코로나19 기점으로 나타난초등학교 4, 6학년 수학 학업성취도 변화 분석

초록

COVID-19-related disruptions like the suspension of in-class instruction and sudden increase of remote instruction, have raised concerns about the issues of learning loss, academic decline, and achievement gaps. Despite these concerns, there is a lack of studies examining the change of academic achievement in elementary students based on achievement test scores before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study evaluated COVID-19-related academic decline and achievement gaps by comparing elementary students’ achievement test scores obtained before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We selected participating schools based on the availability of mathematical achievement data from the Seoul Educational Longitudinal Study(SELS), which was conducted before the COVID-19(4th graders in the academic year of 2010, 6th graders in the academic year of 2012). A total of 230 fourth graders and 214 sixth graders in the academic year of 2021 participated from A and B schools. They completed a mathematical achievement test right before summer break in classrooms as the SELS did. Regarding the academic decline, fourth graders in the current study significantly scored lower on the same test items than their counterparts in the SELS study. The same pattern was observed in sixth graders, but it had no significant difference. Regarding the achievement gaps, in the A school, which consisted of a large proportion of high-achieving students in the SELS study, no significant difference of the distribution of mathematical achievement test scores was observed in both fourth and sixth graders between the current and SELS study. However, in the B school, which consisted of a large proportion of middle-achieving students in the SELS study, a significant difference was observed in fourth graders. Specifically, a considerable decline of the proportion of middle-achieving students was observed in the current study compared to the SELS study. Taken together, these findings confirmed COVID-19-related academic decline and achievement gaps in elementary students. This COVID-19-related phenomenon was more substantial in younger and middle-achieving students.

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