The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted regular classes in spring 2020. Temporary school closures supposedly led to a considerable learning loss, particularly for low-achieving students. Schools in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, were closed for two months. Although distance learning was implemented, students spent less time learning. Additionally, teachers were faced with organizational and technological challenges of remote learning environments. The present study investigates the competencies of fifth-graders, using large-scale assessment results in reading and mathematics from annual mandatory tests in September (each n > 80,000). In line with studies from other countries, competence scores were slightly lower in 2020 compared with the three previous years (–0.07 standard deviations for reading comprehension, –0.09 for operations, and –0.03 for numbers). Low-achieving readers managed to attain pre-pandemic competence levels. On the other hand, low-achieving students seem to have a learning backlog regarding mathematics competencies (such as operations) that deserves attention in future education.

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This is the first meta-analysis that investigates the differential prediction of undergraduate and graduate college admission tests for women and men. Findings on 130 independent samples representing 493,048 students are summarized. The underprediction of women's academic performance (d ϭ 0.14) and the overprediction of men's academic performance (d ϭ -0.16) are generalizable, albeit small. Transferred onto a 4-point grading scale, women earn college grades that are 0.24 points higher than those of men with the same admission test result. Combining admission tests with indicators of previous academic achievements, such as high school grades, reduces the amount of under-and overprediction. Moderator analysis reveals that the underprediction of women's academic performance by admission tests is a problem of the past and present. Predictor differences as well as criterion differences are not associated with over-and underprediction. Rather, undergraduate college admission tests show more underprediction of women's academic performance than graduate admission tests. These results point to differences between undergraduate and graduate students, the latter being more selected.

The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted regular classes in spring 2020.Temporary school closures supposedly led to a considerable learning loss, particularly for low-achieving students. Schools in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, were closed for two months. Although distance learning was implemented, students spent less time learning.Additionally, teachers were faced with organizational and technological challenges of remote learning environments. The present study investigates the competencies of fifthgraders, using large-scale assessment results in reading and mathematics from annual mandatory tests in September (each n > 80,000). In line with studies from other countries, competence scores were slightly lower in 2020 compared with the three previous years (-0.07 standard deviations for reading comprehension, -0.09 for operations, and -0.03 for numbers). Low-achieving readers managed to attain pre-pandemic competence levels.Regarding mathematics competencies, low-achieving students seem to have a learning backlog that deserves attention in future education. School characteristic such as the average socio-cultural capital and the proportion of students with migration background played a minor role in mediating the schools' learning loss. Still, lower socio-cultural capital was positively associated with larger learning loss in mathematics.

No abstract