School Snow Days Do Not Harm Learning: Research by an academic at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts,  suggests that snow closures do not adversely affect results. The findings come from analysis of seven years of school test data and found that the worst disruption comes when schools try to stay open despite heavy snowfall – meaning that numerous staff and pupils miss the school day.

Joshua Goodman, assistant professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School in the north east of the US, was asked by the Massachusetts education department to find out whether there was any loss of learning following snow closures. Due to the propensity for snowfall in this region, this is a common winter debate and Goodman set out to measure the impact of bad weather through analysing test results in the state between 2003 and 2010.

School Snow Days Do Not Harm Learning, Says Harvard Academic

As a former high school teacher himself, Professor Goodman’s research suggested that schools are better able to adapt to short-term closures – a clean break – than they were to only a small number of staff and pupils being in school when it was open. He suggested that alterations to the remainder of the term, and re-adjustments to teaching plans, could compensate for the missed days. He also suggested that the knock-on effect of those pupils who missed school days trying to ‘catch up’ did have a negative impact on their attainment.

Professor Goodman also argued that whilst debates around missing school days due to snow can often become very emotional, they ignore the fact that pupils miss days of learning for many other reasons such as sickness or truancy. He said that these kinds of absenteeism do affect the performance of pupils. He summarised his findings in six short words:

‘Closures have no impact. Absences do.’

In the UK, according to the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) the over-riding decision about whether or not to close a school is the issue of child welfare, and the decision is normally made by the Head Teacher – as they know their individual school and the area in which it is situated.