Table 2.
ITT effects of in-person school activities on student attendance, dropout risk and standardized test scores
| (1) | (2) | (3) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attendance | Standardized test scores | Dropout risk | |
| Panel A: Diff-in-diff: middle-school in-person activities | 0.010 | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| (0.001) | (0.001) | (0.001) | |
| P < 0.001 | P = 0.35 | P = 0.29 | |
| Panel B: Diff-in-diff: high-school in-person activities | 0.007 | 0.024 | 0.002 |
| (0.001) | (0.0001) | (0.002) | |
| P < 0.001 | P < 0.001 | P = 0.39 | |
| Panel C: Triple-differences in-person activities | −0.002 | 0.023 | 0.001 |
| (0.002) | (0.001) | (0.001) | |
| P = 0.04 | P = 0.001 | P = 0.31 | |
| Grade fixed effects | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Matching | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| N | 3,701,482 | 2,624,943 | 3,701,482 |
Notes: The table displays ITT estimates of resuming in-person school activities on student attendance (column 1), standardized test scores (column 2) and high dropout risk (column 3). Quarterly data on attendance reflect online or in-person attendance and/or assignment completion (handed in online or in-person) over each quarter (in p.p.), averaged across maths and Portuguese classes; standardized test scores from quarterly standardized tests (AAPs), averaging maths and Portuguese scores for that school quarter; and high dropout risk = 1 if the student had no maths or Portuguese grades on record for that school quarter, and 0 otherwise. Panels A and B estimate treatment effects through differences-in-differences, contrasting the variation in outcomes between Q1 and Q4 of 2020 within municipalities that authorized schools to reopen versus those that did not. Panel A restricts attention to middle-school students, and panel B to high-school students. Panel C estimates treatment effects through a triple-differences estimator, which contrasts the differences-in-differences estimates for middle- and high-school students (for whom in-person classes could resume within municipalities that authorized schools to reopen in Q4 of 2020). Column 2 controls for a third-degree polynomial of propensity scores, and re-weights observations by the inverse of their propensity score. All columns are OLS regressions, with standard errors clustered at the municipality level. P values are computed from two-sided t-tests that each coefficient is equal to zero.