How Did School Closures Affect Highschoolers?

One of the most extensive non-pharmaceutical interventions of the COVID-19 pandemic was the change from in-person to remote modes of learning at institutions representing all levels of education. Due to its unprecedented extent and duration, the pandemic-induced school closures have been detrimental to the learning outcomes of children. In this paper, I examine the impact of school closures on the adjusted cohort graduation rates and proficiency rates in math and Reading/Language Arts of high school students in the United States. I test how did the COVID-19 school closures affect the school outcomes in a local education agency (LEA), and whether the impact vary between larger-sized and smaller LEAs. My results show that ACGR and math proficiency rates of high school students were negatively affected by the school closures, with steeper declines observed among students of color and/or students belonging to vulnerable groups (i.e. students with disabilities, English learners, or economically-disadvantaged students). I also find that the negative impact of school closures are relatively modest in larger LEAs compared to the experience of small LEAs.