La performance en lecture des élèves québécois de 4e année du primaire : comparaison des notes avant et après les fermetures scolaires associées à la pandémie de COVID-19

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53967/cje-rce.5863

Keywords:

COVID-19, school closures, student learning outcomes, educational impact, reading performance, Quebec

Abstract

Due to COVID-19 prevention measures, schools in Quebec were closed in 2020 and 2021, reducing instructional time compared to previous years. This study compares the reading performance of Grade 4 students on ministerial tests before (June 2019, n = 13,669) and after (June 2021, n = 10,880) school closures while quantifying variations based on students’ individual and socio-economic characteristics. Results reveal a signi-ficant decrease of 8.4 percentage points between 2019 (mean = 77.7%) and 2021 (mean = 69.27%) and an increase of 10.8% in the failure rate (17.1% in 2019 versus 27.9% in 2021). Students in the bottom 10% of the distribution experienced marked declines in performance (-18 percentage points), while students in the top 10% of the distribution did not exhibit any decline. This study contributes to the understanding of the impact of school closures on children’s reading competencies and underscores the critical impor-tance of in-person instruction, particularly for students with learning difficulties.

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Author Biographies

Sylvana Côté, Université de Montréal

Sylvana Côté est professeure titulaire à l’École de Santé publique de l’Université de Montréal et chercheuse au CHU Ste-Justine. Elle dirige le Groupe de recherche sur l’inadaptation psychosociale chez l’enfant (https://grip-info.ca/), un centre FRQ-SC multidisciplinaire regroupant des chercheurs de 7 universités québécoises, ainsi que l’Observatoire pour l’éducation et la santé des enfants (OPES, http://observatoireenfants.ca/). Elle est membre de la Société Royale du Canada.

Elle a contribué à la poursuite et à la valorisation de plusieurs études longitudinales québécoise (ELDEQ), canadienne (ELNEJ) et européenne (Angleterre, France). Elle réalise des projets en prévention de l’inadaptation psychosociale, tant au Québec qu’à l’étranger (France, Irlande).

Elle étudie, à l’aide de données longitudinales (individus suivis l’enfance à l’âge adulte) et expérimentales, des questions telles que : comment les trajectoires de vie des individus varient en fonction des conditions familiales et sociales dans lesquelles ils grandissent? Quels sont les points communs (environnementaux ou biologiques) entre les individus qui éprouvent des difficultés (santé mentale, scolaire) et ceux qui vivent des succès? Et surtout, dans quelle mesure peut-on modifier la trajectoire des enfants vulnérables en les soutenant via des programmes de prévention ou des services adaptés?  Elle s’intéresse particulièrement au rôle protecteur des services d’éducation préscolaire pour les enfants de familles défavorisées.

Elle a été lauréate de distinctions et de prix nationaux et internationaux, dont la bourse chercheure Sénior du Fonds de recherche du Québec, une chaire de recherche aux Pays-Bas (Université Utretch, 2006) et en France (Chaire Idex, Université de Bordeaux 2016-2019. Elle a remporté le prix ACFAS Adrien-Pouliot, pour la coopération scientifique entre la France et le Québec et figure également au palmarès des 21 Québécois qui feront la différence en 2021 selon le journal Le Devoir.

 

Catherine Haeck, Université du Québec à Montréal

Catherine Haeck is a Full Professor at the Economics Department at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), one of the largest departments in Canada, with active research in all areas of economics. She completed her doctoral studies in economics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. She is trained in causal inference and microeconometrics. Prior to that, she worked for several years for General Electric in Toronto (Canada) and Brussels (Belgium). She is a professor at UQAM since 2012 and the Academic Director of the CIQSS-UQAM-INRS laboratory since 2016 and part of the Board of the Canadian Research Data Centre Network (CRDCN), one of the Major Science Initiatives (MSI) . She was also recently appointed as co-director of the Observatoire pour l’éducation et la santé des enfants (OPÉS, CHU Ste-Justine). She also leads the skills axis at the CIRANO Research Centre and is a member of the Groupe de recherche sur l'inadaptation psychosociale chez l'enfant (GRIP). Finally, she is involved in different committees in the community, including the Obesity prevention committee at the National Institute for Public Health, and the Comité sur les Résultats Scientifiques et le Milieu Scolaire at the Education ministry.

Her research focuses on the human capital development of children and youth. Her goal is to understand which programs and intervention best help children attain their full potential using causal inference techniques. She recently received the « Prix de la Relève de l’ESG » for her overall achievement on the research front. Her current research focuses on the geographical and temporal evolution of intergenerational mobility in Canada compared to the United States with an aim to better understand the causal relationship between education and mobility. She has written about the impact of the pandemic on children’s academic success and on parental employment. She also collaborated to the development of a COVID risk assessment tool with the Vancouver School of Economics. Finally, she has written about universal childcare, prenatal nutrition programs, parental leave reforms, school reforms, class sizes and the taxation of sweet beverages. Her work on children was featured in several media outlets and government reports. She has two children who are a source of inspiration and motivation for her work.

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Published

2024-10-08

How to Cite

Côté, S., Haeck, C., Collet, O., Sauve, W., & Larose, S. (2024). La performance en lecture des élèves québécois de 4e année du primaire : comparaison des notes avant et après les fermetures scolaires associées à la pandémie de COVID-19. Canadian Journal of Education Revue Canadienne De l’éducation, 47(3), 838–858. https://doi.org/10.53967/cje-rce.5863

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Vol. 47 No. 3 (2024): Autumn 2024 | Automne 2024

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