Primary school mathematics during Covid-19: No evidence of learning gaps in adaptive practicing results

During the spring of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic induced many governments to close schools for many months. In the Netherlands, primary schools were closed during a lockdown lasting from March until June. While education was continued online, evidence so far suggests that learning has suffered from the lockdown. Here, we report results from Dutch primary schools that relied on adaptive practicing software for teaching mathematics. The software, installed on tablets that could be taken home by the pupils, continued to be used during school closures. Performance was tracked throughout the lockdown for 53,656 pupils in grades 2 through 6 from 810 schools, and compared to performance of similar pupils in the preceding year. While performance up to the lockdown was similar for school year 2019-20, during the lockdown learning was faster that it had been in 2018-19, contradicting results reported so far. These enhanced gains were correlated with increased use, and remained after the lockdown ended. Pupils ended the year with a higher proficiency score than was reached in earlier years. This was the case for all grades but more so for lower grades, for strong and weak students but more so for weak students, and less so for students in schools with disadvantaged populations than in schools with non-disadvantaged populations.