Left behind
Roland Fryer
Quarterly Journal of Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines the impact on student achievement of implementing a bundle of best practices from high-performing charter schools into low-performing, traditional public schools in Houston, Texas using a school-level randomized field experiment and quasi-experimental comparisons. The five practices in the bundle are increased instructional time, more-effective teachers and administrators, high-dosage tutoring, data-driven instruction, and a culture of high expectations. The findings show that injecting best practices from charter schools into traditional Houston public schools significantly increases student math achievement in treated elementary and secondary schools - by 0.15 to 0.18 standard deviations per year - and has little effect on reading achievement. Similar bundles of practices are found to significantly raise math achievement in analyses for public schools in a field experiment in Denver and program in Chicago.
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The Industrial Organization of Online Education
Tyler Cowen & Alex Tabarrok
American Economic Review, May 2014, Pages 519-522
Abstract:
Online education has flexibility and cost advantages over in-class teaching and these advantages will grow with improvements in information technology. We consider likely market structures given that the quality aspects of online education exhibit endogenous fixed costs. Concentration in the market for courses could be high, as it is currently in the market for textbooks. The not-for-profit sector will exhibit lower costs, lower concentration, and possibly zero price.
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Anna Fisher, Karrie Godwin & Howard Seltman
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
A large body of evidence supports the importance of focused attention for encoding and task performance. Yet young children with immature regulation of focused attention are often placed in elementary-school classrooms containing many displays that are not relevant to ongoing instruction. We investigated whether such displays can affect children's ability to maintain focused attention during instruction and to learn the lesson content. We placed kindergarten children in a laboratory classroom for six introductory science lessons, and we experimentally manipulated the visual environment in the classroom. Children were more distracted by the visual environment, spent more time off task, and demonstrated smaller learning gains when the walls were highly decorated than when the decorations were removed.
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The Signaling Value of a High School Diploma
Damon Clark & Paco Martorell
Journal of Political Economy, April 2014, Pages 282-318
Abstract:
This paper distinguishes between the human capital and signaling theories by estimating the earnings return to a high school diploma. Unlike most indicators of education (e.g., a year of school), a diploma is essentially a piece of paper and, hence, by itself cannot affect productivity. Any earnings return to holding a diploma must therefore reflect the diploma's signaling value. Using regression discontinuity methods to compare the earnings of workers who barely passed and barely failed high school exit exams - standardized tests that students must pass to earn a high school diploma - we find little evidence of diploma signaling effects.
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Compulsory Education and the Benefits of Schooling
Melvin Stephens & Dou-Yan Yang
American Economic Review, June 2014, Pages 1777-1792
Abstract:
Causal estimates of the benefits of increased schooling using U.S. state schooling laws as instruments typically rely on specifications which assume common trends across states in the factors affecting different birth cohorts. Differential changes across states during this period, such as relative school quality improvements, suggest that this assumption may fail to hold. Across a number of outcomes including wages, unemployment, and divorce, we find that statistically significant causal estimates become insignificant and, in many instances, wrong-signed when allowing year of birth effects to vary across regions.
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Dorothyjean Cratty
Duke University Working Paper, May 2014
Abstract:
This study explores the relationship between large, early income-achievement gaps and subsequent low rates of college readiness in mathematics among low-income high school students. Within-school course taking patterns in math are examined for the same students from 3rd through 12th grade, conditional on previous grade math scores and socioeconomic status, using detailed, statewide longitudinal data. The study asks the following at each grade level: i) are advanced classes identifiable within schools; ii) conditional on previous scores, do students in these classes advance faster; and iii) conditional on previous scores, are these classes more likely to be assigned to one group than another? Together, the findings indicate that, in terms of college readiness opportunities, it is better to be a low-performing high-income student than a high-performing low-income student, at every grade level, and that the share of students in each of these categories is quite large in most schools.
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Linguistic services and parental involvement among Latinos: A help or hindrance to involvement?
Michael Nino
Social Science Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite being one of the most consistent predictors of achievement among youth, parental involvement among Latinos continues to be low. In an attempt to increase involvement among Latinos, schools have implemented programs that provide linguistic services for parents who face language and cultural barriers. In order to understand the effectiveness of these programs, a subset of data are used from the National Survey of Latinos: Education to examine the relationship between four linguistic services and parental involvement. Results demonstrate linguistic services play only a marginal role in parental involvement among Latinos, and in some instances, even decrease involvement. Consequently, there is minimal support for programs that provide linguistic services to Latino parents in schools, suggesting policymakers should revisit the impact these services have on the Latino parent community.
