School closures and effective in-person learning during COVID-19

Abstract

We document large temporal and geographical discrepancies among prominent trackers that measure in-person, hybrid, and remote schooling in the U.S. during COVID-19. We then propose a new measure of effective in-person learning (EIPL) that combines information on schooling modes with cell phone data on school visits and estimate it for a large, representative sample of U.S. public and private schools. The EIPL measure, which we make publicly available, resolves the discrepancies across trackers and is more suitable for many quantitative questions. Consistent with other studies, we find that a school’s share of non-white students and pre-pandemic grades and size are associated with less in-person learning during the 2020–21 school year. Notably, we also find that EIPL was lower for schools in more affluent and educated localities with higher pre-pandemic spending and more emergency funding per student. These results are in large part accounted for by systematic regional differences, in particular political preferences.