Certificate of achievement
Do High School Gifted Programs Lead to Later-in-Life Success?
David Welsch & David Zimmer
Journal of Labor Research, June 2018, Pages 201–218
Abstract:
This paper investigates the effects of participation in gifted education programs, and offers several contributions to existing research. First, this paper studies the effects of high school programs, as opposed to the more commonly-studied elementary and middle school versions. Second, this paper considers impacts of gifted programs on later-in-life socioeconomic success, including college graduation and eventual employment, as opposed to short-run standardized test outcomes. Third, this paper uses sibling fixed effects, coupled with a recently-proposed decomposition method, as an identification approach. The main conclusion is that gifted programs tend to include students who possess traits that already correlate with later-in-life success. After controlling for those traits, gifted programs, per se, show little statistical relationship to later-in-life outcomes.
The Cost of Financing Education: Can Student Debt Hinder Entrepreneurship?
Karthik Krishnan & Pinshuo Wang
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We find that student debt is negatively related to the propensity to start a firm, particularly larger and more successful ventures. An exogenous change due to the Higher Education Amendments of 1998, which made student debt completely nondischargeable through personal bankruptcy, reduced the likelihood of entrepreneurship by student loan borrowers that were already in four-year college at the time of this regulation. Moreover, an exogenous shock to the level of student debt due to the Higher Education Amendments of 1992 negatively impacts entrepreneurship rates for students already in four-year college at the time of this regulation. Entrepreneurs with more student debt are more likely to fall behind on their student debt payments, and this relation is mitigated when their ventures are successful. Our evidence indicates that student debt inhibits entrepreneurship by exacerbating the effect of negative business outcomes on the individual.
A Day Late and a Dollar Short: Liquidity and Household Formation Among Student Borrowers
Sarena Goodman, Adam Isen & Constantine Yannelis
Federal Reserve Working Paper, April 2018
Abstract:
The federal government encourages human capital investment through lending and grant programs, but resources from these programs may also finance non-education activities for students whose liquidity is otherwise restricted. This paper explores this possibility, using administrative data for the universe of federal student loan borrowers linked to tax records. We examine the effects of a sharp discontinuity in program limits — generated by the timing of a student borrower’s 24th birthday — on household formation early in the lifecycle. After demonstrating that this discontinuity induces a jump in federal support, we estimate an immediate and persistent increase in homeownership, with larger effects among those most financially constrained. In the first year, borrowers with higher limits also earn less but are more likely to save; however, there are no differences in subsequent years. Finally, effects on marriage and fertility lag homeownership. Altogether, the results appear to be driven by liquidity rather than human capital or wealth effects.
Fostering Patience in the Classroom: Results from A Randomized Educational Intervention
Seda Ertac & Sule Alan
Journal of Political Economy, forthcoming
Abstract:
We evaluate the impact of a randomized educational intervention on children’s intertemporal choices. The intervention aims to improve the ability to imagine future selves, and encourages forward-looking behavior using a structured curriculum delivered by children’s own trained teachers. We find that treated students make more patient intertemporal decisions in incentivized experimental tasks. The results persist almost 3 years after the intervention, replicate well in a different sample, and are robust across different experimental elicitation methods. The effects also extend beyond experimental outcomes: we find that treated students are significantly less likely to receive a low “behavior grade”.
Observational Evaluation of Teachers: Measuring More Than We Bargained for?
Shanyce Campbell & Matthew Ronfeldt
American Educational Research Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Our secondary analysis of Measures of Effective Teaching data contributes to growing evidence that observation ratings, used as part of comprehensive teacher evaluation systems across the nation, may measure factors outside of a teacher’s performance or control. Specifically, men and teachers in classrooms with high concentrations of Black, Hispanic, male, and low-performing students receive significantly lower observation ratings. By using various methodological approaches and a subsample of teachers randomly assigned to classrooms, we demonstrate that these differences are unlikely due to actual differences in teacher quality. These results suggest that policymakers consider the unintended consequences of using observational ratings to evaluate teachers and consider ways to adjust ratings to ensure they are fair.
How Does School Accountability Affect Teachers? Evidence from New York City
Rebecca Dizon-Ross
NBER Working Paper, May 2018
Abstract:
Does holding schools accountable for student performance cause good teachers to leave low-performing schools? Using data from New York City, which assigns accountability grades to schools based on student achievement, I perform a regression discontinuity analysis and find evidence of the opposite effect. At the bottom end of the school grade distribution, I find that a lower accountability grade decreases teacher turnover and increases joining teachers’ quality. A likely channel is that accountability pressures induce increases in principal effort at lower-graded schools, especially among high-quality principals, and teachers value these changes. In contrast, at the top end of the school grade distribution, where accountability pressures are lower, low accountability grades may negatively impact joining teachers’ quality.
For-Profit Higher Education Responsiveness to Price Shocks: An Investigation of Changes in Post 9-11 GI Bill Allowed Maximum Tuitions
Matthew Baird et al.
