Lucky to graduate
Do Plans Really Matter?: Re-Assessing the Role of Adolescent Expectations in Educational Attainment
Samuel Fishman
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, forthcoming
Abstract:
Stratification research in the status attainment tradition contends that adolescent educational expectations are a central determinant of educational attainment. Little research, however, has assessed the robustness of the powerful expectations-attainment associations revealed in cross-sectional models. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to estimate OLS, school fixed effects, and sibling fixed effects models, this study examines the association between adolescent expectations and educational attainment. The analysis reveals that adolescent expectations may play a much smaller role in predicting educational attainment than revealed in cross-sectional models. Point estimates of the association between adolescent expectations and educational attainment from sibling fixed effects models are over 50 percent lower than OLS estimates, suggesting that family-level characteristics confound this relationship. Results from these analyses demonstrate that respondents’ educational expectations likely exert less influence on educational attainment than status attainment research would suggest.
‘Post-Truth’ Schooling and Marketized Education: Explaining the Decline in Sweden's School Quality
Magnus Henrekson & Johan Wennström
Journal of Institutional Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
The Swedish school system suffers from profound problems with teacher recruitment and retention, knowledge decline, and grade inflation. Absenteeism is high, and psychiatric disorders have risen sharply among Swedish pupils. In this pioneering analysis of the consequences of combining institutionalized social constructivism with an extensive marketization of education, we suggest that these problems are to no small extent a result of an unlikely combination of a postmodern view of truth and knowledge, the ensuing pedagogy of child-centered discovery, and market principles. We show how the stipulated view of truth and knowledge and the design of the system impacts on the incentives for the various agents involved: pupils, parents, teachers, principals, school owners, the municipality, the central government, and, ultimately, the general public. Our study implies that caution is necessary for countries that have a tradition of social-constructivist practices in their education systems and are considering implementing or expanding market-based school reforms.
Do Income Contingent Student Loan Programs Distort Earnings? Evidence from the UK
Jack Britton & Jonathan Gruber
NBER Working Paper, May 2019
Abstract:
Government backed income contingent student loans are an increasingly being used to fund higher education. An income contingent repayment plan acts as an incremental marginal tax on labor earnings, which could cause individuals to distort their work effort. This paper uses an administrative dataset from the UK that links student loan borrowers between 1998 and 2008, to their official tax records between 2001/02 and 2013/14. Using a combination of techniques, including bunching and difference-in-difference methodology, our findings strongly reject the hypothesis that the UK’s income-contingent repayment plan distorts labor supply.
Association of Team Sports Participation With Long-term Mental Health Outcomes Among Individuals Exposed to Adverse Childhood Experiences
Molly Easterlin et al.
JAMA Pediatrics, forthcoming
Design, Setting, and Participants: This study used data from 9668 individuals who participated in waves 1 (1994-1995) and 4 (2008) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Individuals were included if they had complete data on exposure to ACEs (physical and sexual abuse, emotional neglect, parental alcohol misuse, parental incarceration, and living with a single parent) and a valid sample weight. Statistical analysis was performed from November 6, 2017, to January 4, 2019.
Main Outcomes and Measures: The association between team sports participation in grades 7 to 12 (wave 1) and diagnosis of depression and/or anxiety and current depressive symptoms (determined by Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale–10 scores) at ages 24 to 32 years (wave 4) among individuals exposed to ACEs. Multivariable logistic regression models were weighted based on propensity scores for factors associated with team sports participation and controlled for individual, family, and school characteristics. Interaction terms tested whether associations between team sports participation and mental health varied by sex.
Results: Of 9668 individuals included in the study (4470 male [50.0%]; mean [SD] age, 15.2 [1.75] years), 4888 (49.3%) reported 1 or more ACE and 2084 (21.3%) reported 2 or more ACEs. Among those with ACEs, team sports participation during adolescence was significantly associated with lower odds of receiving a diagnosis of depression (unadjusted rate, 16.8% vs 22.0%; propensity score–weighted [PSW] adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.76; 95% CI, 0.59-0.97) or anxiety (11.8% vs 16.8%; PSW aOR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.56-0.89) and having current depressive symptoms (21.9% vs 27.5%; PSW aOR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.71-1.01). There were no significant differences in associations between team sports participation and mental health by sex. Stratified analyses showed significant associations for all outcomes among males (depression: PSW aOR, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.46-0.99]; anxiety: PSW aOR, 0.66 [95% CI, 0.45-0.96]; depressive symptoms: PSW aOR, 0.75 [95% CI 0.56-0.99]) but only 1 outcome among females (anxiety: PSW aOR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.54-0.98).
