Student union
The Impact of a Universal Class-Size Reduction Policy: Evidence from Florida's Statewide Mandate
Matthew Chingos
Economics of Education Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Class-size reduction (CSR) mandates presuppose that resources provided to reduce class size will have a larger impact on student outcomes than resources that districts can spend as they see fit. I estimate the impact of Florida's statewide CSR policy by comparing the deviations from prior achievement trends in districts that were required to reduce class size to deviations from prior trends in districts that received equivalent resources but were not required to reduce class size. I use the same comparative interrupted time series design to compare schools that were differentially affected by the policy (in terms of whether they had to reduce class size) but that did not receive equal additional resources. The results from both the district- and school-level analyses indicate that mandated CSR in Florida had little, if any, effect on student achievement.
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Tax Preferences for Higher Education and Adult College Enrollment
Sara LaLumia
National Tax Journal, March 2012, Pages 59-89
Abstract:
The federal government delivers substantial college aid through the tax code. The designs of the Lifetime Learning tax credit and the tuition deduction may make them particularly useful to older students. This paper investigates how these provisions affect college attendance of individuals in their 30s and 40s. Using panel data and fixed effects instrumental variable estimation, I find no effect on adult college attendance or degree completion. There is a positive effect on college attendance among a subsample, those whose 1998 educational attainment fell short of earlier expectations. Overall, these results suggest that tax-based aid subsidizes inframarginal college attendance among adults.
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Michael Becker et al.
Journal of Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Prior research has shown that quantity of schooling affects the development of intelligence in childhood and adolescence. However, it is still debated whether other aspects of schooling - such as ability tracking or, more generally, school quality - can also influence intelligence. In this study, the authors analyzed intelligence gains in academic- and vocational-track schools in Germany, testing for differential effects of school quality (academic vs. vocational track) on psychometric intelligence. Longitudinal data were obtained from a sample of N = 1,038 Grade 7 and 10 students in 49 schools. A nonverbal reasoning test was used as an indicator of general psychometric intelligence, and relevant psychological and social background variables were included in the analyses. Propensity score matching was used to control for selection bias. Results showed a positive effect of attending the academic track.
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Rational Ignorance in Education: A Field Experiment in Student Plagiarism
Thomas Dee & Brian Jacob
Journal of Human Resources, Spring 2012, Pages 397-434
Abstract:
Plagiarism appears to be a common problem among college students, yet there is little evidence on the effectiveness of interventions designed to minimize plagiarism. This study presents the results of a field experiment that evaluated the effects of a web-based educational tutorial in reducing plagiarism. 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 followup survey suggests that the intervention reduced plagiarism by increasing student knowledge rather than by increasing the perceived probabilities of detection and punishment.
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The Good, the Bad, and the Average: Evidence on Ability Peer Effects in Schools
Victor Lavy, Olmo Silva & Felix Weinhardt
Journal of Labor Economics, April 2012, Pages 367-414
Abstract:
We study ability peer effects in English secondary schools using data on four cohorts of students taking age-14 national tests and measuring peers' ability by prior achievements at age 11. Our identification is based on within-pupil regressions exploiting variation in achievements across three compulsory subjects tested at age 14 and age 11. Using this novel strategy, we find significant and sizable negative effects arising from bad peers at the bottom of the ability distribution but little evidence that average peer quality and good peers matter. However, these results are heterogeneous, with girls benefiting from academically bright peers and boys not.
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Vouchers, Public School Response, and the Role of Incentives: Evidence from Florida
Rajashri Chakrabarti
Economic Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper analyzes the incentives and responses of public schools in the context of an educational reform. Much of the literature studying the effect of voucher programs on public schools has looked at the effect on student and mean school scores. This paper tries to go inside the black box to investigate some of the ways in which schools facing the Florida accountability-tied voucher program behaved. Schools getting an "F" grade for the first time were exposed to the threat of vouchers, but did not face vouchers unless and until they got a second "F" within the next 3 years. In addition, "F," being the lowest grade, exposed the threatened schools to stigma. Exploiting the institutional details of this program, I analyze the incentives built into the system and investigate the behavior of the threatened public schools facing these incentives. There is strong evidence that they did respond to incentives. Using highly disaggregated school-level data, a difference-in-differences estimation strategy as well as a regression discontinuity (RD) analysis, I find that the threatened schools tended to focus more on students below the minimum criteria cutoffs rather than equally on all. Second, consistent with incentives, the threatened school improvements were, by far, the largest in writing. These results are robust to controlling for differential preprogram trends, changes in demographic compositions, mean reversion, and sorting. These findings have important policy implications.
