Degrees of Difficulty
Experimental Evidence on the Impacts of Need‐Based Financial Aid: Longitudinal Assessment of the Wisconsin Scholars Grant
Drew Anderson et al.
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
We conduct the first long‐term experimental evaluation of a need‐based financial aid program, the privately funded Wisconsin Scholars Grant. Over multiple cohorts, the program failed to increase degree completion and graduate school enrollment up to 10 years after matriculation. The program did reduce time‐to‐degree for some students and modestly increased the number of STEM degrees earned. The lack of robust effects raises important questions about the conditions necessary for financial aid to benefit students.
The effect of physical education on children's body weight and human capital: New evidence from the ECLS‐K:2011
Steven Bednar & Kathryn Rouse
Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study provides evidence on the impact of physical education on child body weight, cognitive, and noncognitive achievement using data from the Early Child Longitudinal Survey Kindergarten Class of 2010‐2011 (ECLS‐K: 2011). Students in the 2011 cohort were exposed to increased accountability pressures by No Child Left Behind, yet average weekly physical education time has not decreased from that reported in studies using the original ECLS‐K class of 1998‐1999. We instrument for teacher‐reported weekly PE time using state physical education laws and exploit the panel design of the data to estimate individual fixed effects models to address concerns of endogeneity. We find time spent in physical education has essentially no effect on child body weight or human capital outcomes of U.S. elementary school children.
College Access and Adult Health
Benjamin Cowan & Nathan Tefft
NBER Working Paper, January 2020
Abstract:
We investigate the relationship between college openings, college attainment, and health behaviors and outcomes later in life. Though a large prior literature attempts to isolate the causal effect of education on health via instrumental variables (IV), most studies use instruments that affect schooling behavior in childhood or adolescence, i.e. before the college enrollment decision. Our paper examines whether an increase in 2- and 4-year institutions per capita (“college accessibility”) in a state contributes to higher college attainment and better health later in life. Using 1980-2015 Census and American Community Survey data, we find consistent evidence that accessibility of public 2-year institutions positively affects schooling attainment and subsequent employment and earnings levels, particularly among whites and Hispanics. With restricted-use 1984-2000 National Health Interview Survey data, we again find that public 2-year accessibility increases schooling and benefits a host of health behaviors and outcomes in adulthood: it deters smoking, raises exercise levels, and improves self-reported health. However, most long-term health conditions are unaffected, which may be partially due to the age of our sample.
Short-Run and Long-Run Effects of Peers from Disrupted Families
Ziteng Lei
University of California Working Paper, December 2019
Abstract:
I study the short-run and long-run effects of exposure to peers from disrupted families in adolescence, using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) data. I find that girls are mostly unaffected by peers from disrupted families, while boys exposed to more peers from disrupted families exhibit more school problems in adolescence, and higher arrest probability, less stable jobs and higher probability of suffering from financial stress as young adults. These results suggest negative effects on non-cognitive skills related to impulsivity, but no effect on cognitive skills, measured by academic outcomes and educational attainment. The dramatic increase in family disruption should thus receive more attention, as the inter-generational mobility and inequality consequences could be larger than anticipated because of classroom spillovers.
Teachers’ Unions: Engaging Teachers and Improving Student Achievement in States That Prohibit Collective Bargaining
Eunice Han & Jeffrey Keefe
Educational Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research investigates whether teachers’ unions influence student academic achievement in Southern states that prohibit collective bargaining. Our data are from the School and Staffing Survey and the Stanford Education Data Archive. We measure the strength of teachers’ unions by union membership rate and meet-and-confer status of a district and employ a multilevel mixed-effects model to control for unobservable common characteristics of districts within each state. We find that teachers’ unions have a significantly positive association with student test scores, in both math and English, particularly for Hispanic and Black students. This positive link of unions with math is concentrated on the low- and mid-socioeconomic status (SES) districts but is detected across all SES for English.
High School GPAs and ACT Scores as Predictors of College Completion: Examining Assumptions About Consistency Across High Schools
Elaine Allensworth & Kallie Clark
Educational Researcher, forthcoming
Abstract:
High school GPAs (HSGPAs) are often perceived to represent inconsistent levels of readiness for college across high schools, whereas test scores (e.g., ACT scores) are seen as comparable. This study tests those assumptions, examining variation across high schools of both HSGPAs and ACT scores as measures of academic readiness for college. We found students with the same HSGPA or the same ACT score graduate at very different rates based on which high school they attended. Yet, the relationship of HSGPAs with college graduation is strong and consistent and larger than school effects. In contrast, the relationship of ACT scores with college graduation is weak and smaller than high school effects, and the slope of the relationship varies by high school.
