Learning opportunity
How Much Does Education Improve Intelligence? A Meta-Analysis
Stuart Ritchie & Elliot Tucker-Drob
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Intelligence test scores and educational duration are positively correlated. This correlation could be interpreted in two ways: Students with greater propensity for intelligence go on to complete more education, or a longer education increases intelligence. We meta-analyzed three categories of quasiexperimental studies of educational effects on intelligence: those estimating education-intelligence associations after controlling for earlier intelligence, those using compulsory schooling policy changes as instrumental variables, and those using regression-discontinuity designs on school-entry age cutoffs. Across 142 effect sizes from 42 data sets involving over 600,000 participants, we found consistent evidence for beneficial effects of education on cognitive abilities of approximately 1 to 5 IQ points for an additional year of education. Moderator analyses indicated that the effects persisted across the life span and were present on all broad categories of cognitive ability studied. Education appears to be the most consistent, robust, and durable method yet to be identified for raising intelligence.
Relative Education and the Advantage of a College Degree
Jonathan Horowitz
American Sociological Review, August 2018, Pages 771-801
Abstract:
What is the worth of a college degree when higher education expands? The relative education hypothesis posits that when college degrees are rare, individuals with more education have less competition to enter highly-skilled occupations. When college degrees are more common, there may not be enough highly-skilled jobs to go around; some college-educated workers lose out to others and are pushed into less-skilled jobs. Using new measurements of occupation-level verbal, quantitative, and analytic skills, this study tests the changing effect of education on skill utilization across 70 years of birth cohorts from 1971 to 2010, net of all other age, period, and cohort trends. Higher-education expansion erodes the value of a college degree, and college-educated workers are at greater risk for underemployment in less cognitively demanding occupations. This raises questions about the sources of rising income inequality, skill utilization across the working life course, occupational sex segregation, and how returns to education have changed across different life domains.
Does Attendance in Private Schools Predict Student Outcomes at Age 15? Evidence From a Longitudinal Study
Robert Pianta & Arya Ansari
Educational Researcher, forthcoming
Abstract:
By tracking longitudinally a sample of American children (n = 1,097), this study examined the extent to which enrollment in private schools between kindergarten and ninth grade was related to students’ academic, social, psychological, and attainment outcomes at age 15. Results from this investigation revealed that in unadjusted models, children with a history of enrollment in private schools performed better on nearly all outcomes assessed in adolescence. However, by simply controlling for the sociodemographic characteristics that selected children and families into these schools, all of the advantages of private school education were eliminated. There was also no evidence to suggest that low-income children or children enrolled in urban schools benefited more from private school enrollment.
Exclusion and Urban Public High Schools: Short- and Long-Term Consequences of School Suspensions
Elizabeth Chu & Douglas Ready
American Journal of Education, August 2018, Pages 479-509
Abstract:
Critics of school disciplinary policies have long noted that African American, male, low-achieving, and special education students experience higher rates of school suspensions and expulsions. However, research that seeks to estimate the effects of suspensions on student outcomes rarely accounts for the preexisting differences that distinguish students who are and are not suspended. Using quasi-experimental methods and longitudinal data from New York City, we estimated the associations between suspension and academic outcomes and found that, even with more sophisticated methods, the negative relationships between suspension and outcomes persist. Specifically, we found that suspended students had weaker attendance, course completion rates, and standardized test scores; were more likely to drop out; and were less likely to graduate within 4, 5, or 6 years.
School Spirit: Legislator School Ties and State Funding for Higher Education
Aaron Chatterji, Joowon Kim & Ryan McDevitt
Journal of Public Economics, August 2018, Pages 254-269
Abstract:
We explore a new mechanism to understand state funding for public colleges and universities by leveraging data on the educational experiences of state legislators, specifically if and where they received postsecondary education. Using novel, hand-collected data from 2002 through 2014, we provide comprehensive documentation for the first time in the literature on the educational backgrounds of state legislators. We find a statistically significant, positive association between the share of legislators who attended their states' public institutions and state funding for their entire public higher-education system. We also find a similar positive relationship between the share of state legislators who attended particular campuses of the state's public university system and funding for those campuses. This relationship is more pronounced among publicly educated legislators who represent legislative districts close to their alma mater's district, and becomes most consequential when the legislator's district contains his or her alma mater. We discuss the implications of our findings for academic studies on how politics and legislators' personal experiences in influence support for higher education.
