450 - The Impact of Sociodemographic Factors on Youth Academic Achievement During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ontario, Canada

Poster Number: 450
Publication Number: 450.219

Sloane Freeman, St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; Ripudaman S.. Minhas, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada; Jen Hove, EQAO - Ontario Government, Toronto, ON, Canada

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted education and widened socioeconomic disparities. In Ontario, schools were closed for 28 weeks, longer than any other state, province, or territory in North America. School interruptions and remote learning are known to have short and long-term negative effects on students’ academic outcomes which differ by socioeconomic status. 

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine whether the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a greater achievement gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged secondary students in Ontario, Canada.

Design/Methods:

We conducted a population-based observational study comparing scores from Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) standardized Grade 9 math assessments from 2018-19 (pre-COVID year) and 2020-21 (COVID year). Our outcome measure was the EQAO math dot scores. The primary analysis used a mixed-effects multilevel model to calculate the interaction between year and neighborhood family income on math scores (difference in income slope between years) while controlling for confounders. Secondary analyses examined other risk factors (e.g. parental education and newcomer status) and their impact during the pandemic.

Results: In the COVID year, 3,485 of 42,920 Ontario Grade 9 students (8.1%) participated in the EQAO math assessment from 38 of 72 school boards. In the pre-COVID year, within those 38 school boards, 42,640 of 43,230 Grade 9 students (98.6%) participated in the math assessment. We found that in the pre-COVID year, every one standard deviation increase (or decrease) in mean log-adjusted neighborhood income resulted in a mean increase (or decrease) in test score of 0.088 (95% CI, 0.078 to 0.097; p< 0.0001). The effect of income on test score decreased in the COVID year (delta between years, -0.047, 95% CI, -0.060 to -0.033; p< 0.0001).

Conclusion(s): This study demonstrated that neighborhood family income impacted academic performance less in the COVID year compared to the pre-COVID year. The impact of other sociodemographic factors on academic achievement were also modified in the COVID year compared to pre-COVID. We infer that students with higher family incomes did not perform as well in the COVID year compared to the pre-COVID year, and/or students with lower family income performed better during the COVID year than the pre-COVID year. Determining how sociodemographic risk factors affected academic achievement during the pandemic will also help inform educational recovery and improve educational outcomes for children facing social inequities.