Cost of Attendance
Does the Bennett Hypothesis Hold in Professional Education? An Empirical Analysis
Robert Kelchen
Research in Higher Education, May 2020, Pages 357-382
Abstract:
Policymakers have been debating the Bennett Hypothesis - whether colleges increase tuition after the federal government increases access to student loans - for decades. Yet most of the prior research has focused on studying small changes to loan limits or Pell Grants for undergraduate students. In this study, I examine whether business schools (the most popular master's program) and medical schools (one of the most-indebted programs) responded to a large increase in federal student loan limits in 2006 following the creation of the Grad PLUS program by raising tuition or living expenses as well as examining whether student debt burdens also increased. Using two quasi-experimental estimation strategies and program-level data from 2001 to 2016, I find little consistent evidence to support the Bennett Hypothesis in either medical or business schools.
Do College Applicants Respond to Changes in Sticker Prices Even When They Don't Matter?
Phillip Levine, Jennifer Ma & Lauren Russell
NBER Working Paper, March 2020
Abstract:
Do students respond to sticker prices or actual prices when applying to college? These costs differ for students eligible for financial aid. Students who do not understand this may not apply to some colleges because of the perceived high cost. We test for this form of "sticker shock" using College Board data on SAT scores sends, as a proxy for applications, to state flagship institutions for students entering college in 2006-2013. Some public flagships guarantee financial aid will meet full financial need. Sticker price increases at those schools would not affect the actual cost after factoring in financial aid and should not affect decisions for those eligible for aid. We exploit the large and variable increases in sticker prices at public flagships during the financial crisis generated from state budget shortfalls. We also control for local labor market conditions to abstract from the recession's impact on individual educational decisions. We find evidence of sticker shock - students unaffected by virtue of institutional aid policies still apply less often. Using data from the National Student Clearinghouse, we also find that price increases at public flagships reduce enrollment of high achieving students, regardless of financial aid status, who often choose private colleges instead.
Asking young children to "do science" instead of "be scientists" increases science engagement in a randomized field experiment
Marjorie Rhodes, Amanda Cardarelli & Sarah-Jane Leslie
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Subtle features of common language can imply to young children that scientists are a special and distinct kind of person - a way of thinking that can interfere with the development of children's own engagement with science. We conducted a large field experiment (involving 45 prekindergarten schools, 130 teachers, and over 1,100 children) to test if targeting subtle properties of language can increase science engagement in children's daily lives. Despite strong tendencies to describe scientists as a special kind of person (in a baseline control condition), brief video-based training changed the language that teachers used to introduce science to their students. These changes in language were powerful enough to predict children's science interest and behavior days later. Thus, subtle features of language shape children's beliefs and behaviors as they unfold in real world environments. Harnessing these mechanisms could promote science engagement in early childhood.
Not All Scientists Are Equal: Role Aspirants Influence Role Modeling Outcomes in STEM
Danfei Hu et al.
Basic and Applied Social Psychology, March 2020, Pages 192-208
Abstract:
Three experiments examined how role aspirants' (i.e., people exposed to role models) views of scientists' exceptional talent affected motivation. Study 1 demonstrated that when exposed to a scientist whose success is associated with effort (i.e., Thomas Edison), rather than inborn talent (i.e., Albert Einstein), role aspirants' motivation increased. Study 2 found that role aspirants benefitted less from exposure to Einstein than to a non-famous scientist. Study 3 replicated and supplemented Studies 1 and 2 by further examining the directionality of motivation. Exposure to Einstein and Edison had opposing effects on motivation relative to a non-famous scientist, due to the different views role aspirants hold of their success. These results suggest that role aspirants are critical in determining role modeling outcomes.
Crowdfunding the Front Lines: An Empirical Study of Teacher-Driven School Improvement
Samantha Keppler, Jun Li & Di (Andrew) Wu
University of Michigan Working Paper, March 2020
Abstract:
To reduce inequality, low-income schools face pressure to improve. Yet, it is unclear how. Evidence is mixed as to how much large increases to district budgets help. In this paper, we examine the effect of small investments made closer to students. We study whether teacher-posted resource requests (projects) funded through the nonprofit crowdfunding platform DonorsChoose improve school performance. Combining DonorsChoose data with data on student test scores in Pennsylvania from 2012-2013 to 2017-2018, we find an increase in the number of projects funded at a school leads to higher student performance, after controlling for selection biases. In high schools, a 10% increase in the number of funded projects leads to a 0.1 to 0.2 percentage point (pp) increase in students scoring basic and above in all tested subjects. A 10% increase in the number of funded projects at an elementary or middle school leads to a 0.06 pp increase in the percentage of students scoring basic and above in language arts and a 0.15 pp increase in science. We attribute the effect to teachers who, as front-line workers, have well-formed ideas about how basic materials could improve student learning. Based on a textual analysis of statements from funded teachers describing how they use DonorsChoose resources, we find evidence supporting the front-line-worker mechanism. Our study is the first to provide large-scale empirical evidence of the front-line-worker effect in education. To education leaders and policy-makers, our results highlight the importance of involving teachers in the school improvement process.
Are federal student loan accountability regulations effective?
