COVID-19 and educational inequality: How school closures affect low- and high-achieving students.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Grewenig E
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8474988 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:ObjectivesTo systematically reivew the observational evidence of the effect of school closures and school reopenings on SARS-CoV-2 community transmission.SettingSchools (including early years settings, primary schools and secondary schools).InterventionSchool closures and reopenings.Outcome measureCommunity transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (including any measure of community infections rate, hospital admissions or mortality attributed to COVID-19).MethodsOn 7 January 2021, we searched PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, the WHO Global COVID-19 Research Database, ERIC, the British Education Index, the Australian Education Index and Google, searching title and abstracts for terms related to SARS-CoV-2 AND terms related to schools or non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). We used the Cochrane Risk of Bias In Non-randomised Studies of Interventions tool to evaluate bias.ResultsWe identified 7474 articles, of which 40 were included, with data from 150 countries. Of these, 32 studies assessed school closures and 11 examined reopenings. There was substantial heterogeneity between school closure studies, with half of the studies at lower risk of bias reporting reduced community transmission by up to 60% and half reporting null findings. The majority (n=3 out of 4) of school reopening studies at lower risk of bias reported no associated increases in transmission.ConclusionsSchool closure studies were at risk of confounding and collinearity from other non-pharmacological interventions implemented around the same time as school closures, and the effectiveness of closures remains uncertain. School reopenings, in areas of low transmission and with appropriate mitigation measures, were generally not accompanied by increasing community transmission. With such varied evidence on effectiveness, and the harmful effects, policymakers should take a measured approach before implementing school closures; and should look to reopen schools in times of low transmission, with appropriate mitigation measures.
| S-EPMC8375447 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We study the effect of the temporary closure of Danish schools as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020 on students' reported levels of well-being and test whether the effect varies among students of different socioeconomic status. To this end, we draw on panel data from the mandatory annual nationwide Danish Student Well-being Survey (DSWS) and exploit random variation in whether students answered the 2020 survey before or during the spring lockdown period. This enables us to compare reported levels of student well-being for selected measures - whether students "like school" and whether they "feel lonely" - among students in grades 6-9 to their responses from previous years. We use an event-study design with individual as well as year, month, and grade fixed effects. Our results indicate, firstly, that students' well-being with respect to liking school improved during the lockdown, even if students who answered during vs. before the lockdown were not on parallel trends in terms of previous levels of reported well-being. Secondly, school closures seemed to not affect students' reported levels of loneliness. Thirdly, the spring lockdown might have had a more positive impact among students of lower socioeconomic status.
| S-EPMC8523592 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Suspension of face-to-face instruction in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to concerns about consequences for students' learning. So far, data to study this question have been limited. Here we evaluate the effect of school closures on primary school performance using exceptionally rich data from The Netherlands (n ≈ 350,000). We use the fact that national examinations took place before and after lockdown and compare progress during this period to the same period in the 3 previous years. The Netherlands underwent only a relatively short lockdown (8 wk) and features an equitable system of school funding and the world's highest rate of broadband access. Still, our results reveal a learning loss of about 3 percentile points or 0.08 standard deviations. The effect is equivalent to one-fifth of a school year, the same period that schools remained closed. Losses are up to 60% larger among students from less-educated homes, confirming worries about the uneven toll of the pandemic on children and families. Investigating mechanisms, we find that most of the effect reflects the cumulative impact of knowledge learned rather than transitory influences on the day of testing. Results remain robust when balancing on the estimated propensity of treatment and using maximum-entropy weights or with fixed-effects specifications that compare students within the same school and family. The findings imply that students made little or no progress while learning from home and suggest losses even larger in countries with weaker infrastructure or longer school closures.
