TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ludewig, Ulrich
A1  - Kleinkorres, Ruben
A1  - Schaufelberger, Rahim
A1  - Schlitter, Theresa
A1  - Lorenz, Ramona
A1  - König, Christoph
A1  - Frey, Andreas
A1  - McElvany, Nele
T1  - COVID-19 pandemic and student reading achievement: findings from a school panel study
T2  - Frontiers in psychology
N2  - Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on education worldwide. There is increased discussion of possible negative effects on students’ learning outcomes and the need for targeted support. We examined fourth graders’ reading achievement based on a school panel study, representative on the student level, with N = 111 elementary schools in Germany (total: N = 4,290 students, age: 9–10 years). The students were tested with the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study instruments in 2016 and 2021. The analysis focused on (1) total average differences in reading achievement between 2016 and 2021, (2) average differences controlling for student composition, and (3) changes in achievement gaps between student subgroups (i.e., immigration background, socio-cultural capital, and gender). The methodological approach met international standards for the analysis of large-scale assessments (i.e., multiple multi-level imputation, plausible values, and clustered mixed-effect regression). The results showed a substantial decline in mean reading achievement. The decline corresponds to one-third of a year of learning, even after controlling for changes in student composition. We found no statistically significant changes of achievement gaps between student subgroups, despite numerical tendencies toward a widening of achievement gaps between students with and without immigration background. It is likely that this sharp achievement decline was related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are discussed in terms of further research needs, practical implications for educating current student cohorts, and educational policy decisions regarding actions in crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
KW  - reading comprehension
KW  - reading achievement
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - elementary school
KW  - achievement gaps
KW  - large-scale assessment
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/71955
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-719555
SN  - 1664-1078
N1  - The study was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the German federal states (KMK).
N1  - The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because publication restrictions apply until the end of 2022. When available, the datasets will be available here: https://www.fdz-bildung.de/home.
VL  - 13
IS  - art. 876485
SP  - 1
EP  - 15
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -