The Achievement Gap in Urban and Rural Middle Schools in Korea: Before and After COVID-19

• In Event: Global Perspective on Teaching and Learning During COVID-19

Abstract

This study aims to analyze and compare the student achievement gap in rural and urban areas during COVID-19. To this end, we investigated how COVID-19 impacted the achievement gap in agricultural village and metropolitan city by utilizing the achievement scores of middle school students in Gangwon province and Seoul, South Korea. We examined the proportion of achievement scores in math, Korean, and English in the first semester of each year. This study determines the following: (1) COVID-19 has declined the achievement in rural areas and caused the polarization of student achievement in the urban city, and (2) rural areas are impacted more negatively than the urban city by COVID-19.

Authors

• Chol-Kyun Shin, Kangwon National University

• Youngeun An, Seoul Educational Research & Information Institute

• Soon-Young Oh, Michigan State University