Do class closures affect students’ achievements? Heterogeneous effects of students’ socioeconomic backgrounds

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of class closures on the academic achievement of primary and middle school students, with a particular focus on heterogeneous effects related to their household socioeconomic backgrounds. Using administrative data from students in a Japanese city within the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, we analyze the effects of class closures due to influenza epidemics on students’ language and mathematics test scores. Our findings indicate that class closures adversely affect the mathematics test scores of economically disadvantaged students. The magnitude of these negative effects on disadvantaged students varies by subject, grade level, gender, the timing of closures, and students’ prior academic achievement. In particular, male students from economically disadvantaged households are more susceptible to class closures, and those with lower prior academic achievement experience more severe adverse effects. These deleterious effects among economically disadvantaged male students appear to be driven not only by reductions in in-school instructional time but also by behavioral changes that may diminish their learning capacity. Furthermore, we find that high-quality teachers can mitigate the negative impact of class closures on economically disadvantaged students. These results highlight the importance of public programs designed to safeguard student learning environments against such adverse disruptions.