Passing Grades
Effects of a statewide pre-kindergarten program on children’s achievement and behavior through sixth grade
Kelley Durkin et al.
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
As state-funded pre-kindergarten (pre-K) programs expand, it is critical to investigate their short- and long-term effects. This article presents the results through sixth grade of a longitudinal randomized control study of the effects of a scaled-up, state-supported pre-K program. The analytic sample includes 2,990 children from low-income families who applied to oversubscribed pre-K program sites across the state and were randomly assigned to offers of admission or a wait list control. Data through sixth grade from state education records showed that the children randomly assigned to attend pre-K had lower state achievement test scores in third through sixth grades than control children, with the strongest negative effects in sixth grade. A negative effect was also found for disciplinary infractions, attendance, and receipt of special education services, with null effects on retention. The implications of these findings for pre-K policies and practices are discussed.
Is Kindergarten Ability Group Placement Biased? New Data, New Methods, New Answers
Paul von Hippel & Ana Cañedo
American Educational Research Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Half of kindergarten teachers split children into higher and lower ability groups for reading or math. In national data, we predicted kindergarten ability group placement using linear and ordinal logistic regression with classroom fixed effects. In fall, test scores were the best predictors of group placement, but there was bias favoring girls, high-SES (socioeconomic status) children, and Asian Americans, who received higher placements than their scores alone would predict. Net of SES, there was no bias against placing black children in higher groups. By spring, one third of kindergartners moved groups, and high-SES children moved up more than their score gains alone would predict. Teacher-reported behaviors (e.g., attentiveness, approaches to learning) helped explain girls’ higher placements, but did little to explain the higher placements of Asian American and high-SES children.
The Dice Are Loaded: Schools’ Social Class Composition and Athletic Contests
Pat Rubio Goldsmith & Richard Abel
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, January 2022
Abstract:
Research shows that social class differences in high school sports participation are large and growing. However, focusing on sports participation may obfuscate large social class differences in sports performance among participants. The authors develop theoretical predictions on the basis of exclusion (middle-class youth perform sports better) and inclusion (working-class youth perform sports better). To test these predictions, the authors analyze the relationship between high schools’ social class composition and success in high school athletics using data on more than 200,000 contests in school fixed-effects models. The findings indicate that predominantly middle-class schools beat economically integrated and predominantly working-class schools by large margins, supporting exclusivity perspectives. Also, predominantly working-class schools win as much as economically integrated schools, providing evidence of inclusion, but inclusion is much weaker than exclusion. The authors conclude that sports performance among youth is highly stratified by social class.
Deliberate errors promote meaningful learning
Sarah Shi Hui Wong & Stephen Wee Hun Lim
Journal of Educational Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Our civilization recognizes that errors can be valuable learning opportunities, but for decades, they have widely been avoided or, at best, allowed to occur as serendipitous accidents. The present research tested whether greater learning success could paradoxically be achieved through making errors by intentional design, relative to traditional errorless learning methods. We show that deliberately committing and correcting errors even when one knows the correct answers enhances learning — a counterintuitive phenomenon that we termed the derring effect. Across two experiments (N = 160), learners engaged in open-book study of scientific expository texts and were then tested on their retention and higher-order application of the material to analyze a novel news event. Deliberate error commission and correction during study produced not only better recall performance, but also superior knowledge application compared to two errorless study techniques that are popular among students and educational researchers: copying with underlining, and elaborative studying with concept mapping (Experiment 1). These learning benefits persisted even over generating alternative conceptually correct answers, revealing that the derring effect is not merely attributable to generation or elaboration alone, but is unique to producing incorrect responses (Experiment 2). Yet, learners were largely unaware of these advantages even after experiencing them. Our results suggest that avoiding errors in learning may not always be most optimal. Rather, deliberate erring is a powerful strategy to enhance meaningful learning. We discuss implications for educational practice in redesigning conventional approaches to errors: To err is human; to deliberately err is divine.
Less is more: Depleting cognitive resources enhances language learning abilities in adults
Eleonore Smalle et al.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, December 2021, Pages 2423–2434
Abstract:
It is still an unresolved question why adults do not learn languages as effortlessly as children do. We tested the hypothesis that the higher cognitive control abilities in adults interfere with implicit learning mechanisms relevant for language acquisition. Across 2 days, Dutch-speaking adults were asked to rapidly recite novel syllable strings in which, unannounced to the participants, the allowed position of a phoneme depended on another adjacent phoneme. Their cognitive control system was either depleted or not depleted prior to learning, after performing an individually tailored dual working-memory task under high or low cognitive load. A third group did not perform any cognitive task prior to training. Speech error analyses revealed stronger (and faster) learning of the novel phoneme combination constraints in the cognitively depleted group compared with the other two groups. This indicates that late-developing cognitive control abilities, and in particular attentional control, constitute an important antagonist of implicit learning behavior relevant for language acquisition. These findings offer novel insights into developmental changes in implicit learning mechanisms and how to alter them temporarily in order to improve language skills in adults.