| S-EPMC8092566 | biostudies-literature
Project description:By 15 April 2020, more than 1.5 billion students worldwide experienced school closures in an effort to slow the spread of a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), during the worldwide coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. These interruptions in formal in-person educational experiences caused adverse consequences on school-age children's academic outcomes. Using a pre-existing database, we calculated changes in children's reading ability without formal education (i.e., the summer months). The resultant models predicted that the rate of reading ability gain in kindergarten children during COVID-19 school closures without formal in-person education will decrease 66% (2.46 vs. 7.17 points/100 days), compared to the business-as-usual scenario, resulting in a 31% less reading ability gain from 1 January 2020 to 1 September 2020. Additionally, the model predicted that kindergarten children who have books read to them daily would have 2.3 points less loss (42%) compared to those who do not, who are predicted to have a 5.6-point loss during the same time period. Even though reading books to children will not substitute the critical role of formal education in teaching children how to read, families, educators, and policy makers can promote this simple strategy to facilitate and maintain reading ability gain during school closures, which may be a common occurrence as nations see the public health benefits of physical distancing for the current and future pandemic outbreaks.
| S-EPMC7504163 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesCOVID-19 pandemic affected majority of students worldwide because school closures were one of the first and frequently taken measures in tackling epidemic. This study analyzed trends in COVID-19 morbidity and mortality from the beginning of pandemic in Croatia, in relation to schools opening and closing.Study designRetrospective data review.MethodsData on COVID-19 positive patients in Croatia from week 9 of 2020 to week 10 of 2021 in Croatia were analyzed using joinpoint regression. Analysis also included hospitalizations and mortality trends for age groups 26 to 65 and 66+ from week 30 of 2020.ResultsSchools opened in fall after the summer holidays in week 37. Joinpoint regression analysis revealed a statistically significant increase in cumulative incidence rates of COVID-19 in all age groups until 50th week, except in the 19-25 age group which saw an increase until 49th week. During the period of increase, there were periods of moderate increases and rapid increases in incidence that were present between 39/41 week and 43/44 week in all age groups except in those 0-6 years [from 40th till 43rd week in age groups 7-14 and 15-18, average percentage change (APC) = 87.41, P = 0.035, and APC = 83.47, P = 0.013; from 39th till 43rd in 19-25, APC = 91.90, P = 0.002; from 40th till 44th in 26-65, APC = 74.79, P < 0.001; from 41st till 44th in 66+, APC = 81.95, P = 0.004]. Steeper increase in hospitalizations was seen in 40th week for age groups 26 to 65 (40th to 45th week APC = 34.67, P < 0.001) and 66+ (40th to 45th week APC = 38.76, P < 0.001). Steeper increase in mortality started in 41st week for both age groups 26 to 65 and 66+ (41st to 46th week APC = 59.59, P < 0.001 and 41st to 45th week APC = 70.28, P < 0.001). Schools were closed for winter holidays in week 51. A steep decrease occurred in week 50 for cases and in week 51 for mortality and hospitalizations. There was no significant increase in hospitalizations and mortality after schools were re-opened in week 03 of 2021 (primary schools) and week 07 (secondary schools).ConclusionCOVID-19 morbidity and mortality trends in Croatia observed in fall 2020 in Croatia perhaps cannot completely exclude potential association of school opening in all age groups. However, in winter 2021 effect was completely lacking and numbers were independent of schools' dynamics. The observed inconsistent pattern indicates that there were no association of school openings and COVID-19 morbidity and mortality trends in Croatia and that other factors were leading to increasing and decreasing numbers. This emphasizes the need to consider the introduction of other effective and less harmful measures by stakeholders, or at least to use school closures as a last resort.
| S-EPMC8328567 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ImportanceIn-person schooling has been disrupted for most school-aged youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, with low-income, Black, and Hispanic populations most likely to receive fully remote instruction. Disruptions to in-person schooling may have negatively and inequitably affected children's mental health.ObjectiveTo estimate the association between school closures and child mental health outcomes and how it varies across sociodemographic factors.Design, setting, and participantsThis cross-sectional population-based survey study included a nationally representative sample of US adults aged 18 to 64 years with at least 1 child in the household. The survey was administered between December 2 and December 21, 2020, via web and telephone in English and Spanish. Participants were recruited from the NORC AmeriSpeak panel, an address-based panel with known probability sampling and coverage of 97% of US households.ExposuresSchooling modality (in person, fully remote, or hybrid), household income, age.Main outcomes and measuresChild mental health difficulties were measured with the parent-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, with small, medium, and large effect sizes defined as 1.3-, 3.3-, and 5.2-point differences, respectively.ResultsA total of 2324 adults completed the survey. Overall, 1671 respondents (71.9%) were women, 244 (10.5%) were Black, 372 (16.0%) were Hispanic, and 421 (18.1%) had a high school education or less. Children attending school in-person had higher household incomes (mean difference, $9719; 95% CI, $4327 to $15 111; P < .001) and were more likely to be White compared with those attending remotely (366 of 556 [65.8%] vs 597 of 1340 [44.5%]; P < .001). Older children in remote schooling had more mental health difficulties than those attending in-person schooling (standardized effect size, 0.23 [95% CI, 0.07 to 0.39] per year older; P = .006), corresponding to small effect sizes in favor of in-person schooling for older children and very small effect sizes favoring remote schooling for younger children. Children from families with higher income benefitted more from attending schools in-person compared with their peers from families with lower income (B = -0.20 [95% CI, -0.10 to -0.30] per $10 000-increase in annual income; P < .001), although this advantage was not apparent for children attending hybrid school (B = -0.05 [95% CI, -0.16 to 0.06] per $10 000-increase in annual income; P = .34), and directionally lower but not significantly different for children attending remote school (B = -0.12 [95% CI, -0.04 to -0.20] per $10 000-increase in annual income; P < .001). Learning pods fully buffered the associations of hybrid schooling (d = -0.25; 95% CI, -0.47 to -0.04) but not remote schooling (d = 0.04; 95% CI, -0.10 to 0.18) with negative mental health outcomes.Conclusions and relevanceThe findings of this study suggest that older and Black and Hispanic children as well as those from families with lower income who attend school remotely may experience greater impairment to mental health than their younger, White, and higher-income counterparts. Ensuring that all students have access to additional educational and mental health resources must be an important public health priority, met with appropriate funding and workforce augmentation, during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
| S-EPMC8417763 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Objective To determine how COVID-19-related healthcare closures affect the health, recovery and access to resources of preoperative and postoperative orthopaedic sport medicine patients. Methods Patients whose orthopaedic restorative surgeries were postponed as well as those within 3 months postoperative completed electronic questionnaires assessing physical health, emotional health, virtual care and access to resources. The EuroQoL-five-dimensional-three level (EQ-5D-3L) was included as a quantitative and standardised measure of general health status. Data were descriptively analysed using means, SD and qualitative measures. Results A total of 115 patients whose surgeries were postponed completed the survey. Notable findings included that 41.7% of patients reported an increase in their symptoms during the COVID-19-related closures, and 68.7% described a negative impact on their physical health. Furthermore, 62.6% of patients reported that the postponement of their surgery would negatively affect their ability to return to work. A substantial percentage of patients (71.3%) reported that postponement of their surgery had an overall negative impact on their physical and/or emotional health. The mean health state on the EQ-5D-3L visual analogue scale (VAS) scale was 69.9 (SD=18.7). A total of 198 patients within 3 months postoperative completed the survey. A majority of patients (69.7%) indicated that COVID-19-related healthcare closures had an overall negative affect on their recovery. One-third of patients (35.4%) stated that they experienced increased symptoms as a direct result of limited postoperative follow-up. Less than half (41.4%) of patients accessed virtual physiotherapy, and only 42.9% of those that did found it to be helpful in some way. Virtual orthopaedic follow-up was deemed helpful by 61.3% of patients but many commented that it did not replace inperson visits. The mean health state reported on the EQ-5D-3L VAS scale was 76.9 (SD=15.6). Conclusion This study highlighted the significant impact of COVID-19-related healthcare closures on preoperative and postoperative orthopaedic sport medicine patients. It revealed that restorative procedures play an important role in maintaining physical and emotional health, as well as returning individuals to work and leisure activities. It also showed that virtual care did not adequately replace the hands-on assessments of allied care and orthopaedic specialists. Level of Evidence V.
