The impact of COVID-19 school disruptions on children’s learning

Courtney K. Blackwell; Maxwell Mansolf; Sean C.L. Deoni; Jody M. Ganiban; Leslie D. Leve; Amy E. Margolis; Monica McGrath; Sara S. Nozadi; T. Michael O’Shea; Phillip Sherlock; Qi Zhao; Kaja Z. LeWinn

doi:10.3389/feduc.2024.1295910

The impact of COVID-19 school disruptions on children’s learning

Courtney K. Blackwell^*, Maxwell Mansolf, Sean C.L. Deoni, Jody M. Ganiban, Leslie D. Leve, Amy E. Margolis, Monica McGrath, Sara S. Nozadi, T. Michael O’Shea, Phillip Sherlock, Qi Zhao, Kaja Z. LeWinn

^*Corresponding author for this work

Medical Social Sciences

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Abstract

Introduction: National health policies to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the US resulted in widespread school closures and disrupted learning in Spring 2020. Methods: This study draws on unique individual-level data from n = 282 5–12 year olds enrolled in the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Research Program to investigate associations between caregiver-reported duration of Spring 2020 learning disruptions and academic achievement. Results: Linear regression analyses estimated that children who experienced more than 4 weeks of instruction disruptions in Spring 2020 scored 4.5 points [95% CI: −8.77, −0.22] lower on age-normed math assessments compared to peers who had four or fewer weeks of disruption, adjusting for sociodemographic variables, pre-pandemic vocabulary, and COVID-19 family hardships and stress. No differences were found for reading. Children whose caregivers had higher levels of pandemic-related traumatic stress and lower educational attainment also had lower math scores, adjusting for all other covariates. Discussion: Results suggest educators and schools focus additional attention on supporting math instruction for children who experienced extended learning disruptions.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	1295910
Journal	Frontiers in Education
Volume	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1295910
State	Published - 2024

Funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Research reported in this publication was supported by the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health, under Award Numbers U2COD023375 (Coordinating Center), U24OD023382 (Data Analysis Center, MPIs Jacobson, Catellier), U24OD023319 with co-funding from the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR; Person Reported Outcomes Core, MPIs Cella, Gershon), UH3OD023285 (PI Deoni), UH3OD023290 (PI Herbstman), UH3OD02371 (MPIs LeWinn, Zhao, Karr, Bush, Sathyanarayana), UH3OD023344 (MPIs MacKenzie, Lewis), UH3OD023389 (MPIs Leve, Ganiban, Neiderhiser), UH3OD023348 (MPIs O\u2019Shea, Fry). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Keywords

COVID-19
academic achievement
children
learning
pandemic
school closure

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education

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10.3389/feduc.2024.1295910

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title = "The impact of COVID-19 school disruptions on children{\textquoteright}s learning",

abstract = "Introduction: National health policies to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the US resulted in widespread school closures and disrupted learning in Spring 2020. Methods: This study draws on unique individual-level data from n = 282 5–12 year olds enrolled in the NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Research Program to investigate associations between caregiver-reported duration of Spring 2020 learning disruptions and academic achievement. Results: Linear regression analyses estimated that children who experienced more than 4 weeks of instruction disruptions in Spring 2020 scored 4.5 points [95% CI: −8.77, −0.22] lower on age-normed math assessments compared to peers who had four or fewer weeks of disruption, adjusting for sociodemographic variables, pre-pandemic vocabulary, and COVID-19 family hardships and stress. No differences were found for reading. Children whose caregivers had higher levels of pandemic-related traumatic stress and lower educational attainment also had lower math scores, adjusting for all other covariates. Discussion: Results suggest educators and schools focus additional attention on supporting math instruction for children who experienced extended learning disruptions.",

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PY - 2024

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The impact of COVID-19 school disruptions on children’s learning

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