With snow expected to pound the mid-Atlantic this weekend, schools are bracing for possible “snow days” on Friday or Monday. Some Washington, D.C.-area schools are even closed Thursday after icy road conditions Wednesday evening. Conventional wisdom says snow days are bad for learning; after all, on snow days, students stay home instead of going to school. But a study published in 2015 by Education Next says otherwise.
When there is moderate snowfall, student absences rise significantly while few schools close, according to research by Joshua Goodman with Harvard University. This can cause teachers problems, because they may have to split their time the following day between students who did and did not attend school the prior day. “When a few students miss a day or more of instruction, the teacher can review the recently presented material for those students who missed it, in which case the absent students’ peers lose out on valuable instructional time, or she may move forward with new material and risk having the absent students fall behind,” Goodman writes.
In other words, moderate snowfall exacerbates attendance gaps, because some, but not all, students will attend school on those days. For example, parents who drive their children to school might decide to play it safe and skip school that day, while other parents drive their children or send them on the bus anyway.
Closing school for all students, on the other hand, keeps everyone on the same level without damaging student test scores. “Schools and teachers are well prepared to deal with the coordinated disruptions caused by snow days — much more so than they are to handle the less dramatic but more frequent disruptions caused by poor student attendance.” Goodman says teachers make up the fraction of lost time from a snow day by shifting remaining time toward tested material, while delaying, compressing or eliminating untested material.
Goodman’s study focused on Massachusetts, examining test scores, snowfall and school closings between 2003 and 2010. The test scores examined math and English in third through eighth grade, as well as 10th grade.
“In the meantime,” Goodman writes, “superintendents watching the weather forecast should consider erring on the side of cancellation when an impending storm is likely to be severe enough to substantially disrupt student attendance.” That recommendation will surely make students smile.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
