Article Notice – Pandemic Schooling Mode and Student Test Scores: Evidence from US School Districts

The second of two articles that scrolled across my electronic desk over the past few days.

Pandemic Schooling Mode and Student Test Scores: Evidence from US School Districts

• • June 2023
  • American Economic Review Insights 5(2):173-190

• DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20210748

• Rebecca Jack
• Clare Halloran
• James Okun
• Emily Oster

Abstract – We estimate the impact of district-level schooling mode (in-person versus hybrid or virtual learning) in the 2020–2021 school year on students’ pass rates on standardized tests in grades 3–8 across 11 states. Pass rates declined from 2019 to 2021: an average of 12.8 percentage points in math and 6.8 in English language arts (ELA). Focusing on within-state, within–commuting zone variation in schooling mode, we estimate that districts with full in-person learning had significantly smaller declines (13.4 pp in math, 8.3 in ELA). The value to in-person learning was larger for districts with larger populations of Black students. (JEL H75, I12, I18, I21, I28, J15)