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Achievement Gaps in the Wake of COVID-19

A survey targeting education researchers conducted in November, 2020 provides both short- and longer-term predictions of how much achievement gaps between low- and high-income students in U.S elementary schools will change as a result of COVID-related disruptions to schooling and family life. Relative to a pre-COVID achievement gap of 1.00 SD, respondents’ median forecasts for increases in achievement gaps in elementary school by spring, 2021 were very large – from 1.00 to 1.30 and 1.25 SD, respectively, for math and reading. Researchers forecast only small reductions in gaps between spring 2021 and 2022. Although forecasts were heterogeneous, almost all respondents predicted that gaps would grow during the pandemic and would not return to pre-pandemic levels in the following school year. We discuss some implications of these predictions for strategies to reduce learning gaps exacerbated by the pandemic as well as the mental models researchers appear to employ in making their predictions.

Keywords
forecasting, COVID-19, achievement
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/y7pp-sa02

EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:

Bailey, Drew H., Greg J. Duncan, Richard J. Murnane, and Natalie Au Yeung. (). Achievement Gaps in the Wake of COVID-19. (EdWorkingPaper: 21-346). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/y7pp-sa02

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