Pandemic Schooling Mode and Student Test Scores: Evidence from U.S. School Districts

By Rebecca Jack, Clare Halloran, James Okun and Emily Oster. IMF Working Paper by Giovanni Facchini1, Anna Maria Mayda2 and Prachi Mishra. Here is the abstract:

"We estimate the impact of district-level schooling mode (in-person versus hybrid or virtual learning) in the 2020-21 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 decline 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 districts with full in-person learning had significantly smaller declines in pass rates (13.4 p.p. in math, 8.3 p.p. in ELA). The value to in-person learning was larger for districts with larger populations of Black students."