured by progressive achievement tests in mathematics or reading. A more nuanced picture emerges when the sample is examined by dis/advantage (ICSEA) and Year level. The Year 3 cohort in the least advantaged schools (ICSEA < 950) achieved 2 months less growth in mathematics, while the Year 3 students in mid-ICSEA schools (950–1050) achieved 2 months’ additional growth. No significant differences were identified for Indigenous students or students located in regional locations. These results provide an important counter-narrative to widespread speculation about alarming levels of ‘learning loss’ for all students. While the lower achievement growth in mathematics for Year 3 students in lower ICSEA schools must be addressed as a matter of urgency to avoid further inequities, most students are, academically, where they are expected to be. Our findings are a testament to the dedicated work of teachers during the 2020 pandemic to ensure that learning for most students was not compromised, despite unusually trying circumstances. Springer Netherlands 2021-03-12 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC7952260/ /pubmed/33727761 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13384-021-00436-w Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Gore, Jennifer Fray, Leanne Miller, Andrew Harris, Jess Taggart, Wendy The impact of COVID-19 on student learning in New South Wales primary schools: an empirical study |
title | The impact of COVID-19 on student learning in New South Wales primary schools: an empirical study |
title_full | The impact of COVID-19 on student learning in New South Wales primary schools: an empirical study |
title_fullStr | The impact of COVID-19 on student learning in New South Wales primary schools: an empirical study |
title_full_unstemmed | The impact of COVID-19 on student learning in New South Wales primary schools: an empirical study |
title_short | The impact of COVID-19 on student learning in New South Wales primary schools: an empirical study |
title_sort | impact of covid-19 on student learning in new south wales primary schools: an empirical study |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7952260/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33727761 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13384-021-00436-w |
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