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Kalena Cortes & Joshua Goodman
American Economic Review, May 2014, Pages 400-405
Abstract:
This paper provides new evidence on tracking by studying an innovative curriculum implemented by Chicago Public Schools (CPS). In 2003, CPS enacted a double-dose algebra policy requiring 9th grade students with 8th grade math scores below the national median to take two periods of algebra instead of one. This policy led schools to sort students into algebra classes by math ability, so that tracking increased in all algebra classes. We show that double-dosed students are exposed to a much lower-skilled group of peers in their algebra classes but nonetheless benefit substantially from the additional instructional time and improved pedagogy.
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The effect of variable light on the fidgetiness and social behavior of pupils in school
Nino Wessolowski et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Studies on the effects of light in work environments show that specific lighting situations have different effects on human performance and social behavior. These findings suggest that beneficial lighting should also be applied in schools. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of variable lighting on pupils' fidgetiness and their aggressive and prosocial behaviors. The variable lighting system employed was equipped with seven lighting programs featuring different varieties of illuminance and color temperature. In a controlled, quasi-experimental field study, a combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal observations was collected. The participants included n = 110 pupils of various age levels and school types and n = 11 teachers from Hamburg. Fidgetiness was measured by the changes in pixel scores in a digital recording of the students. To quantify aggressiveness and prosocial behaviors, structured behavioral observations were conducted. Self-perceived changes throughout the school year were captured using questionnaires. The findings showed a significantly stronger decline in fidgetiness and observed aggressive behaviors and a tendency toward increased prosocial behaviors within the intervention group. In the long term, the pupils did not rate themselves as being calmer or less aggressive. Overall, the findings indicated that variable light could directly reduce pupils' restlessness and improve their social behaviors. Variable lighting can thus play a part in optimizing general conditions for school learning.
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Michele Tine
Frontiers in Psychology, June 2014
Abstract:
There is a need for feasible and research-based interventions that target the cognitive performance and academic achievement of low-income adolescents. In response, this study utilized a randomized experimental design and assessed the selective visual attention (SVA) and reading comprehension abilities of low-income adolescents and, for comparison purposes, high-income adolescents after they engaged in 12-min of aerobic exercise. The results suggest that 12-min of aerobic exercise improved the SVA of low- and high-income adolescents and that the benefit lasted for 45-min for both groups. The SVA improvement among the low-income adolescents was particularly large. In fact, the SVA improvement among the low-income adolescents was substantial enough to eliminate a pre-existing income gap in SVA. The mean reading comprehension score of low-income adolescents who engaged in 12-min of aerobic exercise was higher than the mean reading comprehension score of low-income adolescents in the control group. However, there was no difference between the mean reading comprehension scores of the high-income adolescents who did and did not engage in 12-min of aerobic exercise. Based on the results, schools serving low-income adolescents should consider implementing brief sessions of aerobic exercise during the school day.
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Homeschooled adolescents in the United States: Developmental outcomes
Sharon Green-Hennessy
Journal of Adolescence, June 2014, Pages 441-449
Abstract:
The mission of schools has broadened beyond academics to address risk behaviors such as substance use, delinquency, and socialization problems. With an estimated 3.4% of all U.S. youth being homeschooled, this study examines how U.S. homeschoolers fare on these outcomes given their lack of access to these school services. Adolescents (ages 12-17) from the 2002 through 2011 National Surveys of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) were divided based on school status (home vs. traditional schooling) and religious affiliation (stronger vs. weaker). Controlling for demographic differences, homeschoolers with weaker religious ties were three times more likely to report being behind their expected grade level and two and a half times more likely to report no extracurricular activities in the prior year than their traditionally schooled counterparts. This group was also more likely to report lax parental attitudes toward substance use. Findings suggest homeschoolers with weaker religious ties represent an at-risk group.
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State involvement in limiting textbook choice by school districts
Michelle Andrea Phillips
Public Choice, July 2014, Pages 181-203
Abstract:
Who gets to decide what textbooks are used in America's public school classrooms varies by state. States can let each school district decide, provide standards that must be followed and make available an incomplete listing of books meeting those standards, or allow schools to choose books only from a list provided by the state. I present a model that provides an explanation for state limits on textbook selection by school districts. I examine the roles played by decision making costs, effectiveness of voters, religious composition, power of teachers, and propensity of state governments to interfere with or to help districts in textbook selection policies at the state level. There has been virtually no research on this topic. My findings corroborate the extant literature that addresses interference by state governments in local affairs and extend the morality politics literature by finding a strong link between religious fundamentalism and state-level policies. I also find that state book lists are less likely (1) in more educated states, where voters are better able to select the most appropriate textbook, (2) in states with smaller school districts, where voters are more involved in the schools, and (3) in states with stronger teacher unions, giving teachers more power in textbook selection.
