Using educational transitions to estimate learning loss due to COVID-19 school closures: The case of Complementary Basic Education in Ghana

Learning loss is expected for millions of children who have been out of school as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, it is uncertain how much learning will be lost and how wide the gaps may be for disadvantaged children. This paper uses a unique longitudinal dataset to estimate learning loss during a three-month transition from Complementary Basic Education to government schools in Ghana. Our results show an average learning loss of 66 % of previous learning gains in foundational numeracy during this transition period. More importantly, we estimate widening gaps in learning loss according to lack of home learning support, as well as lack of home learning resources. Our results have implications for the provision of learning activities and support at home, not just during current school closures due to COVID-19, but also during transitions between academic years.     

School closures and effective in-person learning during COVID-19

We document large temporal and geographical discrepancies among prominent trackers that measure in-person, hybrid, and remote schooling in the U.S. during COVID-19. We then propose a new measure of effective in-person learning (EIPL) that combines information on schooling modes with cell phone data on school visits and estimate it for a large, representative sample of U.S. public and private schools. The EIPL measure, which we make publicly available, resolves the discrepancies across trackers and is more suitable for many quantitative questions. Consistent with other studies, we find that a school’s share of non-white students and pre-pandemic grades and size are associated with less in-person learning during the 2020–21 school year. Notably, we also find that EIPL was lower for schools in more affluent and educated localities with higher pre-pandemic spending and more emergency funding per student. These results are in large part accounted for by systematic regional differences, in particular political preferences.     

Potential effects of COVID-19 school closures on foundational skills and Country responses for mitigating learning loss

This article investigates to what extent disrupted schooling and dropout affects children’s acquisition of foundational skills prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using household survey data from thirteen low- and lower-middle-income countries, we find that missing or dropping out of school is associated with lower reading and numeracy outcomes. Drawing on global surveys conducted during the pandemic, we find that countries’ remote learning responses are often inadequate to keep all children learning, avoid dropout, and mitigate the learning losses our findings predict, particularly for marginalized children and those at the pre-primary level.     

Building back better to avert a learning catastrophe: Estimating learning loss from COVID-19 school shutdowns in Africa and facilitating short-term and long-term learning recovery

We model learning losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential for cost-effective strategies to build back better. Data from Early Grade Reading Assessments in Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania, and Uganda suggest half to over a year’s worth of learning loss. In modeling losses over time, we found that learning deficits for a child in grade 3 could lead to 2.8 years of lost learning by grade 10. While COVID-19 has stymied learning, bold, learning-focused reform consistent with the literature reviewed in this paper—specifically reform on targeted instruction and structured pedagogy—could improve learning even beyond pre-COVID-19 levels.     

COVID-19 learning losses: Early grade reading in South Africa

Using three different studies on early grade reading from no-fee schools across in South Africa, this paper establishes short-term learning losses in reading for grade 2 and 4 students from under-resourced school contexts. We find that in 2020 grade 2 students lost between 57 % and 70 % of a year of learning relative to their pre-pandemic peers. Among a grade 4 sample, learning losses are estimated at between 62 % and 81 % of a year of learning. Considering that in 2020 students in the samples lost between 56 %–60 % of contact teaching days due to school closures and rotational timetabling schedules compared to a pre-pandemic year, this implies learning to schooling loss ratios in the region of 1–1.4. There is some evidence from the grade 4 sample that the reading trajectories of children benefiting more from attending school pre-pandemic – namely girls and children with stronger initial reading proficiency - are more negatively impacted. Mitigating the long-run implications of these learning losses will require a significant pivoting of the education system to ensure that instructional practices are appropriately levelled to optimise learning.     

