By Matt Barnum
As the Great Recession was sending economic shockwaves through the country, it was also hurting student learning, according to a new study.
Using a huge data set that included over 95 percent of the country’s public school students, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found that each year students spent in school during the recession hurt their reading and math test scores.
The effects were modest in size — roughly equal to the impact of increasing class sizes by three to five students — but they applied to a vast number of students.
Crucially, the downturn didn’t affect all students equally: Test scores generally declined the most in districts serving more disadvantaged students. More affluent districts, with many white students or few students with disabilities, for example, often went unharmed.
“The adverse effects of the recession were concentrated among school districts serving higher concentrations of low-income and minority students,” write researchers Matthew Steinberg and Kenneth Shores. “The Great Recession exacerbated the inequality of student achievement outcomes.”
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