Civics Education during a Lockdown: COVID-19 Containment Policies and Grade 8 Student Civic Outcomes

In early 2020, nations around the globe responded to the rapidly developing COVID-19 pandemic by implementing emergency containment measures to slow the spread of the virus. Educational systems were widely impacted as they made the difficult decision to close schools affecting over 1.5 billion students globally. Research has focused on quantifying the academic impact of these closures, however most evidence has focused on core subjects such as reading or mathematics. Considering how one core task of educational systems is to develop and prepare students to be engaged and active members of society, it is important to examine how the disruption impacted civics education. Using data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) on nearly 100,000 grade 8 students, we examine the relationship between COVID-19 lockdown stringency and several student civic outcomes across 15 countries. We find that longer school closures and greater lockdown stringency were associated with greater declines in average civic knowledge scores, lower trust in civic institutions, increased intentions to protest, and greater expectations to participate in elections or politics. Evidence presented here provides valuable insights into the associations between lockdown measures and early secondary student civic outcomes, highly relevant for understanding impacts of the pandemic on the future citizens of the world.