Online Social Network Effects in Labor Markets: Evidence From Facebook's Entry into College Campuses
Luis Armona
Stanford Working Paper, May 2019
Abstract:
In this paper, I estimate the causal effect of increased exposure to online social networks during college on future labor market outcomes. Using quasi-random variation from Facebook's entry to college campuses during its infancy, I exploit a natural experiment to determine the relationship between online social network access and future earnings. I find a positive effect on wages from Facebook access during college. This positive effect is largest in magnitude for female students, and students from lower-middle class families. I provide evidence that this positive effect from Facebook access comes through the channel of increased social ties to former classmates, which in turn leads to strengthened employment networks between college alumni. My estimates imply that access to Facebook for 4 years of college causes a 2.7 percentile increase in a cohort's average earnings, relative to the earnings of other individuals born in the same year. This translates to an average nominal wage increase of $3,000-$5,000 in 2014.
The spillover benefits of expanding access to preschool
Breyon Williams
Economics of Education Review, June 2019, Pages 127-143
Abstract:
I ask do spillover benefits exist from preschool. I exploit district and time variation in access to a state preschool program (CDEP) that targets disadvantaged four-year-olds (those eligible for free or reduced-price lunch or Medicaid). Using a difference-in-differences design, I estimate the effects by CDEP-eligibility status of CDEP exposure (residing in a CDEP district after launch at age four) on test scores. I find that CDEP benefits its targeted population and increases the math and reading scores of exposed, CDEP-ineligible students by about 0.13 and 0.14 standard deviations, respectively. These spillover effects may stem, in whole or in part, from improvements to classroom decorum via fewer behavioral disruptions.
Teacher Incentives and Student Achievement: Evidence from an Advancement Program
Ozkan Eren
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper examines the effects of a comprehensive performance pay program implemented in high‐need schools using administrative data from Louisiana. Exploiting the within‐student variation in the timing of implementation, we find a large and significant effect beginning with the second year of the program on math achievement. Similar but generally insignificant point estimates are observed in social studies. As for English Language Arts and science, there are no effects of the program. We provide evidence against changes in the composition of teacher workforce and postadoption student sorting as potential explanations for our results. We then show aggregate findings from a web‐survey that teachers may have altered their teaching practices following performance‐based compensation. Finally, under certain assumptions, we calculate the net present value of earnings impact to be close to a million dollars per school‐year for math.
Moving the classroom to the computer lab: Can online learning with in-person support improve outcomes in community colleges?
Whitney Kozakowski
Economics of Education Review, June 2019, Pages 159-172
Abstract:
Colleges are experimenting with integrating technology into the classroom to improve student learning and reduce costs. While fully online models appear to have negative effects on student learning compared to in-person instruction, there is less evidence about models that blend elements of online and in-person instruction. In this study, I estimate the effect of adopting a blended approach to teaching called the emporium model in which students complete online work in an on-campus lab with instructors onsite to assist. Using a triple difference identification strategy, I find that using the emporium model compared to traditional instruction in remedial math courses in a state community college system reduces course pass rates, retention, and degree attainment. Effects were generally consistent across all three levels of remediation, suggesting there was little variation by students’ incoming placement test score.
Fractions in College: How Basic Math Remediation Impacts Community College Students
Federick Ngo
Research in Higher Education, June 2019, Pages 485–520
Abstract:
This study investigates the link between basic math skills, remediation, and the educational opportunity and outcomes of community college students. Capitalizing on a unique placement policy in one community college that assigns students to remedial coursework based on multiple math skill cutoffs, I first identify the skills that most commonly inhibit student access to higher-level math courses; these are procedural fluency with fractions and the ability to solve word problems. I then estimate the impact of “just missing” these skill cutoffs using multiple rating-score regression discontinuity design. Missing just one fractions question on the placement diagnostic, and therefore starting college in a lower-level math course, had negative effects on college persistence and attainment. Missing other skill cutoffs did not have the same impacts. The findings suggest the need to reconsider the specific math expectations that regulate access to college math coursework.
