Prof. Cygan-Rehm in an interview with “WELT”

60 Years of Short School Years: An Almost Forgotten Educational Experiment with Highly Relevant Implications.

On April 1, 1966, the first so-called “short school year” began in most of the West German federal states, followed by a second one from December 1966 to July 1967. The goal was to shift the start of the school year from Easter to the fall. For millions of students, this meant one thing above all: less class time.

Why is this still relevant today? Cancelled classes remain a concern in connection with the ongoing issues of the pandemic, teacher shortages, extreme weather, and strikes. The short school years offer a rare historical case from which we can learn about the potential long-term consequences of lost instructional time.

Prof. Cygan-Rehm has studied this topic for several years using large administrative datasets. Her findings show that affected cohorts have lower skills, lower educational attainment, and lower incomes throughout their lives. She recently spoke with WELT political editor Sabine Menkens about these findings and their implications for current debates on education policy. Click here for the interview: [https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/plus69c2895eaf187d606b811563/schulausfaelle-in-der-pandemie-diese-generation-hat-nachteile-zu-erwarten-das-hat-auswirkungen-auf-gesamte-volkswirtschaft.html]

The paper:
“Lifetime Consequences of Lost Instructional Time in the Classroom: Evidence from Shortened School Years”
Journal of Labor Economics:
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/736549