Impact of short school closures (1\u20135\xa0days) on overall academic performance of schools in California

Rebecca K Miller,Iris Hui

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-06050-9

Rebecca K Miller, Iris Hui

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06050-9

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Abstract

Climate change impacts such as disasters and higher temperatures can disrupt academic learning and reduce academic performance. Here, we use two-ways linear fixed effects regression to estimate the effects of short-term school closures (1–5 days) due to wildfires, natural hazard impacts, infrastructure, and student safety on academic performance in California, focusing on mathematics and English scores from state assessments and college preparatory exams. Wildfires are responsible for the majority of school closures. Wildfires generate significant negative impacts on academic performance among younger students. We primarily find insignificant impacts on academic achievement due to school closures from other causes, including from the interaction between number of closure days and socioeconomic and racial/ethnic makeup of the school, across all causes. The effects of school closures lasting more than one week (6–10 days) are also generally insignificant, except for the negative impacts of wildfire closures on elementary school students. These results suggest that older students are resilient to most unexpected short-term school closures (1–5 days) or that teachers can make up lessons effectively after schoolwide closures.

Highlights

Weather-related disasters are estimated to affect up to 175 million children globally each year, with the greatest impacts among poor children and those in developing c ountries[1]
Drawing on the CalMatters Disaster Days dataset, we examine the effect of closures caused by wildfires, natural hazard impacts, infrastructure, and school safety on standardized test scores for statewide tests in English and mathematics and college preparatory exams (SAT, American Collegiate Testing (ACT), and Advanced Placement (AP) exams)
Closure days occurred as a result of wildfires (21,442 days; 63.4%), natural hazard impacts (8333; 24.6%), infrastructure (2171; 6.4%), student safety (1660; 4.9%), and other reasons such as memorial services or teachers’ strikes (213, 0.6%)

Summary

Introduction

Weather-related disasters are estimated to affect up to 175 million children globally each year, with the greatest impacts among poor children and those in developing c ountries[1]. Separate literature on standardized testing reveals that higher year-round and test-day temperatures both negatively affect education and academic performance, among low-income and minority s tudents[26,27,28]. Heat stress can produce significant negative impacts on complex cognitive p erformance[29]; minority and socioeconomically vulnerable populations are more likely to experience elevated heat e xposure[30,31,32]. Both local weather conditions and schoolwide closures may influence student performance

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