Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Teachable Moment
David Deming
Harvard Working Paper, October 2009
Abstract:
I estimate the effect of attending a first-choice middle or high school on young adult criminal activity, using data from public school choice lotteries in Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district (CMS). Seven years after random assignment, lottery winners have been arrested for fewer and less serious crimes, and have spent fewer days incarcerated. The reduction in crime persists through the end of the sample period, several years after enrollment in the preferred school is complete. Lottery winners attended schools that were higher quality according to measures of peer and teacher inputs, as well as revealed preference, and the gain was roughly equivalent to switching from one of the lowest ranked schools to one at the district average. The effects are concentrated among African-American males whose ex ante characteristics define them as "high risk". As a result the CMS lottery assignment system, which gave priority to disadvantaged applicants, probably reduced crime relative to a simple lottery like those implemented in many U.S. charter schools.
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Are Mathematics and Science Test Scores Good Indicators of Labor-Force Quality?
Shiu-Sheng Chen & Ming-Ching Luoh
Social Indicators Research, March 2010, Pages 133-143
Abstract:
Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), we investigate the link between test scores (mathematics and science) and cross-country income differences. We would like to know whether test scores are good indicators of labor-force quality. The analysis suggests that after properly controlling other variables that are typical in cross-country economic growth study, the strong link between test scores and cross-country income differences disappears. Moreover, we show that variables such as Research and Development researchers (per capita) or Scientific and Technical journal articles (per capita) can better account for the cross-country income differences.
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School Board Politics, School District Size, and the Bargaining Power of Teachers' Unions
Heather Rose & Jon Sonstelie
Journal of Urban Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper presents a public choice theory of the bargaining power of teachers' unions. The theory predicts that the power of the unions rises with the size of a district. The theory is tested by examining the relationship between district size and various bargaining outcomes for a sample of 771 California school districts in 1999-2000. As hypothesized, teachers' salaries rise and the ratio of teachers per pupil falls with increasing district size. The paper also considers several alternative explanations for these results.
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Rational Ignorance in Education: A Field Experiment in Student Plagiarism
Thomas Dee & Brian Jacob
NBER Working Paper, January 2010
Abstract:
Despite the concern that student plagiarism has become increasingly common, there is relatively little objective data on the prevalence or determinants of this illicit behavior. This study presents the results of a natural field experiment designed to address these questions. Over 1,200 papers were collected from the students in undergraduate courses at a selective post-secondary institution. Students in half of the participating courses were randomly assigned to a requirement that they complete an anti-plagiarism tutorial before submitting their papers. We found that assignment to the treatment group substantially reduced the likelihood of plagiarism, particularly among student with lower SAT scores who had the highest rates of plagiarism. A follow-up survey of participating students suggests that the intervention reduced plagiarism by increasing student knowledge rather than by increasing the perceived probabilities of detection and punishment. These results are consistent with a model of student behavior in which the decision to plagiarize reflects both a poor understanding of academic integrity and the perception that the probabilities of detection and severe punishment are low.
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Early Decision and College Performance
Elizabeth Jensen & Stephen Wu
Economics of Education Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper examines the relationship between admission status and college performance. In particular, we analyze admissions data from Hamilton College and find that students who applied through the Early Decision Plan II program have significantly lower GPAs and are less likely to receive departmental honors, fellowships, and outside scholarships than those admitted through the regular decision process. However, the results for Early Decision Plan I students are less consistent. These students have lower outcomes for some measures of academic achievement, but not others, than regular decision students.
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Valerie Ledwith
American Journal of Education, February 2010, Pages 243-262
Abstract:
Increased school choice is leading to enrollment patterns that do not reflect attendance in the neighborhood school. The impact of this increased mobility on scholastic achievement is still undecided, in part because of the difficulty in untangling compositional and contextual effects on educational outcomes. This article uses data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey to examine the influence of student mobility associated with open enrollment on the scholastic achievement of public school students in Los Angeles. Using a series of OLS regressions, the analysis shows that increased student mobility associated with open enrollment has a positive influence on the scholastic achievement of public school students controlling for student motivation, race, socioeconomic status, and the effects of school and neighborhood characteristics. It is also apparent that the wealth of the student's residential neighborhood is also important. Taken together, these results highlight the complexity of the geography of opportunity associated with educational outcomes and the need for continued research on the sociospatial dimension of scholastic achievement.
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Free education, fertility and human capital accumulation
Leonid Azarnert
Journal of Population Economics, March 2010, Pages 449-468
Abstract:
This article analyzes the effect of free public education on fertility, private educational investments, and human capital accumulation at different stages of economic development. The model shows that, when fertility is endogenous, parental human capital levels are crucial for determining the effect of free education. At early stages of development when parental human capital is low, free access to basic education may provide the only chance to leave poverty. In contrast, at advanced stages of development when parental human capital is high, the availability of free education crowds out private educational investments, stimulates fertility, and may impede growth.
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Returns to Overeducation: A Longitudinal Analysis of the U.S. Labor Market
Yuping Tsai
Economics of Education Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Studies examining the wage effect of overeducation have generated very consistent results. Their findings suggest that, for workers with similar educational attainment, workers who are overeducated for the job suffer from significant wage penalties. How ever, most studies use cross-sectional data, implicitly assuming that workers are randomly assigned to being overeducated. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for the period 1979-2005, this study conducts a panel analysis to account for time-constant individual characteristics. It uses a numerical approach to provide the wage effects in the presence of non-classical measurement error in the educational mismatch variables. The results provide evidence that overeducated status does not cause lower earnings. Instead, the significant wage differential found in previous studies is simply a result of ignoring the nonrandom assignment of workers to jobs.
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Effect of Visual Media Use on School Performance: A Prospective Study
Iman Sharif, Thomas Wills & James Sargent
Journal of Adolescent Health, January 2010, Pages 52-61
Purpose: To identify mechanisms for the impact of visual media use on adolescents' school performance. Methods: We conducted a 24-month, four-wave longitudinal telephone study of a national sample of 6,486 youth aged 10 to 14 years. Exposure measures: latent construct for screen exposure time (weekday time spent viewing television/playing videogames, presence of television in bedroom) and variables for movie content (proportion of PG-13 and R movies viewed).
Outcome measure: self- and parent reports of grades in school. Effects of media exposures on change in school performance between baseline and 24 months were assessed using structural equation modeling. Information about hypothesized mediators (substance use, sensation seeking, and school problem behavior) was obtained at baseline and at the 16-month follow-up.
Results: Adjusted for baseline school performance, baseline levels of mediators, and a range of covariates, both screen exposure time and media content had adverse effects on change in school performance. Screen exposure had an indirect effect on poor school performance through increased sensation seeking. Viewing more PG-13 and R-rated movies had indirect effects on poor school performance mediated through increases in substance use and sensation seeking. R-rated viewing also had an indirect effect on poor school performance through increased school behavior problems. The effect sizes of exposure time and content on the intermediate variables and ultimately on school performance were similar to those for previously recognized determinants of these mediators, including household income, parenting style, and adolescents' self-control.
Conclusions: These aspects of visual media use adversely affect school performance by increasing sensation seeking, substance use, and school problem behavior.
