The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Luxembourgish Education System: Differences between students based on background characteristics in elementary and secondary school

Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., school closure, home-schooling) have affected students at various stages of education all over the world and were found to increase inequalities in academic achievement (OECD, 2021). The present study is based on fully representative large-scale data from the Luxembourg School Monitoring Programme (Épreuves Standardisées; ÉpStan; LUCET, 2021). The ÉpStan are assessing key competencies of primary and secondary school students in different subjects (e.g., German, French and Math). To allow a fair performance comparison, socio-economic and socio-cultural backgrounds of students (e.g., gender, migration and language background) are systematically taken into consideration. The ÉpStan 2020 entail data from approximatively 25.000 students from five different grades (elementary and secondary school), from 15.000 parents (elementary school) and comparative data from 160.000 students from previous cohorts, thus providing key empirical findings on the pandemic’s impact on the Luxembourgish education system. In the present contribution, we analyze a) how the results of standardized achievement tests compare to previous cohorts and under consideration of students’ socio-economical and socio-cultural background, as well as b) how parents and students perceived home-schooling with regard to aspects such as coping, technical equipment, motivation or contact to teachers. First results indicate that in Grades 1, 5, 7 and 9, standardized achievement scores were generally stable in comparison to previous years. However, in Grade 3, students’ competency scores in German (primary language of instruction in elementary school) listening comprehension worsened substantially. Furthermore, third graders from socio-economically disadvantaged households and/or students that do not speak Luxembourgish/German at home did worse in German reading comprehension than their peers from socio-economically advantaged households and/or speaking Luxembourgish/German at home. Concerning the perception of home-schooling, students coped rather well with the situation, with German being a bit more challenging in primary school and math in secondary school. Findings concerning motivation and enjoyment of home-schooling were mixed, with primary school students’ motivation being comparably to the regular school setting but approximately half of the secondary school students being less motivated than in the regular school setting. Furthermore, all households seem to have been well equipped, with the situation being slightly more favorable in socio-economically advantaged households. For the majority of students, the contact with teachers was frequent, with teachers having adapted their type of support to the needs of their students (e.g., more personal contact towards students from socio-economically disadvantaged households). To conclude, it can be said that no systematic negative trend has been identified in students’ achievement scores. Only German listening comprehension in Grade 3 has worsened substantially and these skills should therefore be fostered as early as possible. Overall, students coped rather well with home-schooling without, however, particularly enjoying it. While students entering the pandemic with favorable background characteristics (e.g., higher socio-economic status, speaking a language of instruction at home) managed better both regarding competencies and perception of home-schooling, students with less favorable background characteristics have received more differentiated support. These findings underline that already existing inequalities in the Luxembourgish school system have in parts been intensified by the pandemic.

References

LUCET. (2021). Épreuves Standardisées (ÉpStan). https://epstan.lu

OECD. (2021). The State of School Education: One Year into the COVID Pandemic. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/201dde84-en