Socio-economic inequality in learning increased during the pandemic for most estimates, across subjects, grades and pandemic stages¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesis r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2028: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i? A large majority of estimates indicate an increase in educational inequality between children from different socio-economic backgrounds, in both maths and reading, across primary and secondary education and at each stage of the pandemic. → Bastian A. Betthäuser 2023

Evidence¶

Bastian A. Betthäuser 2023¶

Bastian A. Betthäuser, Anders M. Bach-Mortensen & Per Engzell. (2023). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence on learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01506-4

q3 · i? · quant-synthesis · r3

Harvest plot synthesis (Fig. 5) of 211 estimates of over-time change in inequality, coded as decrease/no change/increase because differing socio-economic measures precluded pooling. Most estimates fall in the increase category across all subgroupings.

"A large majority of estimates indicate an increase in educational inequality between children from different socio-economic backgrounds. This holds for both maths and reading, across primary and secondary education, at each stage of the pandemic, and independently of how socio-economic background is measured."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• No evidence that COVID-19 learning deficits differ between primary and secondary students — related
• Inequality within schools increased after the 2020 school closures, with the Gini coefficient rising by 17% for mathematics and 20% for Dutch — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Remote learning exacerbated pre-pandemic disparities in no-credit grades for low-income students and students of color in grades 4-8, but within-school differences were small — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
• On average, students across most grades made reading and math gains during the 2020-21 pandemic-affected school year — related
• Within-family fixed-effects analysis estimates the learning-loss gap between educational backgrounds at 60% — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Pandemic-era findings support the theory that COVID-19 left students behind academically across the board while worsening existing educational inequities — a broader claim this one bears on
• Little attention has been paid to the undesirable consequences of indiscriminate AI application, including automation-driven socio-economic inequality — related
• Children from low-SES families were more negatively affected by COVID-19 school closures than children from high-SES families — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Estimated Covid-19 learning deficits are more pronounced in studies using experimental/quasi-experimental designs than in descriptive or correlational studies — related
• Teaching and learning conditions did not statistically significantly explain cross-national differences in the pandemic-related widening of the socio-economic performance gap — related
• COVID-19 widened the socio-economic performance gap on average, deteriorating more among disadvantaged students, significantly in mathematics and science — related