Pressures and influences on school leaders navigating policy development during the COVID-19 pandemic

The pressures and influences experienced by school leaders as school policymakers, during the first responses to COVID-19 pandemic, made their task of interpreting, translating and implementing school guidance both difficult and stressful. During COVID-19 pandemic, school leaders faced challenges to prioritise and balance ever-changing government policy advice with the limitations of school buildings, the welfare of students and staff, and the needs of communities, a task made complicated by the methods of communication used by government. By surveying and interviewing headteachers, senior leaders and governors, this article identifies the reactions and responses of school leaders who construct and enact policy in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. The article addresses the nature of, and factors affecting, pressures school leaders feel in authoring and implementing policy. These pressures are non-trivial and increase tension in already highly stressful work. The report draws on data collected from a randomised, stratified sample of primary and secondary school leaders from across England in early June 2020, during the time of national lockdown and remote learning. Findings suggest quality, quantity and frequency of top-down communication contributed to school leader stress, while horizontal communication and collaboration between school leaders and across school communities supported leaders during rapid change. We recommend that government and the Department of Education strengthen and streamline stressful communication systems while building cooperative communities, mitigating against the challenges identified by school leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic.     

疫情折射下日本高等教育的问题与归因 ——基于线上教学的视角

新冠疫情的暴发与蔓延,迫使全球的大学都不得不转为线上教学。日本具有接近世界顶级水平 的多媒体技术,而且改革一直是近20年来日本大学教育的关键词。在此背景下,在面对突如其来的线上教 学挑战时,日本原本应该能够从容应对,但实际上面临各种问题和挑战,如著作权的限制、慕课资源的稀缺、 重科研轻教学的传统等,文部科学省的作用也仅限于政策引领。疫情促进了在线教学的发展,也暴露出了 多年改革中存在的问题。     

Coping with distance learning during COVID-19 and its impact on students' emotional experiences: Differences between students with and without special education needs

Given the almost 2-year COVID-19 school-related closure in Mexico, children and adolescents have experienced a negative impact not only on their learning, but as well as on their mental health and well-being. Although international research has shown that distant learning as a response to the COVID-19 school-related closures has severely affected students with special education needs, there is still a lack of studies conducted in Mexico. Thus, this study attempts to tackle this gap by exploring how Mexican students with and without special education needs coped with distance learning as well as its impact on their emotional experiences. A total of 293 Mexican lower secondary students participated in the study. Independent sample t-tests indicated that, in comparison with students without special needs, students with special needs coped significantly worse during distance learning as well as had higher levels of negative activation. Additionally, multiple linear regression analyses revealed that students' self-efficacy functioned as an important coping mechanism. Implications of the results, as well as further lines of research are discussed.     

Measuring learning quality in Ethiopia,India and Vietnam: from primary to secondary school effectiveness

Abstract

This paper examines the way in which learning quality has been conceptualised and measured in school effectiveness surveys conducted by Young Lives, a longitudinal study of child poverty. Primary school surveys were conducted in Vietnam in 2010–11 and Ethiopia in 2012–13, and surveys at upper-primary and secondary level were conducted in Ethiopia, India and Vietnam in 2016–17. The paper discusses the design of cognitive tests to assess Maths and reading at primary level, and then focuses on the development of cognitive tests to assess Maths, functional English and transferable skills at upper-primary and secondary level. In particular, the paper explores how learning quality can be conceptualised and measured in relation to ‘twenty-first century skills’, which are increasingly seen as an important outcome of secondary education. The challenges of designing cognitive tests to measure and compare learning quality across three diverse country contexts are also explored.     

印度初等教育普及计划（SSA）对弱势群体教育公平的促进及面临的难题*

印度初等教育普及计划也称SSA计划,是印度政府开展的旨在推动小学教育义务教育普及和质量提高的运动。这场运动同样将促进弱势群体教育公平作为主要目标之一。为此,SSA计划采取了建立临时教育机构、实施女童特殊教育计划、实行全纳教育、推行反歧视行动细则等措施来弥合印度存在的性别上以及不同社会阶层的教育差距。十年来,SSA计划在入学人数的提高、性别差距以及基础设施的改善等方面取得了一定的成绩,但是,社会阶层、城乡和地区的教育差距状况依然严峻。总体而言,弱势群体整体的教育状况并没有得到改善,辍学率高、教育质量低依旧是弱势群体两大难题。     

