|
on Education |
| By: | Lars J. Kirkebøen (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | Several recent studies find that interventions in schools can have important lasting consequences for students, and that schools differ in their contribution to students' learning. However, there is less research investigating how these differences between schools influence longer-term outcomes, especially outside the US. In this paper I study school value-added (VA) in Norwegian compulsory school, where between-school differences are smaller than in the US. I find that VA indicators are able to predict in-school performance without bias. Furthermore, VA is strongly related to long-term outcomes, and differences between schools in VA correspond to meaningful differences in long-term outcomes. For example, a one standard deviation higher VA correspond to 1.5 percent higher earnings around age 32. Three quasi-experiments using variation from student mobility and changes in neighborhood school assignments indicate that the differences captured by the VA indicators do indeed reflect differences in school quality, rather than unobserved student characteristics. Analysis of teacher grades and exam scores suggest that the former is heavily influenced by relative grading, and that the effect of exam score VA on long-term outcomes reflects the effects of skills acquired in school. In addition to shedding lights on the differences in and mechanisms of school quality, the findings help connect learning outcomes with later labor market outcomes, e.g. for cost-benefit analysis of interventions in schools. |
| Keywords: | School quality; value-added; VAM; earnings |
| JEL: | J24 I2 |
| Date: | 2021–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:970&r= |
| By: | Grönqvist, Erik (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Öckert, Björn (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy); Rosenqvist, Olof (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy) |
| Abstract: | Students in East-Asian countries consistently score in the top in international assessments. One possible explanation for this success is their use of ‘Lesson study’ to enhance teaching practices, but evidence on its effectiveness is still scant. We evaluate a national teacher development pro-gram in Sweden – the ‘Boost for Mathematics’ – containing core elements of Lesson study, in-cluding weekly peer group meetings with an external tutor for an entire academic year. Exploiting the gradual roll-out of the program across compulsory schools, we find that it improves teaching practices and boosts students’ mathematics performance. The positive effect on student performance persists also long after the intervention has ended. In addition, we show that the program passes a cost-benefit test. The educational strategies of Asian countries can, thus, be successfully modified and adapted to Western contexts by national policy. |
| Keywords: | Teacher development; Student performance; Mathematics; Lesson study |
| JEL: | I21 I28 J45 |
| Date: | 2021–12–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2021_022&r= |
| By: | Hornung, Erik (University of Cologne); Schwerdt, Guido (University of Konstanz); Strazzeri, Maurizio (University of Bern) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how the intensity of Ramadan affects educational outcomes by exploiting spatio-temporal variation in annual fasting hours. Longer fasting hours are related to increases in student performance in a panel of TIMMS test scores (1995–2019) across Muslim countries but not other countries. Results are confirmed in a panel of PISA test scores (2003–2018) allowing within country-wave comparisons of Muslim to non-Muslim students across Europe. We provide evidence consistent with the hypothesis that a demanding Ramadan during adolescence affects educational performance by facilitating formation of social capital and social identity via increased religious participation and shared experiences among students. |
| Keywords: | Education, Religion, Religious Participation, Ramadan, Social Identity, Social Capital, PISA, TIMMS JEL Classification: I21, Z12, J24, O15 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:590&r= |
| By: | Hans Bonesrønning; Henning Finseraas; Ines Hardoy; Jon Marius Vaag Iversen; Ole Henning Nyhus; Vibeke Opheim; Kari Vea Salvanes; Astrid Marie Jorde Sandsør; Pål Schøne |
| Abstract: | We report results from a large-scale, pre-registered randomized field experiment in 159 Norwegian schools over four years. The intervention includes students aged 7-9 and consists of pulling students from their regular mathematics classes into small, homogenous groups for mathematics instruction for 3 to 4 hours per week, for two periods of 4-6 weeks per school year. All students, not only struggling students, are pulled out. We find that students in treatment schools increased their performance in mathematics by .16 standard deviations at the end of the school year and by .06 standard deviations in national tests 1-2 years later, with no differential effect by pre-ability level or gender. Our study is particularly relevant for policy-makers seeking to use additional teaching resources to target a heterogeneous student population efficiently. |
| Keywords: | education economics, small group instruction, tutoring, tracking, class size, field experiment, intervention, randomized controlled trial, teacher-student ratio, mathematics instruction |
| JEL: | C93 H52 I21 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9443&r= |
