Findings

Rigor Mortis

Kevin Lewis

June 02, 2021

Students' Civic Online Reasoning: A National Portrait
Joel Breakstone et al.
Educational Researcher, forthcoming

Abstract:

Are today's students able to discern quality information from sham online? In the largest investigation of its kind, we administered an assessment to 3,446 high school students. Equipped with a live internet connection, the students responded to six constructed-response tasks. The students struggled on all of them. Asked to investigate a site claiming to "disseminate factual reports" on climate science, 96% never learned about the organization's ties to the fossil fuel industry. Two thirds were unable to distinguish news stories from ads on a popular website's home page. More than half believed that an anonymously posted Facebook video, shot in Russia, provided "strong evidence" of U.S. voter fraud. Instead of investigating the organization or group behind a site, students were often duped by weak signs of credibility: a website's "look," its top-level domain, the content on its About page, and the sheer quantity of information it provided. The study's sample reflected the demographic profile of high school students in the United States, and a multilevel regression model explored whether scores varied by student characteristics. Findings revealed differences in student abilities by grade level, self-reported grades, locality, socioeconomic status, race, maternal education, and free/reduced-price lunch status. Taken together, these findings reveal an urgent need to prepare students to thrive in a world in which information flows ceaselessly across their screens.


Do Students in Gifted Programs Perform Better? Linking Gifted Program Participation to Achievement and Nonachievement Outcomes
Christopher Redding & Jason Grissom
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, forthcoming

Abstract:

Growing concerns about inequitable access have made public investment in gifted programs controversial in many school districts, yet advocates maintain that gifted services provide necessary enrichment for exceptional students to succeed at school. We provide evidence on whether the typical gifted program indeed benefits elementary students' achievement and nonachievement outcomes, using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, 2010-2011 kindergarten cohort. Leveraging within-school and within-student comparisons, we find that participating in a school's gifted program is associated with reading and mathematics achievement for the average student, although associations are small. We find no evidence of a relationship between gifted participation and student absences, reported engagement with school, or student mobility. Black and low-income students do not see the academic gains that their peers experience when receiving gifted services.


The Long-Term Effects of Universal Preschool in Boston
Guthrie Gray-Lobe, Parag Pathak & Christopher Walters
NBER Working Paper, May 2021

Abstract:

We use admissions lotteries to estimate the effects of large-scale public preschool in Boston on college-going, college preparation, standardized test scores, and behavioral outcomes. Preschool enrollment boosts college attendance, as well as SAT test-taking and high school graduation. Preschool also decreases several disciplinary measures including juvenile incarceration, but has no detectable impact on state achievement test scores. An analysis of subgroups shows that effects on college enrollment, SAT-taking, and disciplinary outcomes are larger for boys than for girls. Our findings illustrate possibilities for large-scale modern, public preschool and highlight the importance of measuring long-term and non-test score outcomes in evaluating the effectiveness of education programs.


Is Student Share of Net Tuition Impacted by a Growing Elderly Population? A Longitudinal, Multi-level Analysis of Student Share of Net Tuition in All 50 American States Between 1992 and 2013
Adolfo Santos, Mark Sweatman & Laurel Holland
Higher Education Policy, June 2021, Pages 412-428

Abstract:

To understand increases in student share of net tuition for state colleges and universities, resulting from state financial decreases in support for higher education, a quantitative, longitudinal, multi-level analysis of data from all 50 states in the USA from 1992 to 2013 was examined. Five hypotheses related to (1) growth in student share of net tuition over a 22-year period, and its relationship to (2) the percent of the population 65 years of age and older, (3) state expenditures for hospitals and public health, (4) state expenditures for police protection and corrections, and (5) Republican political control of state legislatures, were quantitatively tested. Data were obtained from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEOA). Even though student share of net tuition is increasing drastically over the 22-year period, expenditures on public health, police protection, and corrections have no significant effect on increasing or decreasing the share of net tuition for which students are responsible. The effect of the percent of the population 65 years and older, however, has a significant impact on student share of net tuition.


The Effects of Career and Technical Education: Evidence from the Connecticut Technical High School System
Eric Brunner, Shaun Dougherty & Stephen Ross
NBER Working Paper, May 2021

Abstract:

We examine the effect of attending stand-alone technical high schools on student short- and long-term outcomes using a regression discontinuity design. Male students are 10 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school and have half a semester less time enrolled in college, although effects on college fade-out. Male students have 32% higher quarterly earnings. Earnings effects may in part reflect general skills: male students have higher attendance rates and test scores, and industry fixed effects explain less than 1/3rd of earnings gains. We find little evidence that attending a technical high school affects the outcomes of female students.