Educators’ Beliefs About Students’ Socioeconomic Backgrounds as a Pathway for Supporting Motivation
David Silverman, Ivan Hernandez & Mesmin Destin
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Students’ understandings of their socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds have important implications for their motivation, achievement, and the emergence of SES-based educational disparities. Educators’ beliefs about students’ backgrounds likely play a meaningful role in shaping these understandings and, thus, may represent an important opportunity to support students from lower-SES backgrounds. We first experimentally demonstrate that educators can be encouraged to adopt background-specific strengths beliefs — which view students’ lower-SES backgrounds as potential sources of unique and beneficial strengths (NStudy 1 = 125). Subsequently, we find that exposure to educators who communicate background-specific strengths beliefs positively influences the motivation and academic persistence of students, particularly those from lower-SES backgrounds (NStudy 2 = 256; NStudy 3 = 276). Furthermore, lower-SES students’ own beliefs about their backgrounds mediated these effects. Altogether, our work contributes to social-psychological theory and practice regarding how key societal contexts can promote equity through identity-based processes.
Did States’ Adoption of More Rigorous Standards Lead to Improved Student Achievement? Evidence From a Comparative Interrupted Time Series Study of Standards-Based Reform
Mengli Song et al.
American Educational Research Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study was designed to assess the effects of states’ adoption of more rigorous standards as part of the current wave of standards-based reform on student achievement using comparative interrupted time series analyses based on state-level NAEP data from 1990 to 2017. Results show that the effects of adopting more rigorous standards on students’ mathematics achievement were generally small and not significant. The effects on students’ reading achievement were also generally small, but negative and statistically significant for Grade 4. The study also revealed that the effects of states’ adoption of more rigorous standards varied across NAEP subscales and student subgroups.
School Spending and Student Outcomes: Evidence from Revenue Limit Elections in Wisconsin
Jason Baron
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines the impacts of two distinct types of school spending on student outcomes. State-imposed revenue limits cap the total amount of revenue that a school district in Wisconsin can raise, unless the district holds a referendum asking voters to exceed the cap. Importantly, Wisconsin law requires districts to hold separate referenda for operational and capital expenditures, which allows for estimating their independent effects. Leveraging close elections in a dynamic regression discontinuity framework, I find that increases in operational spending have substantial positive effects on test scores, dropout rates, and postsecondary enrollment, but additional capital expenditures have little impact.
Impacts of the four-day school week on high school achievement and educational engagement
Paul Thompson et al.
Education Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Four-day school week schedules are being adopted with increasing frequency, particularly in rural areas. In this paper, we consider the academic implications of students in Oregon attending a four-day school week for the first time when they enter high school. We find 11th grade math achievement in 0.09 standard deviations lower among four-day school week students, with significant impacts driven by four-day school week students in non-rural settings. We also find a greater number of four-day school week students being classified as chronically absent. Finally, we find reductions in on-time graduation among four-day school week students compared to five-day students.
Limited Supply and Lagging Enrollment: Production Technologies and Enrollment Changes at Community Colleges during the Pandemic
Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach & Sarah Turner
NBER Working Paper, January 2022
Abstract:
Weak labor markets typically lead young workers to invest in skills. High unemployment during COVID diverged from prior downturns: enrollment at community colleges dropped by 9.5 percent between 2019 and 2020, with the drop larger among men. COVID disruptions generated supply-side impacts on courses of study requiring significant capital and “hands on” experiential learning, particularly programs that deliver of assembly, repair and maintenance (ARM) skills. Community colleges that had relative concentrations of credentials in ARM fields pre-pandemic experienced relatively large enrollment declines. The decline in ARM enrollment explains nearly all the difference in enrollment declines by gender during COVID.
Estimating the effects of sports and physical exercise on bullying
Dimitrios Nikolaou & Laura Crispin
Contemporary Economic Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using three nationally representative high school samples, we estimate the effect of physical activity in general, and sports specifically, on in-school student victimization (i.e., bullying), overall and by gender. Due to non-random selection, we instrument physical activity in a two-stage model using state-level sports participation rates and physical education requirements. We find that physical exercise may decrease, if not prevent, victimization, though competitive sports increase the likelihood of bullying for those on the margin, especially for male students. These results are relevant for administrators and policymakers, who can increase access to physical activities while simultaneously increasing oversight on and off-the-field.
Teacher Mindsets Help Explain Where a Growth-Mindset Intervention Does and Doesn’t Work
David Yeager et al.