Up in STEM, Down in Business: Changing College Major Decisions with the Great Recession
Shimeng Liu, Weizeng Sun & John Winters
Contemporary Economic Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
We use the American Community Survey (ACS) to investigate the extent to which college major decisions were affected during and after the Great Recession with special attention to business and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, as well as the heterogeneity across demographic groups. Several conclusions are reached. First, the Great Recession increased the frequency of STEM majors but decreased the frequency of business majors. Second, the increase for STEM fields spreads across several detailed STEM majors, while the decrease in business majors is especially concentrated among finance and management. Third, we find strong heterogeneous effects of the Great Recession by gender and race/ethnicity.
Teacher Performance and Accountability Incentives
Hugh Macartney, Robert McMillan & Uros Petronijevic
NBER Working Paper, June 2018
Abstract:
This paper documents a new empirical regularity: teacher value-added increases within-teacher when accountability incentives are strengthened. That finding motivates a strategy to separate value-added into incentive-varying teacher effort and incentive-invariant teacher ability, combining rich longitudinal data with exogenous incentive-policy variation. Our estimates indicate that teacher effort and ability both raise current and future test scores, with ability having stronger effects. These estimates feed into a framework for comparing the cost-effectiveness of alternative education policies. For illustration, we show incentive-oriented reforms can outperform policies targeting teacher ability, given their potential to influence all teachers rather than a subset.
Behavioral Effects of Student Loan Repayment Plan Options on Borrowers' Career Decisions: Theory and Experimental Evidence
Katharine Abraham et al.
NBER Working Paper, July 2018
Abstract:
We study the effects of available student loan repayment plans on borrowers’ career choices. By removing the risk of loan default, income driven repayment (IDR) plans make higher-paying but riskier jobs more attractive to those with moderate skill levels. We present experimental evidence that student loan recipients consider the repayment plans offered to them as well as the plans available to other borrowers as a reference in their evaluations of loans and careers. Emotions such as regret over a choice that turns out to be suboptimal ex post and relief at being unburdened from having to make a choice that could turn out badly play significant roles in borrowers’ career choices. Compared to giving borrowers a choice between a standard loan repayment plan that requires a fixed amount to be repaid over a shorter period and an IDR plan that protects borrowers from default by linking payments to income, offering only the IDR plan generates notable benefits. Removing the standard plan from borrowers’ choice sets makes remunerative but risky careers more appealing to borrowers and raises their expected net income. Moreover, these effects are strongest when borrowers holding different plans coexist in the population, as in this environment relief from the possibility of being exposed to a regret-triggering situation is most salient.
Constructing “Experts” Among Peers: Educational Infrastructure, Test Data, and Teachers’ Interactions About Teaching
James Spillane, Matthew Shirrell & Samrachana Adhikari
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, forthcoming
Abstract:
Teachers’ on-the-job interactions with colleagues impact their effectiveness, yet little research has explored whether and how teacher performance predicts these interactions. Drawing on 5 years of social network data from one school district, we explore the relationship between teacher performance and teachers’ instructional advice and information interactions. Results demonstrate that higher performing teachers are not more likely to be sought out for advice; instead, higher performing teachers are more likely to seek advice. Although school staff report they can identify the “best” teachers, they generally do not rely on student test scores, instead relying on more readily accessible indicators of performance. These findings have important implications for policy and practices that seek to promote desired interactions among teachers.