Admissions Policies, Cohort Composition, and Academic Success: Evidence from California
Michel Grosz
Journal of Human Resources, forthcoming

Abstract:

I study how postsecondary admission policies affect the composition and academic outcomes of new cohorts. I leverage the staggered replacement of lotteries and waitlists at California's community college nursing programs with admissions that rely on grades, work experience, and other evaluative measures. I find increases in the average prior academic performance of incoming cohorts, but not in academic outcomes like completion rates and licensing exam pass rates. In some specifications, I find increased shares of new students who were White, though in others I find no effect. The change also reduced how long students spent waiting to enter nursing programs.


More than an Ivory Tower: The Impact of Research Institutions on the Quantity and Quality of Entrepreneurship
Valentina Tartari & Scott Stern
NBER Working Paper, May 2021

Abstract:

This paper provides systematic empirical evidence for the distinctive role of universities on local entrepreneurial ecosystems. Assessing the impact of research institutions on entrepreneurship is challenging, given that these institutions are often located in economic and innovation environments conducive to growth-oriented entrepreneurial activity, are themselves a source of local demand, and produce knowledge, which might serve as the foundation for new ventures. To overcome this inference challenge, we first combine comprehensive business registration records with a predictive analytics approach to measure both the quantity and quality-adjusted quantity of entrepreneurship at the zip-code level on an annual basis. We then link each location to the presence or absence of research-oriented universities or national laboratories. Finally, we exploit significant changes over time in Federal commitments to both universities and national laboratories. Our key finding is that changes in Federal research commitments to universities are uniquely linked to positively correlated changes in the quality-adjusted quantity of entrepreneurship. In contrast, increases in non-research funding to universities and funding to national laboratories is associated with either a neutral or negative impact on the quality-adjusted quantity of entrepreneurship. Research funding to universities seems to play a unique role in promoting the acceleration of local entrepreneurial ecosystems.


Post-Schooling Off-The-Job Training and Its Benefits
Amanda Gaulke
Labour Economics, forthcoming

Abstract:

Post-schooling off-the-job training (Off-JT) is common, but little is known about how recent benefits vary across levels of formal education. Using a fixed-effects difference-in-differences regression coupled with the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 data, I estimate how Off-JT certificate completion impacts employment and real (2014) annual income. Among those with a college degree, there is a significant increase in annual income. The total effect when individual-specific linear time trends are included ranges from $4,803.6 to $5,844.7. In contrast, for those with less than a college degree there is no significant change in income, despite a significant increase in employment. This is likely due to the small impact on hours worked for those without a college degree (an increase of 27 hours over the year, on average). The results suggest that the recent returns to Off-JT certificate completion depend on the formal level of education acquired prior to Off-JT.


Happy Together? The Peer Effects of Dual Enrollment Students on Community College Student Outcomes
Vivian Liu & Di Xu
American Educational Research Journal, forthcoming

Abstract:

Nationally, 15% of first-time community college students were high school dual enrollment (DE) students, which raises concerns about how high school peers might influence college enrollees. Using administrative data from a large state community college system, we examine whether being exposed to a higher percentage of DE peers in entry-level (gateway) math and English courses influences non-DE enrollees' performance. Using a two-way fixed effects model, our results indicate that college enrollees exposed to a higher proportion of DE peers had lower pass rates and grades in gateway courses, and higher course repetition rates. Supplemental student-level analysis suggests that greater exposure to DE peers during a student's initial semester in college reduces next-term college persistence.


Incorporating Human-Animal Interaction Into Academic Stress Management Programs: Effects on Typical and At-Risk College Students' Executive Function
Patricia Pendry et al.
AERA Open, May 2021

Abstract:

Implementation of university-based animal-assisted stress-prevention programs is increasing despite limited knowledge about impacts on students' academic success. This randomized trial (N = 309) examined the effects of a 4-week stress-prevention program with varying levels of human-animal interaction (HAI) and evidence-based content presentations on students' executive functioning (EF). Effects were examined while considering the moderating role of students' risk status (N = 121), based on history of academic failure, suicidal ideation, mental health, and learning issues. Intent-to-treat analyses showed that at-risk students showed the highest levels of EF (Β = 4.74, p = .018) and metacognition (Β = 4.88, p = .013) at posttest in the condition featuring 100% HAI, effects that remained 6 weeks later (ΒGlobal EF = 4.48, p = .028; ΒMetacognition = 5.31,p = .009). Since evidence-based content presentations did not confer benefits for at-risk students' EF, even when offered in combination with HAI, universities should consider providing at-risk students with targeted programs emphasizing exposure to HAI.


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