Are School Officials Held Accountable for Fiscal Stress? Evidence from School District Financial Intervention Systems
Paul Thompson
Economics of Education Review, October 2019, Pages 44-54
Abstract:
Performance accountability systems have generally been used as a way to provide salient information to citizens regarding school district performance, enabling voters to make more informed decisions at the ballot box. This paper considers the electoral accountability consequences of financial intervention systems, which monitor school district financial health and intervene in cases of severe financial problems. Examining the Ohio fiscal stress label system, I find that the labels received through this system lead to greater school board member and school administrator turnover, with larger effects found following the most severe label that involves the state takeover of the school district’s financial decision-making. The large turnover effects for school boards after the state takeover appear to be driven by a decreased voter preference for incumbents after the state takeover. These results suggest that citizens in these school districts are likely placing accountability pressure on school officials more as a result of the sanction (i.e., the state takeover) than the financial information these labels may provide.
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Interleaved Mathematics Practice
Doug Rohrer et al.
Journal of Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We report the results of a preregistered, cluster randomized controlled trial of a mathematics learning intervention known as interleaved practice. Whereas most mathematics assignments consist of a block of problems devoted to the same skill or concept, an interleaved assignment is arranged so that no 2 consecutive problems require the same strategy. Previous small-scale studies found that practice assignments with a greater proportion of interleaved practice produced higher test scores. In the present study, we assessed the efficacy and feasibility of interleaved practice in a naturalistic setting with a large, diverse sample. Each of 54 7th-grade mathematics classes periodically completed interleaved or blocked assignments over a period of 4 months, and then both groups completed an interleaved review assignment. One month later, students took an unannounced test, and the interleaved group outscored the blocked group, 61% versus 38%, d 0.83. Teachers were able to implement the intervention without training, and they later expressed support for interleaved practice in an anonymous survey they completed before they knew the results of the study. Although important caveats remain, the results suggest that interleaved mathematics practice is effective and feasible.
Early Intervention in College Classes and Improved Student Outcomes
John Gordanier, William Hauk & Chandini Sankaran
Economics of Education Review, October 2019, Pages 23-29
Abstract:
This research investigates the effectiveness of an early academic intervention in Principles of Economics courses at a large public university. After the end of the fourth week of classes, students who fell below a 70% threshold on a performance measure, or had an attendance rate below 75%, were referred to the university's Student Success Center for additional academic support. A referral consisted of students being informed of their status and being given optional assistance in course specific skills through tutoring, as well as training in general skills like time management and study skills. Using a regression discontinuity framework at the referral threshold, we find that the performance intervention improved student scores on common questions on the final exam by 6.5 to 7.5 percentage points for students at or near the performance threshold. The gains are particularly large for students who entered college with below average math placement scores. These results indicate that low-cost light-touch interventions may significantly affect student academic performance.
Can Video Technology Improve Teacher Evaluations? An Experimental Study
Thomas Kane et al.
Education Finance and Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
Teacher evaluation reform has been among the most controversial education reforms in recent years. It also is one of the most costly, in terms of the time teachers and principals must spend on classroom observations. We conducted a randomized field trial in four sites to evaluate whether substituting teacher-collected videos for in-person observations could improve the value of teacher observations for teachers, administrators, or students. Relative to teachers in the control group who participated in standard in-person observations, teachers in the video-based treatment group reported that post-observation meetings were more “supportive” and that they were more able to identify a specific practice they changed afterward. Treatment principals were able to shift their observation work to non-instructional times. The program also substantially increased teacher retention. Nevertheless, the intervention did not improve students' academic achievement or self-reported classroom experiences, either in the year of the intervention or for the next cohort of students. Following from the literature on observation and feedback cycles in low-stakes settings, we hypothesize that to improve student outcomes schools may need to pair video feedback with more specific supports for desired changes in practice.
Promoting cognitive and soft skills acquisition in a disadvantaged public school system: Evidence from the Nurture thru Nature randomized experiment
Radha Jagannathan, Michael Camasso & Maia Delacalle
Economics of Education Review, June 2019, Pages 173-191
Abstract:
It is widely acknowledged that our public schools have failed to produce sufficient levels of high quality STEM education. The mathematics and science performance of minority and disadvantaged students has been especially troubling with blacks and Hispanics substantially underrepresented in the STEM labor market. In this paper we examine the impacts of a STEM enhancement program called Nurture thru Nature (NtN) on the cognitive (academic grades) and soft skills development of 139 elementary school students who attended the program over an eight year period (2010–2017). Utilizing a randomized experimental design or RCT with a control group of 491 elementary school students, we find that NtN slows the deterioration in students’ math and science grades relative to controls and improves soft skills such as conscientiousness, higher order thinking, empathy, and pro-social behavior.