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What parents want: School preferences and school choice
Simon Burgess et al.
Economic Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigate parents' preferences for school attributes in a unique dataset of survey, administrative, census and spatial data. Using a conditional logit, incorporating characteristics of households, schools, and home-school distance, we show that most families have strong preferences for schools' academic performance. Parents also value schools' socio-economic composition and distance, which may limit the potential of school choice to improve academic standards. Most of the variation in preferences for school quality across socio-economic groups arises from differences in the quality of accessible schools rather than differences in parents' preferences, although more advantaged parents have stronger preferences for academic performance.
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Estimating the Effects of No Child Left Behind on Teachers' Work Environments and Job Attitudes
Jason Grissom, Sean Nicholson-Crotty & James Harrington
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, forthcoming
Abstract:
Several recent studies have examined the impacts of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on school operations and student achievement. We complement that work by investigating the law's impacts on teachers' perceptions of their work environments and related job attitudes, including satisfaction and commitment to remain in teaching. Using four waves of the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey, which cover the period from 1994 to 2008, we document overall trends in teacher attitudes across this time period and take advantage of differences in the presence and strength of prior state accountability systems and differences in likely impacts on high- and low-poverty schools to isolate NCLB effects. Perhaps surprisingly, we show positive trends in many work environment measures, job satisfaction, and commitment across the time period coinciding with the implementation of NCLB. We find, however, relatively modest evidence of an impact of NCLB accountability itself. There is some evidence that the law has negatively affected perceptions of teacher cooperation but positively affected feelings of classroom control and administrator support. We find little evidence that teacher job satisfaction or commitment has changed in response to NCLB.
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No Base Left Behind: The Impact of Military Base Closures on Educational Expenditures and Outcomes
Phuong Nguyen-Hoang, Ryan Yeung & Alexander Bogin
Public Finance Review, July 2014, Pages 439-465
Abstract:
This study examines the effects of military base closures on educational expenditures and student outcomes with a national panel data set of school districts between 1990 and 2002. We adopt difference-in-differences estimation in combination with propensity score matching and instrumental variables techniques to estimate these effects. We find that per-pupil spending increases by 25.2 percent in the first year, where it remains. We also find a substantial decrease in graduation rates, but an improving trend occurs in the years after the closure.
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Grading on a Curve, and other Effects of Group Size on All-Pay Auctions
James Andreoni & Andy Brownback
NBER Working Paper, May 2014
Abstract:
We model contests with a fixed proportion of prizes, such as a grading curve, as all-pay auctions where higher effort weakly increases the likelihood of a prize. We find theoretical predictions for the effect of contest size on effort and test our predictions in a laboratory experiment that compares two-bidder auctions with one prize and 20-bidder auctions with ten prizes. Our results demonstrate that larger contests elicit lower effort by low-skilled students, but higher effort by high-skilled. Large contests also generate more accurate rankings of students and more accurate assignment of high grades to the high-skilled.
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Ting Dai & Jennifer Cromley
Contemporary Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This longitudinal study was designed to investigate the associations between changes in implicit theories of ability in biology and college students' dropout from STEM majors. We modeled the one-year growth patterns of entity and incremental beliefs about ability in biology with 4 time points of self-reported data and two covariates - biology domain knowledge and inference making and gateway course grade, and predicted STEM dropout with the growth trajectories of implicit theories. Results indicated that students' entity beliefs increased, while incremental beliefs decreased over time, which provides support for the changeability of implicit beliefs over a short period of time. The growth of incremental beliefs was directly associated with STEM dropout above and beyond biology course grade and biology domain knowledge and inference making. Low intercept and negative slope of incremental beliefs predicted leaving STEM majors; however, the decline of entity beliefs did not have significant effects on dropout. Interestingly, the effect of biology domain knowledge and inference making on STEM dropout was mediated by biology course grade and incremental beliefs. The findings imply the importance of monitoring changes in students' implicit beliefs and gateway course achievement in order to better understand and promote STEM retention.
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Does private tutoring work? The effectiveness of private tutoring: A nonparametric bounds analysis
Stefanie Hof
Education Economics, July/August 2014, Pages 347-366
Abstract:
Private tutoring has become popular throughout the world. However, evidence for the effect of private tutoring on students' academic outcome is inconclusive; therefore, this paper presents an alternative framework: a nonparametric bounds method. The present examination uses, for the first time, a large representative data-set in a European setting to identify the causal effect of self-initiated private tutoring. Under relatively weak assumptions, I find some evidence that private tutoring improves students' outcome in reading. However, the results indicate a heterogeneous and nonlinear effect of private tutoring, e.g. a threshold may exist after which private tutoring becomes ineffective or even detrimental.