Just the right amount of caution? - Remote instruction and student performance in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study examines the impact of distance learning on educational outcomes for lower secondary school students in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic. We leverage variation in the implementation of remote instruction across schools and compare pre-pandemic and pandemic-affected cohorts using a difference-in-differences design with entropy balancing weights. We examine effects on grade 9 students’ test scores on standardized tests and their transition to upper secondary school. Our findings suggest that students in schools that adopted remote instruction performed similarly to those in schools that maintained in-person teaching throughout the pandemic. Moreover, progression to upper secondary school was not negatively affected. In some cases, we even find evidence of positive effects of remote instruction. We find some support for the interpretation that these positive effects may be due to remote instruction enabling more teaching hours during a period with high teacher and student absence.