Closure-duration losses are larger for boys and immigrant students: boys' overall loss equals girls' at about 40 weeks of full closures, and immigrants' equals natives' at about 25 weeks¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Boys initially lost less than girls and immigrant students less than natives, but each additional week of closures eroded these advantages (0.15–0.17 points/week for boys; 0.33 points/week for immigrants). → Maciej Jakubowski 2025

Evidence¶

Maciej Jakubowski 2025¶

Maciej Jakubowski, Tomasz Gajderowicz & Harry Anthony Patrinos. (2025). COVID-19, school closures, and student learning outcomes. New global evidence from PISA. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-025-00297-3

q2 · i? · associational · r3

Models with separate time trends and group interactions by gender and immigrant background (Supplementary Table 4). The article reports boys' loss "is the same as for girls" at around 40 weeks of full closures, with 0.17 or 0.15 points of additional weekly decline for boys.

"Students with an immigrant background lost 0.33 points with every week of full school closures and while in countries with shorter closures their learning loss was smaller, for countries with around 25 weeks of closures their learning loss is equal to that for natives, but it increases for longer closures."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Gender — moderator: an instructional effect differs by group
• Time and Continuity — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• COVID-19-related school closures in spring 2020 had a negative overall effect on student achievement (median −0.08 SD across eleven studies) — related
• Covid-19 school closures depressed student achievement on average by about 0.19 standard deviations — related
• Learning losses increase with the length of school closures, from 9–12% SD in shortest-closure countries to 17–23% SD in longest-closure countries — related
• Each week of full school closure is associated with an additional 0.44-point decline in mathematics achievement — related