School disruption and pupil academic outcomes – evidence from the 2001 foot and mouth disease epidemic in England

William Cook ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The Covid-19 crisis has led to disruption to schooling across the world. Though it is recognized that pupils are suffering immediate learning loss, there exists a lack of understanding as to how this disruption might affect longer-term educational outcomes. This study considers this issue by examining the effect of school disruption in England due to restrictions put in place to manage the Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic in cattle in 2001. Using a difference in difference approach, I analyze whether primary schools that had been significantly disrupted by the epidemic experienced lower performance in standardized tests in English, maths and science for 11 year olds in the year of the outbreak and in subsequent years. I find that primary schools that had been significantly disrupted by the measures to contain the epidemic exhibited achievement falls in the year immediately after the outbreak, driven by sizeable falls in maths performance. The negative effects weaken in subsequent years suggesting that the effects of school disruption may fade out as cohorts progress through schooling.

Keywords: Covid; school disruption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-07-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Covid Economics 40 (2020): pp. 229-243

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:102732

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