Did the quality of internet services and related class structures affect educational achievement in Poland during COVID-19?

Abstract

Learning losses during the COVID-19 pandemic have been well documented. In this paper, we attempt to learn more about the determinants of the magnitude of the adverse effects of the emergency shift to remote learning in Polish upper secondary schools. Because of concerns that differences in access to and quality of local internet would disadvantage lower socio-economic status children, the analysis focuses on local internet speed and the structure of remote classes. We adopt a value-added framework to account for differences among students, families, and prior school quality and find that local internet speed and the structure of remote classes are strongly related to the achievement of vocational school students. Those in communities with internet speed in the lowest decile fare particularly poorly in mathematics, highlighting the adverse effects of deficiencies in infrastructure and access to higher-quality internet services.