新冠肺炎疫情下高校大学生政治信任状况分析研究

新冠疫情在较短的时间里迅速蔓延世界各地,如何形成有效治理机制成为各国首要任务。相比西方国家,我国在党中央的指导下,协调各方部门、组织,极短的时间内控制住了疫情,彰显出了我国体制的优势,推动了内地高校大学生增强我国政治信任度。本文选取内地高校大学生为研究对象,采用多元回归方法分析新冠肺炎疫情下大学生政治信任现状以及影响大学生政治信任“分殊化”的主要因素,发现内地高校大学生对各级政府政治信任度呈现“差序格局”现象,对政治信任三个主要标的物的信任程度排列为:对政治制度信任程度>对政府机构信任程度>对政府工作人员信任程度,以此提出增强新时代大学生政治信任的路径选择。     

A comparative analysis of a game-based mobile learning model in low-socioeconomic communities of India

This study explores the effectiveness of a game-based mobile learning model for children living in underdeveloped regions with significant contextual variations. Data for this study came from a total of 210 children between the ages of 6-14 years old from six marginalized communities in India. The findings reveal that children with little or no previous exposure to technology were able to not only figure out the given mobile learning technology, but also solve a series of incrementally challenging problems by playing math games without specific intervention or instruction by adults. The study also found that various factors, including gender and group size, do affect children's ability to adopt and learn while presenting a unique set of learning interaction patterns. This paper concludes with specific recommendations for future ICT4D (Information and Communication Technology for Development) projects for educational development particularly targeting developing regions.     

全民战“疫”与教育改革

全民战疫是国力与疫力的较量。国力是人力和财力以及科技水平等的有机结合。经过多年改革并快速发展的我国教育为国力提供了坚实基础。不过,战疫中遇到的困难客观上对我国教育提出了新的诉求,这更加焕发了我国教育本已具有的改革热情。通过拓展教育内容、优化教学思想与方法等,我国教育会更好地肩负起育人强国历史使命。     

Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste: Large-Scale Assessment and the Response to COVID-19

In early spring 2020 the vast majority of US colleges and schools closed for the year due to COVID-19 with no clear direction on when or how these institutions will reopen for in-person instruction. School closures and the associated health concerns haulted large scale admissions testing and required alternative models such as remote proctoring at home, additional flexibility in test sites and administrative conditions, and additional testing dates for the fall. It is clear that access to admissions testing has been greatly reduced despite these efforts resulting in extended deadlines in graduate admissions and the wide-scale adoption of test-optional polcies in undergraduate admissions. This paper traces the efforts undertaken by admissions testing programs to adapt to COVID-19 and the measurement issues which emerge from these efforts.     

Modelling the long-run learning impact of the Covid-19 learning shock: Actions to (more than) mitigate loss

This paper uses a calibrated “pedagogical production function” model to estimate the potential long-term losses to children’s learning from the temporary shock of Covid-19 related school closures. It then models possible gains from two mitigation strategies. Without mitigation, children could lose more than a full year’s worth of learning from a three-month school closure because they will be behind the curriculum when they re-enter school and will fall further behind as time goes on. Remediation when children return to school reduces the long-term learning loss by half, but still leaves children more than half a year behind where they would have been with no shock. Remediation combined with long-term reorientation of curriculum to align with children’s learning levels fully mitigates the long-term learning loss due to the shock and surpasses the learning in the counterfactual of no shock by more than a full year’s worth of learning. Systems need to begin planning now for remediation programmes, and as they do so they should build programmes and train teachers in ways that can continue to produce benefits beyond the period immediately following reopening.     

非医学类高校防控新冠疫情措施的探析

新型冠状病毒是一种新发现的传染性很强的病毒,病毒的潜伏期长,全球存在很多被感染后的无症状者和复阳者。高校人员集中、生源广泛、学生活动范围大、普遍实行寄宿制、大班教学等特点,加之非医学类高校对健康教育及基础医疗知识的普及和实践不够重视,学生在面对突发公共卫生事件时缺乏基本的防控意识和自救、互救能力。因此这类院校更要积极做好新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情的防控。根据目前非医学类高校在突发公共卫生事件防控方面存在的问题,结合新冠病毒的感染、传播特点,从设立长效应急队伍或机构、制定行之有效地防控和应急预案,在落实师生健康教育课程、监测预警、建设医疗应急队伍和及时进行疫后心理疏导等方面提出了对策和建议。