RAND Working Paper, May 2018
Abstract:
One hypothesis regarding financial aid is that increased generosity in aid programs gives incentives for universities, particularly for-profit colleges, to increase tuition rates. However, this causal effect is difficult to estimate because identification requires exogenous shocks to a program's generosity. The Post 9/11 GI Bill represented one of the largest expansions of college benefits for veterans and their dependents. In the first version of the bill, the Department of Veterans Affairs offered full funding for public colleges and set the maximum tuition reimbursement for private institutions on a state level. However, in 2010, the VA set the maximum tuition benefit for private schools to one nationwide amount, while continuing to fully fund attendance at public colleges. In this study we use a difference in differences estimator and find that in states where the benefit increased, for-profit universities increased their sticker price tuition by $461. We also find that for-profit institutions in states where the VA cut benefits lowered tuition significantly, exhibiting symmetric behavior with pass through rates of around 5.6 percent. However, for-profit institutions did not increase admissions or enrollments because of the policy change.
Effect of Preschool Home Visiting on School Readiness and Need for Services in Elementary School: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Karen Bierman et al.
JAMA Pediatrics, forthcoming
Design, Setting, and Participants: In a randomized clinical trial, individual families with preschool children were assigned to receive the Research-Based and Developmentally Informed–Parent home visiting program (REDI-P) (intervention group) or math home learning games in the mail (control group). Follow-up assessments occurred in third grade. Families were recruited from 24 Head Start centers in 3 Pennsylvania counties serving rural and urban areas. Four-year-old children from 200 low-income families participated. Families were recruited in fall 2008 and fall 2009. The follow-up data used were collected in spring 2013 and spring 2014. The analyses were conducted in 2016 to 2017.
Interventions: REDI-P visits followed a well-specified curriculum, with 10 home visits during preschool and 6 booster visits in kindergarten. Parents received coaching to enhance parent-child relationships and home learning materials to support child development and school readiness.
Results: Two hundred participating children (110 [55.0%] white, 52 [26.0%] black, and 38 [19.0%] Latino; 112 [56.0%] male) had a mean (SD) age of 4.45 (0.29) years at the start of intervention. Third-grade outcomes were available for 153 (76.5%) of the initial sample and revealed statistically significant effects on multiple measures in each competency domain. In addition, REDI-P reduced child need for educational and mental health services at school. Significant effect sizes were small to moderate, averaging approximately one-third of 1 SD (Cohen d = 0.27 to 0.45). Mediation models demonstrated that intervention effects on services were accounted for by intervention effects on the targeted competencies.
EASEing Students Into College: The Impact of Multidimensional Support for Underprepared Students
Di Xu et al.
Educational Researcher, forthcoming
Abstract:
Extensive theoretical literature and qualitative evidence nominate learning communities as a promising strategy to improve persistence and success among at-risk populations, such as students who are academically underprepared for college-level coursework. Yet rigorous quantitative evidence on the impacts of these programs is limited. This paper estimates the causal effects of a first-year STEM learning communities program on both cognitive and noncognitive outcomes at a large public 4-year institution. We use a regression discontinuity design based on the fact that students are assigned to the program if their math SAT score is below a threshold. Our results indicate that program participation increased the academic performance and sense of belonging for students around the cutoff. These results provide compelling evidence that learning communities can support at-risk populations when implemented with a high level of fidelity.
A Little Can Go a Long Way: The Impact of Advertising Services on Program Take-Up
Oded Gurantz
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, forthcoming
Abstract:
The success of policy interventions is frequently stymied by the inability to induce take-up in target populations. In this article, I show that local advertising in combination with small financial lotteries increases the likelihood that low-income students apply for and receive state aid. I isolate causal impacts by estimating the change in completed aid applications in high schools where the advertising program was canceled due to the expiration of private funding compared with high schools that never participated in the advertising program. Using this differences-in-differences framework, I find that state aid applications declined by approximately 3% to 4% (or roughly four to six applications per high school). Furthermore, postsecondary enrollment in 4-year public colleges declined by about one-half to one percentage point in impacted high schools. These results suggest that small incentives may be a cost-effective means of promoting program take-up for marginal students.
Improving College Access at Low-Income High Schools? The Impact of GEAR UP Iowa on Postsecondary Enrollment and Persistence
Nicholas Bowman et al.
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, forthcoming
Abstract:
GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) is a federal program designed to promote college access and success for students from low-income backgrounds. Although some literature has examined K–12 outcomes, little research has explored the extent to which GEAR UP achieves its intended postsecondary objectives. The present study used a difference-in-differences design with a sample of 17,605 students to explore the impact of GEAR UP Iowa on college enrollment and persistence. The findings indicate that GEAR UP Iowa promotes the college enrollment of high school graduates by 3 to 4 percentage points, whereas it appears to have no effect on college persistence. Results are similar regardless of students’ socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, sex, and K–12 special education status.
Cool to be Smart or Smart to be Cool? Understanding Peer Pressure in Education
Leonardo Bursztyn, Georgy Egorov & Robert Jensen
Review of Economic Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
We model and test two school-based peer cultures: one that stigmatizes effort and one that rewards ability. The model shows that either may reduce participation in educational activities when peers can observe participation and performance. We design a field experiment that allows us to test for, and differentiate between, these two concerns. We find that peer pressure reduces takeup of an SAT prep package virtually identically across two very different high school settings. However, the effects arise from very distinct mechanisms: a desire to hide effort in one setting and a desire to hide low ability in the other.