Christopher Lau
Economics of Education Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Within the education sector, accountability regulations have been used with the intended purpose of improving student outcomes. In higher education, one such regulation aims to improve the ability of borrowers to repay their student loans by placing sanctions on institutions with excessive student loan defaults. This paper examines whether student loan accountability regulations were able to (1) lower student loan defaults, and (2) address the broader objective of improving repayment ability, by exploiting a change to the period in which the regulation's performance measure was monitored. I find that the change to the regulation resulted in less student loan defaults at for-profit colleges. I also find that this reduction in student loan defaults resulted in a short-term improvement in repayment ability at for-profit, but not nonprofit, institutions.
Rivalries, Bowl Eligibility, and Scheduling Effects in College Football
Jason Winfree
Journal of Sports Economics, June 2020, Pages 477-492
Abstract:
This study analyzes how the importance of a game, or characteristics of the previous game, impacts college football games. The results show that rivalry games are harder to predict, and the strength of the previous opponent influences the outcome of the game. If a team's previous game was close, this negatively influences the team. There is no evidence that the previous game's location or a team's bowl eligibility makes any difference. Given that universities control much of their football schedule and that the team's success influences many aspects of the university, scheduling can impact the university's finances.
The Labor Market Returns to Advanced Degrees
Joseph Altonji & Ling Zhong
NBER Working Paper, April 2020
Abstract:
We estimate the labor market return to an MBA, a JD, and master's in engineering, nursing, education, psychology and social work, and thirteen other graduate degrees. To control for heterogeneity in preferences and ability, we use fixed effects for combinations of field-specific undergraduate and graduate degrees obtained by the last time we observe an individual. Basically, we compare earnings before the graduate degree to earnings after the degree. We find large differences across graduate fields in earnings effects, and more moderate differences in internal rates of return that account for program length and tuition. The returns often depend on the undergraduate major. The contribution of occupational upgrading to the earnings gain varies across degrees. Finally, simple regression-based estimates of returns to graduate fields are often highly misleading.
Virtual advising for high-achieving high school students
Oded Gurantz et al.
Economics of Education Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine whether virtual advising - college counseling using technology to communicate remotely - increases postsecondary enrollment in selective colleges. We test this approach using a sample of approximately 16,000 high-achieving, low- and middle-income students identified by the College Board and randomly assigned to receive virtual advising from the College Advising Corps. The offer of virtual advising had no impact on overall college enrollment, but increased enrollment in high graduation rate colleges by 2.7 percentage points (5%), with instrumental variable impacts on treated students of 6.1 percentage points.
Sorting Through Performance Evaluations: The Influence of Performance Evaluation Reform on Teacher Attrition and Mobility
Luis Rodriguez, Walker Swain & Matthew Springer
American Educational Research Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
The federal Race to the Top initiative signified a shift in American education policy whereby accountability efforts moved from the school to the teacher level. Using administrative data from Tennessee, we explore whether evaluation reforms differentially influenced mobility patterns for teachers of varying effectiveness. We find that the rollout of a statewide evaluation system, even without punitive consequences, was associated with increased turnover; however, there was comparably greater retention of more effective teachers, with larger differences in turnover between highly and minimally effective teachers confined to urban districts and low-performing schools. These results imply that states and districts can increase exit rates of low-performing instructors in the absence of automatic dismissals, which is a pattern that our analyses suggest may not generalize beyond urban school settings.
The dropout effects of career pathways: Evidence from California
Sade Bonilla
Economics of Education Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Contemporary Career and Technical Education (CTE) models have shifted from isolated courses to sequences of study that integrate academics and skills in high-demand sectors. Providing career pathways to high school students may reduce asymmetries about the available careers and strategies for attaining them but they may also catalyze students' intrinsic motivation by shifting their understanding of their social role and capacity for success. In this study, I estimate the effects of an ambitious $500 million effort to encourage the formation of career pathways in California. Funding supported the formation of tripartite partnerships between K-12 school districts, employers and community colleges to develop career pathway curricula (i.e., articulated course sequences) in high-demand occupations and sectors. I provide causal estimates of implementing this multifaceted intervention by leveraging a natural experiment that occurs at the margin of grant receipt. Using Regression Discontinuity (RD) designs, I provide evidence on the most proximate mechanism, increased CTE spending. Per pupil CTE expenditures increased by 21.7 percent for grant recipients at the assignment threshold relative to the CTE spending of unsuccessful applicants. Furthermore, dropout rates declined by 23 percent in treatment districts but were more pronounced for females than males.
Effects of unfamiliar diverse names on elementary students' passage comprehension
Kala Taylor et al.
School Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Elementary school multicultural reading curricula include characters with diverse proper names, which are often unfamiliar and differ phonetically from students' native language. These names could impact reading outcomes by increasing students' cognitive load and/or creating cognitive disfluency. In Study 1, students in grades 1 through 2 read a standard passage including common names and a matched passage including unfamiliar names of Russian origin. A paired samples t test indicated unfamiliar diverse names in grade-level passages significantly reduced students' reading comprehension. Study 2 was designed to determine if preteaching diverse names would mitigate their adverse effects on reading comprehension. Results indicated second-grade students who received preteaching comprehended significantly more of the passage than those who did not receive preteaching. Discussion focuses on the need for research clarifying the relationship between multicultural learning materials and academic outcomes and validating efficient methods for familiarizing students with difficult, phonetically unfamiliar words.