Low-performing students were more affected by closures in mathematics while high-performing students were more affected in reading, and low-performing students benefited more from systematic online learning¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · quant-synthesisr2·q3
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? Low-performing students were more affected by school closures in mathematics, while high-performing students were more affected in reading (Schult et al., 2021). → Hammerstein Svenja 2021
q3 i? Low-performing students benefited more from systematic online-learning methods than high-performing students (Clark et al., 2020; Spitzer and Musslick, 2021). → Hammerstein Svenja 2021 (2)
Evidence¶
Hammerstein Svenja 2021¶
Hammerstein Svenja, König Christoph, Dreisörner Thomas, Frey Andreas. (2021). Effects of COVID-19-Related School Closures on Student Achievement-A Systematic Review. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.746289
q3 · i? · quant-synthesis · r2
Review synthesis of differential effects, reporting the subject-by-achievement-level contrast from the German change-score study (Schult et al., ~80,000 secondary students). Table 1 notes larger effects on reading in high-performing students and on mathematics in low-performing students; no effect size is printed for this contrast.
"Third, low-performing students were more affected by COVID-19-related school closures in mathematics, while high-performing students were more affected by COVID-19-related school closures in reading (Schult et al., 2021)."
Hammerstein Svenja 2021 (2)¶
Hammerstein Svenja, König Christoph, Dreisörner Thomas, Frey Andreas. (2021). Effects of COVID-19-Related School Closures on Student Achievement-A Systematic Review. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.746289
q3 · i? · quant-synthesis · r2
Review synthesis citing the Chinese DiD study (Clark et al.) and the German online mathematics software study (Spitzer and Musslick, >2,500 students, −2.43% error rate). The review explains this by low-performing students being less distracted at home and online programs adapting assignments individually; no effect size is printed for this differential.
"Finally, low-performing students benefited more from systematic online-learning methods (Clark et al., 2020; Spitzer and Musslick, 2021)."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Children from low-SES families were more negatively affected by COVID-19 school closures than children from high-SES families — related
- Younger children were more negatively affected by COVID-19 school closures than older children (−0.37 SD vs. −0.10 SD) — related
- Studies in which students used familiar online-learning software reported positive achievement effects during school closures — related
- Median achievement losses from spring 2020 school closures were similar for mathematics (−0.10 SD) and reading (−0.09 SD), though individual studies found subject-specific differences — related
- LA usage in K–12 mathematics has a generally positive effect on student learning, with high-performing students benefiting most — related
- COVID-19-related school closures in spring 2020 had a negative overall effect on student achievement (median −0.08 SD across eleven studies) — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
covid-closures-achieving-level-differential-effects |
title |
Low-performing students were more affected by closures in mathematics while high-performing students were more affected in reading, and low-performing students benefited more from systematic online learning |
description |
Low-performing students were more affected by closures in mathematics while high-performing students were more affected in reading, and low-performing students benefited more from systematic online learning |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2021 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-15 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
2 — hammerstein-svenja-2021, hammerstein-svenja-2021-2 |
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