Absence of a COVID-induced academic drop in high-school physics learning

Abstract

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of secondary instruction in the United States transitioned to an online environment. In many parts of the country, online schooling continued for upwards of two years. Many experts have hypothesized an “academic slide”—a reduction in student learning—following this period of online instruction. We investigated the change in student preparation for introductory college physics in incoming Stanford University students between the fall term of 2019 to the fall term of 2021. We did this by looking at the performance on a validated physics diagnostic exam that all Stanford students intending to take a physics course took before enrolling in an introductory physics course. We found no statistically or educationally significant change in scores. Despite many anecdotal faculty reports, at least for this population, the level of student preparation in physics and related math appears to be unchanged.Received 6 June 2022Accepted 13 July 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.18.023102Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasStudent preparationProfessional TopicsLower undergraduate studentsPhysics Education Research