COVID‐19 Disproportionately Impacts Students in High‐Risk Populations

Abstract

The sudden shift to virtual instruction caused by COVID‐19 compounded by a large population of students residing outside the campus community has created a number of challenges for students and instructors, alike. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the extent to which these additional burdens impacted student performance. We hypothesized that students in high‐risk categories would suffer larger decrements in academic performance compared to students in low‐risk categories. To address this hypothesis we collected midterm data from fall 2020 and compared it to midterm data from fall 2015‐2019. Midterms are assigned to students earning a C‐ or below midway through the semester. Letter grades were tallied for each term and then converted to a numerical score using a five‐point scale (C‐ = 1, F = 5) and summed across all midterm grades within a term to allow quantitation and statistical comparison. The number of midterms issued per student did not differ in 2020 compared to 2015‐2019 for most demographics. However, when we considered ethnicity we found that Caucasian students had slightly more midterms reported per student in 2020 when compared to the comparison group (p<0.008). Midterm grades were more severe in 2020 (by 0.101‐0.657 points) than in 2015‐2019 for females, males, first generation students (FGS), non‐FGS, and students directly admitted from high school (direct admits) (p<0.001). In addition, Caucasian (p<0.0001), Hispanic (p<0.017), and people of multiple races (p<0.032) had midterms of greater severity in 2020 compared to the comparison group. Interestingly, the number and severity of midterm grades issued to transfer students (TS) were similar between 2020 and the comparison group. When we considered the impact of COVID‐19‐related changes on midterms/student within paired groups in 2020 we discovered that FG students and minority students had more midterms/student than non‐FG (p<0.001) and Caucasian students (p<003), respectively, while males/females and TS/direct admits were similar between groups. Likewise, COVID‐19‐related changes increased the severity of the midterms for males, FG students, and minority students compared to females (p<0.002), non‐FG (p<0.0003), and Caucasian students (p<0.0004), respectively, but TS and direct admits were similar between groups. Collectively, these data indicate a disproportionately negative impact of COVID‐19 in some, but not all high‐risk populations. It is reasonable to suggest that these negative outcomes may jeopardize retention and graduation rates within these populations.