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Stephanie Moser, Stephen West & Jan Hughes
Journal of Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study investigated the effects of retention or promotion in 1st grade on growth trajectories in mathematics and reading achievement over the elementary school years (Grades 1-5). From a large multiethnic sample (n = 784) of children who were below the median in literacy at school entrance, 363 children who were either promoted (n = 251) or retained (n = 112) in 1st grade could be successfully matched on 72 background variables. Achievement was measured annually using Woodcock-Johnson W scores; scores of retained children were shifted back 1 year to permit same-grade comparisons. Using longitudinal growth curve analysis, trajectories of math and reading scores for promoted and retained children were compared. Retained children received a 1-year boost in achievement; this boost fully dissipated by the end of elementary school. The pattern of subsequent retention in Grades 2, 3, and 4 and placement in special education of the sample during the elementary school years are also described and their effects are explored. Policy implications for interventions for low-achieving children are considered.
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What Makes Firm-based Vocational Training Schemes Successful? The Role of Commitment
Christian Dustmann & Uta Schonberg
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper studies a possible market failure in the firm-based vocational training market: training may be too complex to be specified in a contract in a way that is legally enforceable, resulting in the inability of firms to commit to training provision. Our hypothesis is that firm-based vocational training schemes are more successful, as evidenced by higher enrolment rates and lower dropout rates, in countries like Germany, than in Anglo-Saxon countries like the U.K., because commitment to training provision is more widespread in Germany. To support our hypothesis, we present a model of firm-provided training and use it to quantify how much lower training is in the no commitment than in the commitment case, by calibrating our model to match key data moments obtained from survey and administrative data. We find that training in the no-commitment case is, according to our baseline estimate, only 28% of that in the commitment case. We then provide evidence that commitment to training provision is likely to be more problematic in Anglo-Saxon countries than in Germany, and link this to well-structured regulatory and monitoring institutions that exist in Germany but are largely absent in Anglo-Saxon countries.
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For-Profit Higher Education: An Assessment of Costs and Benefits
Stephanie Riegg Cellini
National Tax Journal, March 2012, Pages 153-179
Abstract:
This paper provides a summary and analysis of the economics of the two-year, for-profit higher education sector. I highlight studies that have contributed to our understanding of this sector and assess its social costs and benefits. I generate a rough estimate of the annual per student cost to taxpayers of federal and state grant aid, appropriations, and contracts flowing to these institutions, as well as the cost of defaults on federally-subsidized student loans. I also estimate the out-of-pocket educational expenses and foregone earnings of for-profit students. I find that for-profit, two-year colleges cost taxpayers roughly $7,600 per year for a full-time equivalent student. Students bear most of the cost of their education, in the form of foregone earnings, tuition, and loan interest amounting to $51,600 per year. I contrast these costs with similar estimates for public community colleges, including the direct subsidization of the sector by state and local taxpayers. I find that community colleges cost taxpayers more than for-profits - about $11,400 per year - but students incur costs of only about $32,200 per year of attendance. Considering both public and private costs, community colleges are thus roughly $15,600 less expensive. For-profit college attendance would result in net benefits for students if earnings gains exceed 8.5 percent per year of education, while students in community colleges require minimum earnings gains of 5.3 percent per year of education to reap positive net benefits.
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Talia Bar, Vrinda Kadiyali & Asaf Zussman
Journal of Labor Economics, April 2012, Pages 445-478
Abstract:
Concerns over grade inflation and disparities in grading practices have led institutions of higher education in the United States to adopt various grading reforms. An element common to several reforms is providing information on the distribution of grades in different courses. The main aims of such "grades in context" policies are to make grades more informative to transcript readers and to curb grade inflation. We provide a simple model to demonstrate that such policies can have complex effects on patterns of student course enrollment. These effects may lower the informativeness of some transcripts, increase the average grade, and lower welfare.
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Effects of High School Course-Taking on Secondary and Postsecondary Success
Mark Long, Dylan Conger & Patrice Iatarola
American Educational Research Journal, April 2012, Pages 285-322
Abstract:
Using panel data from a census of public school students in the state of Florida, the authors examine the associations between students' high school course-taking in various subjects and their 10th-grade test scores, high school graduation, entry into postsecondary institutions, and postsecondary performance. The authors use propensity score matching (based on 8th-grade test scores, other student characteristics, and school effects) within groups of students matched on the composition of the students' course-taking in other subjects to estimate the differences in outcomes for students who take rigorous courses in a variety of subjects. The authors find substantial significant differences in outcomes for those who take rigorous courses, and these estimated effects are often larger for disadvantaged youth and students attending disadvantaged schools.
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How Does Education Affect the Earnings Distribution in Urban China?
Le Wang
Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming
Abstract:
It is widely believed that investing in education could be an effective strategy to promote higher standards of living and equity. We empirically assess this claim by estimating returns to education across the whole earnings distribution in urban China and find supporting evidence. In particular, we find that returns to education are more pronounced for individuals in the lower tail of the distribution than for those in the upper tail and that returns to education are uniformly larger for women than men. We also find that returns to education increased over time across the whole earnings distribution.