Psychological Science, January 2022, Pages 18-32
Abstract:
A growth-mindset intervention teaches the belief that intellectual abilities can be developed. Where does the intervention work best? Prior research examined school-level moderators using data from the National Study of Learning Mindsets (NSLM), which delivered a short growth-mindset intervention during the first year of high school. In the present research, we used data from the NSLM to examine moderation by teachers’ mindsets and answer a new question: Can students independently implement their growth mindsets in virtually any classroom culture, or must students’ growth mindsets be supported by their teacher’s own growth mindsets (i.e., the mindset-plus-supportive-context hypothesis)? The present analysis (9,167 student records matched with 223 math teachers) supported the latter hypothesis. This result stood up to potentially confounding teacher factors and to a conservative Bayesian analysis. Thus, sustaining growth-mindset effects may require contextual supports that allow the proffered beliefs to take root and flourish.
Why Try? The Superstar Effect in Academic Performance
Rey Hernández-Julián & Christina Peters Eastern
Economic Journal, January 2022, Pages 147–165
Abstract:
Although the superstar effect has been documented in sports tournaments, there are few empirical tests outside sports. We estimate the impact of superstars in a classroom. We find that college students in a classroom with superior academic performers earn grades about 1% lower than when they are in classrooms without such outliers. Outliers at the bottom end of the distribution are also harmful. Since high achievers perform worse in the presence of outliers at both the top and low end of the academic distribution, we argue that the manipulation of incentives is the mechanism behind our estimated effect.
The COVID-19 Pandemic Disrupted Both School Bullying and Cyberbullying
Andrew Bacher-Hicks et al.
NBER Working Paper, December 2021
Abstract:
One-fifth of U.S. high school students report being bullied each year. We use internet search data for real-time tracking of bullying patterns as COVID-19 disrupted in-person schooling. We first show that, prepandemic, internet searches contain useful information about actual bullying behavior. We then show that searches for school bullying and cyberbullying dropped 30-35 percent as schools shifted to remote learning in spring 2020. The gradual return to in-person instruction starting in fall 2020 partially returns bullying searches to pre-pandemic levels. This rare positive effect may partly explain recent mixed evidence on the pandemic’s impact on students’ mental health and well-being.
The Dynamic Effects of a Summer Learning Program on Behavioral Engagement in School
Jaymes Pyne, Erica Messner & Thomas Dee
Education Finance and Policy, forthcoming
Abstract:
Evidence that student learning declines or stagnates during summers has motivated an interest in programs providing intensive summer instruction. However, existing literature suggests that such programs have modest effects on achievement and no impact on measures of engagement in school. In this quasi-experimental study, we present evidence on the impact of a comprehensive and mature summer learning program that serves low-income middle school students and features unusual academic breadth, including a robust and well-designed social-emotional learning curriculum. Our results indicate that this program led to substantial reductions in unexcused absences, chronic absenteeism and suspensions and a modest gain in ELA test scores. We find evidence that the gains in behavioral engagement are dynamic, growing over time and with additional summers of participation.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Volunteer One-on-One Tutoring Model for Early Elementary Reading Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Trial Replication Study
Carrie Markovitz et al.
American Educational Research Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study examines the impacts of two AmeriCorps programs, Minnesota Reading Corps and Wisconsin Reading Corps, where AmeriCorps volunteers provide literacy tutoring to at-risk kindergarten through third-grade (K–3) students utilizing a response-to-intervention framework. This evaluation replicates a prior randomized controlled trial evaluation of the program 4 years later and for the first time evaluates the program model replicated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The results of the two evaluations showed that kindergarten and first-grade students who received a single semester of Reading Corps tutoring achieved significantly higher literacy assessment scores, and demonstrated meaningful and significant effects after a full-school year of the intervention for second- and third-grade students.
Testing the effects of adaptive learning courseware on student performance: An experimental approach
Grace Eau, Derek Hoodin & Tareena Musaddiq
Southern Economic Journal, January 2022, Pages 1086-1118
Abstract:
An increasing number of college and university courses are being offered in an online format. Even for courses offered face-to-face, instructors are increasingly turning towards the use of online platforms to help with student learning, especially for courses with high enrollment. This study tests the efficacy of adaptive learning platforms in a sample of undergraduate students at a large urban university, using an experimental design that compares the learning outcomes of students in classrooms that used an adaptive learning tool to those that did not. The results indicate that better performing students, particularly female students, benefit the most from using adaptive learning tools.
Jurisdictional Competition, Market Power, and the Compensation of Public Employees
Vladimir Kogan
Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy, June 2021, Pages 281-302
Abstract:
Jurisdictional competition can encourage government efficiency but may also lead to collective action problems (e.g., bidding wars) that increase taxpayer costs. The net effect is particularly consequential for the cost of public employee compensation, which accounts for more than half of local government spending. Examining two decades of U.S. teacher salary data and changes in local teacher labor markets over time, I show that jurisdictional competition is associated with lower teacher salaries. One mechanism consistent with the evidence is that competitive markets help encourage lower spending through "yardstick competition." The findings may help explain why government consolidations designed to promote economies of scale and efforts to take advantage of coordinated buying power do not always produce the expected savings.