The impact of NCAA men’s basketball probations on the quantity and quality of student applications and enrollment
Peter Groothuis, Austin Eggers & Parker Redding
Applied Economics Letters, forthcoming
Abstract:
Collegiate sports programmes have been characterized as the front porch of a university, serving to publicize the institution and draw students to the door. Previous research in this area has indicated a positive correlation between athletic success and the quantity and quality of students attending the university. Conversely, we seek to analyse if athletic malfeasance, as measured by NCAA probations of men’s basketball programmes, negatively affects either the quantity or quality of students at a university. Our findings suggest that while basketball probations do not change the overall quantity of applications nor enrolment at a university, there is a significant adverse impact on the quality of freshman enrolling at the university as measured by Scholastic Aptitude Test scores. Our finding suggests that athletics do indeed serve as a front porch to a university and that athletic sanctions in men’s basketball have a detrimental effect on the average quality of students attending a university.
The Structure of Tracking: Instructional Practices of Teachers Leading Low- and High-Track Classes
Anysia Mayer, Kimberly LeChasseur & Morgaen Donaldson
American Journal of Education, August 2018, Pages 445-477
Abstract:
Tracking remains a pervasive sorting mechanism in US high schools. Anthony Giddens’s theory of structuration provides a useful framework for understanding how tracking is enacted and how its inequities might be interrupted. This study examines whether teachers reify tracks by systematically structuring generative rules differently for students in low and high tracks. Using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, we observed 26 teachers in low- and high-track classrooms in spring 2012. We found that teachers, on the whole, structured generative rules that communicated lower expectations and provided less support to students in low-track classes than they did to those in high-track classes. However, we also found that a small number of teachers structured supportive environments for low-track students, suggesting implications for the transformation points of tracking.
Online Credit Recovery and the Path to On-Time High School Graduation
Jordan Rickles et al.
Educational Researcher, forthcoming
Abstract:
Many high schools use online courses to allow students to retake failed classes in an effort to help get students back on track and graduate. However, there is limited evidence available on the effectiveness of online credit recovery in improving students’ long-term outcomes compared with traditional face-to-face credit recovery courses. In this paper, we examine longer term outcomes for ninth graders who failed Algebra I and were randomly assigned to an online or face-to-face algebra credit recovery course. In particular, we look at math credits earned through four years of high school and rates of on-time graduation. We find no statistically significant differences in longer term outcomes between students in the online and face-to-face courses. Implications of these null findings are discussed.
Do Bonuses Affect Teacher Staffing and Student Achievement in High poverty Schools? Evidence from an Incentive for National Board Certified Teachers in Washington State
James Cowan & Dan Goldhaber
Economics of Education Review, August 2018, Pages 138-152
Abstract:
We study a teacher incentive policy in Washington State that awards a financial bonus to National Board certified teachers in high poverty schools. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the bonus policy increased the proportion of certified teachers in bonus-eligible schools by improving hiring, increasing certification rates of incumbent teachers, and reducing turnover. Depending on the method, we estimate that the proportion of NBCTs in treated schools increased by about four to eight percentage points over the first five years of eligibility. However, the improvement in certification rates corresponds to a change of about 0.2 to 0.3 percent of a standard deviation in teacher quality per year and we do not find evidence that the bonus resulted in detectible effects on student test achievement.
Are There Hidden Costs Associated With Conducting Layoffs? The Impact of Reduction‐in‐Force and Layoff Notices on Teacher Effectiveness
Katharine Strunk et al.
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, forthcoming
Abstract:
Few studies examine employee responses to layoff‐induced unemployment risk; none that we know of quantify the impact of job insecurity on individual employee productivity. Using data from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and Washington State during the Great Recession, we provide the first evidence about the impact of the layoff process on teacher productivity. In both sites we find that teachers impacted by the layoff process are less productive than those who do not face layoff‐induced job threat. LAUSD teachers who are laid off and then rehired to return to the district are less productive in the two years following the layoff. Washington teachers who are given a reduction‐in‐force (RIF) notice and are then not laid off have reduced effectiveness in the year of the RIF. We argue that these results are likely driven by impacts of the layoff process on teachers’ job commitment and present evidence to rule out alternate explanations.