The Ability of Low- and High-Ses Schools to Inhibit Learning Losses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The study examined whether the pandemic-induced digital distance learning affected the ability of educational units to inhibit learning losses and whether their SES composition modified those effects. By applying random-intercept multinomial regression models comparing the 2019-2021 period to the 2017-2019 period based on data from the National Assessment of Basic Competencies in Hungary, the results indicated that educational units were less likely to inhibit learning losses during the COVID-19-affected two-year period. Educational units with less advantaged student SES composition were more susceptible to a decrease in their average test scores in mathematics, although the pandemic did not seem to have an additional negative effect on the educational units with the most disadvantaged SES composition.