Covid-19 school closures negatively impacted elementary-school students' reading comprehension and reading fluency skills

Isabella Starling-Alves; Guilherme Hirata; João Batista A Oliveira

doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102753

Covid-19 school closures negatively impacted elementary-school students' reading comprehension and reading fluency skills

Int J Educ Dev. 2023 May:99:102753. doi: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102753. Epub 2023 Feb 23.

Authors

Isabella Starling-Alves¹, Guilherme Hirata², João Batista A Oliveira¹

Affiliations

¹ Instituto Alfa e Beto, Brazil.
² IDados, Brazil.

Abstract

In Brazil, schools remained closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 for approximately two years. In this study, we investigated how COVID-19 school closures were associated with gaps and losses in Brazilian students' reading skills. We contrasted the reading comprehension and fluency of 2nd- to 4th-graders in 2022 with a 2019 cohort. Furthermore, we investigated how 2022 5th graders' reading comprehension and fluency skills have improved since 2019. Overall, results showed that COVID-19 school closures were associated with gaps but not losses in reading comprehension and fluency. Therefore, these skills should be targets of educational interventions.

Keywords: Covid-19; Reading comprehension; Reading fluency; School closures.