| S-EPMC7476420 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The COVID-19 lockout situation affected people all over the world. Despite all of the disadvantages, this situation offered new experiences and perspectives and pushed education advances forward as never before. Something that seemed to be unreal became a worldwide reality within a few days. Instructors of all subjects at all educational levels moved to a virtual environment instantly. Higher education institutions, universities, and colleges seemed to be fairly prepared for this situation. Unfortunately, primary and secondary schools, especially in eastern and central Europe, never considered distance education as a valuable alternative before, so they did not have software, hardware, and staff prepared for such a situation. Moreover, students' expectations and dilemmas concerning e-learning were not investigated earlier in the context of obligatory subject education. Moving to the virtual environment was particularly challenging for teachers, who wanted to transfer real class experiences into online lessons since chemistry is based on problems, observations, evidence, and experiments. Often, teachers claimed that they could be more efficient if they had knowledge, skills, and proper equipment to run classes online. This paper presents experiences of secondary chemistry teachers from Slovakia, participants in the IT Academy Project, who earlier, within the framework of the project, were equipped with the necessary skills and tools to run virtual classes, supported with data logging experiments. In this communication, the teachers' efforts using online experimental practices are described, as well as reflections by their students about the experiences.
| S-EPMC7482317 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveThe objective of this scoping review is to provide an overview of existing studies and evidence on the impact of school closures and reopenings during the pandemic.IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated widespread school closures, and reopening schools safely has a pivotal role in the well-being of children and teachers, SARS-CoV-2 transmission control and optimal societal functioning. Widespread school closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have caused adverse effects on the education, physical health and mental well-being of children. An understanding of the impact of school closures and reopenings as well as factors influencing school safety is critical to bringing schools' operational status back to normal. Despite the implication of individual concerns and knowledge on disease prevention practices, there is a paucity of research on individual knowledge, needs and behaviours in the context of school reopenings. In the proposed study, we will conduct a scoping review to identify and provide inventory of the current research and evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on K-12 schools (primary and secondary schools) and vice versa.Methods and analysisEligible studies/literature include members of K-12 (primary and secondary) schools (students, parents, staff, faculty, COVID-19 coordinator, school nurses) in countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We will exclude university or college students. There will be no exclusion based on methods, timing or school operational status.All concepts regarding school closures and reopenings will be considered, and all types of research will be considered.This scoping review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. Sources of evidence published from 2020 to 31 October 2021 will be included. The search will include PubMed, preprints in EuropePMC, ERIC, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, PsycINFO, Embase, CINAHL and VHL. We will cover grey literature in Harvard Think Tank Database, COVID-19 Evidence Hub like COVID-END and Google Scholar. The abstract and title screening, full-text screening and data extraction will be done by two independent reviewers.Disagreements will be resolved by an independent third reviewer. Data extract will be done on Qualtrics form to ensure accurate extraction. Citation chaining will be performed on key articles identified. A critical appraisal will be performed.The scoping review will take place from 1 August 2021 to 15 November 2021. We will perform a final round of updated search and citation chaining.Ethics and disseminationThe review will be based on published works and grey literature, thus it is exempt from formal ethical approval. This protocol cannot be registered in the Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews because this registry is not for scoping reviews. We will register it in OSF Registration. The paper will appear in a peer-reviewed, open-access journal to ensure a broad dissemination.
| S-EPMC8811274 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Aim:The COVID-19 pandemic presents serious threats to global public health and the world economy. Therefore, the rapid escalation of the number of cases has led to national government and global interventions. This study aimed to assess the effect of school closures on the COVID-19 pandemic and epidemic trajectories in selected countries. Subject and methods:Information on the number of cases and population in each country were taken from official government reports. Dates of educational institutions closure were taken from the UNESCO database. Statistical analyses were performed using Statistica. We summarized the data graphically and descriptively. Results:Most of the European countries closed schools in the period of 11-20 of March 2020. However, there was a big difference in the phase of the epidemic on the day of closure. The data indicate that there was a strong correlation between the day of educational facilities closure and the incidence rate in the following days (16th, 30th, and 60th days since the 100th confirmed case in each country). Early closure of schools in analyzed countries is statistically significantly correlated with lower incidence rates further on during the different phases of the epidemic. Thereby closure of schools with delay is statistically significantly correlated with a higher incidence rate in the following days. Conclusion:The available data suggest that school closures can potentially reduce transmission during the pandemic, although more research is needed on the effectiveness of these practices.
| S-EPMC7557316 | biostudies-literature