text: Why lockdown and distance learning during the COVID 19 pandemic are likely to increase the social class achievement gap The COVID 19 pandemic has forced teachers and parents to quickly adapt to a new educational context distance learning Teachers developed online academic material while parents taught the exercises and lessons provided by teachers to their children at home Considering that the use of digital tools in education has dramatically increased during this crisis and it is set to continue there is a pressing need to understand the impact of distance learning Taking a multidisciplinary view we argue that by making the learning process rely more than ever on families rather than on teachers and by getting students to work predominantly via digital resources school closures exacerbate social class academic disparities To address this burning issue we propose an agenda for future research and outline recommendations to help parents teachers and policymakers to limit the impact of the lockdown on social class based academic inequality 