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Did students learn less during the COVID-19 pandemic? Reading and mathematics competencies before and after the first pandemic wave
Published version of a preprint
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted classes in spring 2020. Temporary school closures supposedly led to a considerable learning loss, particularly for low-achieving students. Teachers faced challenges of remote learning environments. Students spent less time learning. The present study investigates the competencies of fifth graders in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, using large-scale assessments in reading and mathematics from annual mandatory tests in September (each n > 80,000). Competence scores were slightly lower in 2020 (after 2 months of school closures) compared with the three previous years (–0.07 SD for reading comprehension, –0.09 for operations, and –0.03 for numbers). Regarding mathematics, low-achieving students seem to have a learning backlog that deserves attention in future education. School characteristics such as the average sociocultural capital and the proportion of students with a migration background played a minor role in mediating the schools’ learning loss. Still, lower sociocultural capital was positively associated with larger learning loss in mathematics.
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“In operations and numbers, students at the 5th and 25th percentiles of initial achievement showed the greatest negative difference in score between the COVID and pre-COVID samples.”
From Unequal Learning Loss: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Influenced the Academic Growth of Learners at the Tails of the Achievement Distribution (2025) · cites this paper as Schult et al. (2022)
In the citing paper
“the 5th percentile group scored 28 points lower and the 95th percentile group scored 11 points higher than their pre-COVID peers”
From Unequal Learning Loss: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Influenced the Academic Growth of Learners at the Tails of the Achievement Distribution (2025) · cites this paper as Schult et al. (2022)
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Metadata
- Authors
- Schult, J., Mahler, N., Fauth, B., & Lindner, M. A.
- Affiliations
- Institute for Educational Analysis Baden-Württemberg (IBBW), Stuttgart, Germany
- University of Tübingen (DE)
- Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Schult, Johannes
- Venue
- School Effectiveness and School Improvement
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2022-04-11
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 544-563
- ISSN
- 0924-3453 (ISSN-L)
- 1744-5124
- OpenAlex
- W4225792954
- Cited by
- 262
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 37 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 71 · 2022: 48
- FWCI
- 107.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- School Effectiveness and School Improvement (publishedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Education during COVID-19 pandemic
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, learning loss, school closures, distance education, reading comprehension, mathematical ability, fifth grade students, low-achieving students, socio-cultural capital, migration background, school characteristics, large-scale assessment, Baden-Württemberg
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