Preparation or Provocation? Student Perceptions of Active Shooter Drills
Michael Huskey & Nadine Connell
Criminal Justice Policy Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Several highly publicized incidents of school violence in the past two decades have highlighted the importance of school safety and crisis preparation for students, parents, and school administrators. Although prior research has focused on the effectiveness of various security and crisis preparation measures, few studies have analyzed student perceptions of these policies. This study utilizes survey data collected from students at a public university in the southwestern United States to evaluate whether active shooter drills experienced in high school were related to negative student outcomes. Results show that experiencing an active shooter drill in high school was associated with significant increases in student fear, inflated perceptions of risk, and a decrease in perceptions of school safety. Implications for future research and policy initiatives regarding active shooter drills are discussed, specifically the need for increased transparency, standardization of drills, and addressing effective methods of implementing active shooter drills in schools.
Principal Quality and Student Attendance
Brendan Bartanen
Educational Researcher, forthcoming
Abstract:
Student attendance is increasingly recognized as an important measure of educational success, which has spurred a body of research examining the extent to which schools can affect this outcome. However, prior work almost exclusively focuses on teachers, and no studies have explicitly examined the importance of school leaders. This study begins to fill this gap by estimating principal value-added to student absences. Drawing on statewide data from Tennessee over a decade, I find that principal effects on student absences are comparable in magnitude to effects on student achievement. Moving from the 25th to 75th percentile in principal value-added decreases student absences by 1.4 instructional days and lowers the probability of chronic absenteeism by 4 percentage points. Principals have larger effects in urban and high-poverty schools, which also have the highest baseline absenteeism rates. Finally, principals who excel at decreasing student absences may not be those who excel at increasing student test scores, and high-stakes accountability measures, such as supervisor ratings, fail to identify principals who decrease student absenteeism.
An Athletic Coach-Delivered Middle School Gender Violence Prevention Program: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial
Elizabeth Miller et al.
JAMA Pediatrics, forthcoming
Design, Setting, and Participants: An unblinded cluster randomized clinical trial from spring 2015 to fall 2017 at 41 middle schools (38 clusters). The study included 973 male middle school athletes (ages 11-14 years; grades 6-8; participation rate 50%) followed up for 1 year (retention 86%).
Interventions: Coaching Boys Into Men (CBIM) is a prevention program that trains athletic coaches to talk to male athletes about (1) respectful relationship behaviors, (2) promoting more gender-equitable attitudes, and (3) positive bystander intervention when harmful behaviors among peers are witnessed.
Results: Of the 973 participants, 530 were white (54.5%), 282 were black (29.0%), 14 were Hispanic (1.4%), and the remainder were multiracial, other race/ethnicity, or not reported. Positive bystander behaviors increased at end of sports season and at 1-year follow-up (relative risk, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.06-2.16 and 1.53; 95% CI, 1.10-2.12, respectively) as did recognition of abuse (mean risk difference, 0.14; 95% CI, 0.01-0.27 and 0.14; 95% CI, 0.00-0.28, respectively). At 1-year follow-up, among those who ever dated, athletes on teams receiving CBIM had lower odds of reporting recent ARA/SV [adolescent relationship abuse / sexual violence] perpetration (odds ratio, 0.24; 95% CI, 0.09-0.65). Gender attitudes and intentions to intervene did not differ between study arms. In exploratory intensity-adjusted and per protocol analyses, athletes on teams receiving CBIM were more likely to report positive bystander behaviors and to endorse equitable gender attitudes and less likely to report ARA and sexual harassment perpetration 1 year later.
Is Early Start a Better Start? Evaluating California State University's Early Start Remediation Policy
Michal Kurlaender, Lester Lusher & Matthew Case
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
Remediation has long been a costly way to address the misalignment between K‐12 and higher education. In 2011, the California State University (CSU), the nation's largest public four‐year university system, enacted Early Start, requiring students needing remediation to enroll in such courses in the summer before their freshman year. We estimate the impact of Early Start summer remediation relative to both traditional fall remediation and relative to no remediation at all. Our results suggest Early Start summer remediation has not improved student performance or persistence relative to either alternative. As many states move away from remedial courses altogether, there is continued need for both innovation and for evidence in policy and practice to improve college readiness and success.