School closures likely to reverse progress made in narrowing attainment gap

Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published the most detailed analysis to date of the likely impact of school closures on the attainment gap. It concludes that school closures as a result of Covid-19 will likely reverse the progress made in narrowing the attainment gap since 2011.
 
Over the past decade, the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their classmates at the end of primary school is estimated to have narrowed, from 11.5 months in 2009 to 9.2 months in 2019 according to the Education Policy Institute.
 
However, EEF's analysis finds that this progress could be undone. Following a rapid evidence review looking at the impact on the attainment gap as a result of different kinds of school closures (eg, summer holidays, adverse weather, natural disasters) it concludes that school closures as a result of Covid-19 will widen the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers, likely reversing the progress made since 2011.

Crucially though, if steps are taken, the negative impact of school closures on the gap could be eased.

Steps could be the newly Online Tuition Pilot which will tutoring to up to 1,600 pupils in disadvantaged communities. The initiative is led by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), Sutton Trust, Impetus and Nesta.
 
Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust and chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), said: “As today’s analysis shows, school closures are likely to have a devastating impact on the poorest children and young people. The attainment gap widens when children are not in school.
 
“There is strong evidence that high-quality tuition is a cost-effective way to enable pupils to catch up. I’m pleased our new online tuition project will support 1,600 pupils in schools across the country.”
 
Professor Becky Francis, CEO of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “The evidence is clear that children learn less when they are not in school. Our analysis today highlights that this particularly impacts those from disadvantaged backgrounds and widens the attainment gap.
 
“But there are practical steps we can take to minimise the size of the gaps that are opening up – both while pupils are learning remotely, and as they begin to return to school. Catch-up tuition to complement the expertise of classroom teachers and support those who have fallen furthest behind will be essential and we hope our new online tuition pilot will offer practical help to both schools and pupils at this time.”
 
Andy Ratcliffe, CEO of Impetus, said: "Tutoring boosts children's learning and better-off children get more of it than those from disadvantaged background. That was true before COVID struck and the tutoring gap has widened even further during lockdown.
 
“At Impetus we have been working with three high quality tutoring charities to help them achieve better results and grow. This pilot gives us the opportunity to take the best tutoring online and reach the young people who need it most."
 
Ravi Gurumurthy, CEO at Nesta, the innovation foundation, said: “The school closures from COVID-19 are widening inequalities in educational achievement. But there is promising evidence to show that one-to-one tutoring has a positive impact on improving learning outcomes for disadvantaged students, and could help mitigate the effects of the lockdown. The Online Tuition Pilot will test how the students who need support the most can be matched with tutors, whilst ensuring the highest quality of intervention.”