Policy Research Working Paper10666COVID-19, School Closures, and Student Learning OutcomesNew Global Evidence from PISAMaciej JakubowskiTomasz GajderowiczHarry PatrinosEducation Global PracticeJanuary 2024 Public Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedProduced by the Research Support TeamAbstractThe Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.Policy Research Working Paper 10666The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant disrup-tion in schooling worldwide. This paper uses global test score data to estimate learning losses. It models the effect of school closures on achievement by predicting the deviation of the most recent results from a linear trend using data from all rounds of the Programme for International Student Assessment. Scores declined by an average of 14 percent of a standard deviation, roughly equal to seven months of learning. Losses were greater for students in schools that faced relatively longer closures, boys, immigrants, and dis-advantaged students. Educational losses may translate into significant national income losses over time.This paper is a product of the Education Global Practice. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://www.worldbank.org/prwp. The authors may be contacted at hpatrinos@worldbank.org. COVID-19, School Closures, and Student Learning Outcomes: New Global Evidence from PISA Maciej Jakubowski Harry Patrinos1 University of Warsaw World Bank Tomasz Gajderowicz University of Warsaw JEL No: I19, I20 Keywords: COVID-19; learning loss; student achievement; PISA; international large-scale assessments 1 Maciej Jakubowski, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland (mjakubowski@uw.edu.pl); Tomasz Gajderowicz, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland (tgajderowicz@wne.uw.edu.pl); Harry Anthony Patrinos, World Bank, Washington DC, USA (hpatrinos@worldbank.org). 2 1. IntroductionSchools throughout the world closed in response to COVID-19 beginning in 2020. In some cases, they quickly reopened in 2021, but in some countries, ...
