Kraus, Elisabeth Barbara and Wild, Johannes and Schilcher, Anita and Hilbert, Sven (2026) Exploring the short-term and long-term effects of the COVID-19 school closures on reading fluency in Southern Germany: A longitudinal causal effects analysis. LEARNING AND INSTRUCTION, 101: 102227. ISSN 0959-4752, 1873-3263
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented school closures, including in Bavaria, Germany, from March to June, 2020. This study investigates the impact of these closures on reading fluency in elementary students. Objective: To evaluate the short-term (one month) and long-term (one year) effects of third-grade school closures on reading fluency using a longitudinal causal effects approach. Methods: The study involved 9,083 students in Bavaria, divided into two cohorts: one affected by third-grade closures and a control cohort who experienced closures in second grade. Data were collected over five measurement points, using the Salzburger Lesescreening (SLS) to assess reading fluency. The study employed a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) approach with propensity score weighting to estimate causal effects, accounting for confounders like participation in a reading intervention, gender, SES, and migration status. Results: Pre-COVID data and pre-trend analysis on the study sample indicated a linear increase in SLS raw scores over time. The affected cohort showed no significant deviations from this trend during the pandemic, suggesting neither short-term, nor long-term impacts on reading fluency. However, variations in teaching efforts and other COVID-related effects could have influenced these results. Conclusion: Findings indicate that school closures due to COVID-19 have not impacted reading fluency as one example of a consolidated ability, in elementary students in Southern Germany.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | SIMPLE VIEW; COMPREHENSION; METAANALYSIS; PERFORMANCE; DIFFERENCE; MOTIVATION; PACKAGE; Reading fluency; COVID-19; School closures; Causal analysis; Elementary school; Germany |
| Subjects: | 300 Social sciences > 370 Education |
| Divisions: | Human Sciences > Institut für Bildungswissenschaft > Professur für Methoden der empirischen Bildungsforschung - Prof. Dr. Sven Hilbert Languages and Literatures > Institut für Germanistik > Lehrstuhl für Didaktik der Deutschen Sprache und Literatur (Prof. Dr. Anita Schilcher) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Jun 2026 07:34 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2026 07:34 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/66532 |
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