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Matthew Makel et al.
Journal of Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) research (e.g., Marsh & Parker, 1984) has found that perceptions of academic ability are generally positively related to individual ability and negatively related to classroom and school average ability. However, BFLPE research typically relies on environmental differences as a between-subjects factor. Unlike most previous BFLPE research, the current study used group average ability as a within-subject variable by measuring student self-concept before and after high-ability students left their regular school environment to participate in a supplemental academic summer program. Results revealed that academic self-concept (ASC) and educational aspirations did not undergo significant declines when students were in the relatively higher ability environment. Even with ceiling effects limiting potential increases in ASC, participants were more than 2 times as likely to increase or maintain their ASC as they were to report declines in ASC. Further, several boosts were found in nonacademic self-concepts. Such findings indicate that BFLPEs are not necessarily associated with supplemental educational environments.
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Going Public: Who Leaves a Large, Longstanding, and Widely Available Urban Voucher Program?
Joshua Cowen et al.
American Educational Research Journal, April 2012, Pages 231-256
Abstract:
This article contributes to research concerning the determinants of student mobility between public and private schools. The authors analyze a unique set of data collected as part of a new evaluation of Milwaukee's citywide voucher program. The authors find several important patterns. Students who switch from the private to the public sector were performing lower than their peers on standardized tests in the prior year. African Americans were disproportionately more likely to leave the private sector, as were students in schools serving proportionally more voucher students. The authors argue that although these results indicate that a large voucher program may provide an educational home for some students, it may not provide a long-term solution to those who are among the most disadvantaged.
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Nikolas Pharris-Ciurej, Jerald Herting & Charles Hirschman
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
The Washington State Achiever (WSA) program was a large-scale educational intervention of scholarships, mentoring, and school redesign designed to encourage students from moderate and low income families to attend college in Washington State. Using a quasi-experimental design based on pre- and post-intervention surveys of high school seniors in program and non-program schools, we find a significant WSA effect on educational outcomes, net of the demographic and socioeconomic composition of students across schools. Across the three intervention high schools, the program is strongly significant in one school, significant after a lag in another school, and not significant in a third. We speculate about the potential reasons for the differential program effect across high schools.
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Students Who Choose and the Schools They Leave: Examining Participation in Intradistrict Transfers
Kristie Phillips, Charles Hausman & Elisabeth Larsen
Sociological Quarterly, Spring 2012, Pages 264-294
Abstract:
Data from one urban school district is analyzed to examine equity-based arguments about school choice as they pertain to intradistrict transfer policies. We specifically examine which factors influence the propensity for parents to participate in choice, and how choice schools differ from the schools that students are zoned to attend. We find that advantaged and disadvantaged parents make similar choices in that they are both likely to choose more affluent schools with better academic records than the schools they are zoned to attend. However, these choices operate in different spheres, as advantaged parents choose the most affluent schools with the best academic records, and disadvantaged parents choose away from the least affluent schools with the worst academic records to schools that are slightly better.
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Jantine Spilt, Helma Koomen & Suzanne Jak
Journal of School Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although research consistently points to poorer teacher-student relationships for boys than girls, there are no studies that take into account the effects of teacher gender and control for possible measurement non-invariance across student and teacher gender. This study addressed both issues. The sample included 649 primary school teachers (182 men) and 1493 students (685 boys). Teachers completed a slightly adapted version of the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale. The results indicated limited measurement non-invariance in teacher reports. Female teachers reported better (i.e., more close, less conflictual, and less dependent) relationships with students than male teachers. In addition, both male and female teachers reported more conflictual relationships with boys than with girls, and female teachers also reported less close relationships with boys than with girls. The findings challenge society's presumption that male teachers have better relationships with boys than women teachers.
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Stepping Stones: Principal Career Paths and School Outcomes
Tara Béteille, Demetra Kalogrides & Susanna Loeb
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
More than one out of every five principals leaves their school each year. In some cases, these career changes are driven by the choices of district leadership. In other cases, principals initiate the move, often demonstrating preferences to work in schools with higher achieving students from more advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. Principals often use schools with many poor or low-achieving students as stepping stones to what they view as more desirable assignments. We use longitudinal data from one large urban school district to study the relationship between principal turnover and school outcomes. We find that principal turnover is, on average, detrimental to school performance. Frequent turnover of school leadership results in lower teacher retention and lower student achievement gains. Leadership changes are particularly harmful for high poverty schools, low-achieving schools, and schools with many inexperienced teachers. These schools not only suffer from high rates of principal turnover but are also unable to attract experienced successors. The negative effect of leadership changes can be mitigated when vacancies are filled by individuals with prior experience leading other schools. However, the majority of new principals in high poverty and low-performing schools lack prior leadership experience and leave when more attractive positions become available in other schools.