Large Socio-Economic, Geographic, and Demographic Disparities Exist in Exposure to School Closures and Distance Learning

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many school districts to turn to distance or at-home learning. Studies are emerging on the negative effects of distance learning on educational performance. Less is known, however, about the socio-economic, geographic, and demographic characteristics of students exposed to distance-learning across the United States. We introduce a U.S. School Closure & Distance Learning Database that tracks in-person attendance across more than 100,000 schools from January through October 2020. We measure year-over-year change in in-person attendance for each school throughout 2020 to estimate whether the school is engaged in distance learning after the onset of the pandemic. Our findings reveal large socio-economic, geographic, and demographic disparities in exposure to distance learning. In October 2020, schools recording the lowest third-grade math scores are nearly twice as likely to be closed compared to schools recording the highest math scores. The average racial composition of closed schools is 25 percentage points less white compared to schools operating in-person (40% versus 65%). Moreover, closures are more common in schools with a higher share of students who experience homelessness, are of limited English proficiency, are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch, live in single-parent families, or are racial/ethnic minorities. Distance learning is more common in high schools and middle schools relative to elementary schools, but disparities in exposure to distance learning are comparable across school type. Given the potential negative consequences of school closures on educational performance, the vast inequalities in exposure to distance learning portend rising disparities in learning outcomes.

Learning loss due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…However, there are limits to the analogy between summer recess and forced school closures, when children are still being expected to learn at a normal pace ( 50 ). Our results show that learning loss was particularly pronounced for students from disadvantaged homes, confirming the fears held by many that school closures would cause socioeconomic gaps to widen ( 51 – 55 ).…”

Primary school mathematics during the COVID-19 pandemic: No evidence of learning gaps in adaptive practicing results

“…In a study performed in Great Britain, it was found that students from more disadvantaged backgrounds spent fewer hours learning at home during school closures than did their more fortunate peers [24] , while a Dutch survey of parents found that parents with more education were more likely to state that they could help their children with distance education than parents with less education, even though both valued it equally [25] . Meanwhile, in the United States, it was found that schools with poorer student populations were more likely to close than schools with less poor student populations [26] .…”

What the COVID-19 Pandemic Reveals about Racial Differences in Child Welfare and Child Well-Being: An Introduction to the Special Issue

“…Asian Americans faced elevated rates of physical harassment and discrimination (Gover et al 2020 ; Lee and Waters 2020 ). During the start of the new school year in autumn 2020, Asian, Latino, and black children were far more likely than white children to be exposed to school closures and distance learning, potentially exacerbating educational outcomes (Parolin and Lee 2020 ; Smith and Reeves 2020 ; Van Lancker and Parolin 2020 ). And each of these statistics, of course, only covers the living, but we must keep in mind that black and Latino individuals were more likely to die of COVID-induced symptoms in at least the initial months of the pandemic (Sze et al 2020 ; Wrigley-Field 2020 ).…”