| By: | Haelermans, Carla (ROA / Education and transition to work, RS: GSBE Studio Europa Maastricht, RS: GSBE Theme Learning and Work); Jacobs, Madelon (ROA / Education and transition to work, RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research); van Vugt, Lynn (ROA / Health, skills and inequality, RS: GSBE Theme Learning and Work); Aarts, Bas (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, ROA / Human capital in the region); Abbink, Henry (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, ROA / Labour market and training); Smeets, Chayenne; van der Velden, Rolf (ROA / Education and transition to work, RS: GSBE Theme Learning and Work); van Wetten, Sanne (RS: GSBE other - not theme-related research, ROA / Education and transition to work) |
| Abstract: | After more than a year of COVID-19 crisis and the school closures that followed all around the world, the concerns about lower learning growth and exacerbated inequalities are larger than ever. In this paper, we use unique data to analyse how one full year of COVID-19 crisis in Dutch primary education has affected learning growth and pre-existing inequalities. We draw on a dataset that includes around 330,000 Dutch primary school students from about 1,600 schools, with standardized test scores for reading, spelling and mathematics, as well as rich (family) background information of the students. The results show a lower learning growth over a full year for all three domains, varying from 0.06 standard deviations for spelling to 0.12 for maths and 0.17 standard deviations for reading. Furthermore, we find that the lower learning growth is (much) larger for vulnerable students with a low socioeconomic background. This implies that pre-existing inequalities between students from different backgrounds have increased. These results are quite alarming and suggest that distance learning could not compensate for classroom teaching, although it prevented some damage that would have occurred if students had not enjoyed any formal education at all. |
| JEL: | I24 I20 I21 C90 |
| Date: | 2021–12–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:umagsb:2021021&r= |
| By: | Fumarco, Luca; Vandromme, Alessandro; Halewyck, Levi; Moens, Eline; Baert, Stijn |
| Abstract: | We are the first to estimate the impact of relative age (i.e., the difference in classmates' ages) on both speed and quality of individuals' transition from education to the labour market. Moreover, we are the first to explore whether and how this impact passes through characteristics of students' educational career. We use rich data pertaining to schooling and to labour market outcomes one year after graduation to conduct instrumental variables analyses. We find that a one-year increase in relative age increases the likelihood of (i) being employed then by 3.5 percentage points, (ii) having a permanent contract by 5.1 percentage points, and (iii) having full-time employment by 6.5 percentage points. These relative age effects are partly mediated by intermediate outcomes such as having had a schooling delay at the age of sixteen or taking on student jobs. The final mediator is particularly notable as no earlier studies examined relative age effects on student employment.We are the first to estimate the impact of relative age (i.e., the difference in classmates' ages) on both speed and quality of individuals' transition from education to the labour market. Moreover, we are the first to explore whether and how this impact passes through characteristics of students' educational career. We use rich data pertaining to schooling and to labour market outcomes one year after graduation to conduct instrumental variables analyses. We find that a one-year increase in relative age increases the likelihood of (i) being employed then by 3.5 percentage points, (ii) having a permanent contract by 5.1 percentage points, and (iii) having full-time employment by 6.5 percentage points. These relative age effects are partly mediated by intermediate outcomes such as having had a schooling delay at the age of sixteen or taking on student jobs. The final mediator is particularly notable as no earlier studies examined relative age effects on student employment. |
| Keywords: | relative age,school starting age,labour market transition |
| JEL: | I21 J23 J24 J6 |
| Date: | 2022 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1010&r= |
| By: | Tom Ahn (Graduate School Defense Management, Naval Postgraduate School.); Esteban Aucejo (Department of Economics, Arizona State University); Jonathan James (Department of Economics, California Polytechnic State University) |
| Abstract: | We examine matching effects in worker productivity within the educational context by introducing a novel estimator for teacher value-added models that is more robust than previous estimators and is well-suited for multi-dimensional problems. Using this new framework, we show that teacher effectiveness is highly dependent on interaction effects between teachers and the individual characteristics of their students. For example, the difference in value-added between well and poorly-matched students for the median teacher is on the order of 0.1σ test score units. Moreover, matching effects are particularly salient for low-achieving students. The difference in teacher value-added between an effective and ineffective teacher in language arts for low-achieving students is twice as large as the di erence for high-achieving students. We also show that teacher rankings based on value-added are sensitive to classroom assignment due to match effects. To overcome this problem we propose an approach to rank teachers based on expected utility. |
| Keywords: | value-added, teacher, productivity, matching, multivariate shrinkage |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J21 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpl:wpaper:2106&r= |