COVID-19-related differences in students’ verbal achievements: Comparisons of different cohorts of students with SEN based on large-scale assessment data from Germany

Restrictions on schooling related to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in learning deficits in primary and secondary education, but may have affected different groups of students in different ways. We focus on the especially vulnerable group of students with special educational needs (SEN) in the domain of learning (SEN-L) and investigated changes in their verbal achievements by comparing different student cohorts. We also analyzed whether characteristics of the learning situation during the pandemic differed between students with and without SEN and whether these characteristics were associated with students’ verbal achievements. Analyses are based on representative data from large-scale assessments in Germany with achievement scores available for student cohorts prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and for student cohorts affected by the pandemic-related restrictions (Grade 4: 2016/2021, N non-SEN/SEN-L > 23.300/1.500; Grade 9: 2015/2022, N non-SEN/SEN-L > 29.000/1.300). Significant negative trends in student cohorts' average achievement emerged in reading, listening, and orthography for SEN-L students taught at regular schools and their peers without SEN. Negative cohort trends in achievement were also found for SEN-L students at special needs schools, but these were not statistically significant in all domains. Multilevel regressions revealed significant relations between students’ learning conditions during the pandemic and their verbal achievement in 2021/2022, but did not differ between students without SEN and students with SEN-L. The findings indicate negative trends in verbal achievements for students with SEN-L at regular schools and at special needs schools. These are likely in part due to the pandemic-related restrictions in schooling. • Focus on students with special educational needs in learning (SEN-L) in Germany. • SEN-L students' achievement trends likely in part due to COVID-19 pandemic. • Negative cohort trends in verbal achievement for SEN-L students at regular schools. • Mostly negative cohort trends for SEN-L students at special needs schools. • Achievements related to learning environment at home for fourth-graders.