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on Education |
| By: | Silva, Pedro Luís (University of Porto); DesJardins, Stephen L. (University of Michigan); Biscaia, Ricardo (CIPES – Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies); Sá, Carla (CIPES – Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies); Teixeira, Pedro N. (University of Porto) |
| Abstract: | Grade inflation in high schools is potentially problematic for students, education institutions, and society. We examine the extent of potential grading inflation in courses taken during high school and how such differences vary across student and school characteristics. Utilizing longitudinal, administrative data for the population of high school students in an entire country (Portugal) over ten years, we develop a measure of grade inflation using the position of the student's high school grade relative to their score on the national standardized admission exam. We analyze differences in this measure across four types of high schools: TEIP schools (public schools located in disadvantaged areas that include children at-risk of social exclusion), public schools (state-funded schools), private schools, and private association schools (owned by private entities but publicly funded). We find that private association schools exhibit a lower probability of grade inflation when compared to public schools. Additionally, TEIP schools tend to have a higher probability of inflation for students with high grades. Implications for policy and practice are discussed. |
| Keywords: | grade inflation, grading standards, high school grading, postsecondary access equity, upper secondary education |
| JEL: | I21 I23 I24 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16016&r=edu |
| By: | Assaad, Ragui (University of Minnesota); Aydemir, Abdurrahman (Sabanci University); Dayioglu-Tayfur, Meltem (Middle East Technical University); Kirdar, Murat G. (Bogazici University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the wage returns to an extra year of primary school using a policy reform in Egypt, which reduced compulsory primary schooling from 6 to 5 years. Since this policy changed the duration of primary school while providing the same diploma, we can estimate the human capital effects holding the sheepskin effects constant. We find that the wage returns to an extra year of primary school for Egyptian men aged 24–44 is a statistically insignificant 2–4 percent. Despite the low returns for the overall population, the returns are much higher for men born in rural areas and men whose fathers have low levels of education—indicating important human capital effects for underprivileged boys. Consistent with this result, we find that the policy effects of a one-year reduction in primary schooling on schooling attainment at various levels are more adverse for underprivileged boys. Our findings, therefore, suggest that such a policy could be particularly detrimental for students from lower socioeconomic groups—contributing to increased inequality. |
| Keywords: | returns to schooling, early human capital investment, instrumental variables, compulsory education duration, Egypt |
| JEL: | J18 J31 I21 I28 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16037&r=edu |
| By: | Hannu Lahtinen; Pekka Martikainen (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Kaarina Korhonen; Tim T. Morris; Mikko Myrskylä (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | Although it is well known that individuals’ genetics relate to their educational attainment, our understanding of how this may vary across differing educational institutional contexts is limited. In an educational system that does not separate students into different tracks early on, individuals’ unique skills and interests may have more time to manifest, which could potentially strengthen the genetic prediction of education. We test such a hypothesis exploiting the natural experiment of the Finnish comprehensive school reform employed gradually and regionally across the country between 1972 and 1977, using genetically informed population-representative surveys linked to data from administrative registers. We observed that the genetic prediction of education was stronger after the reform by one-third among men and those coming from low-educated families. We observed no evidence for reform effects among women or those from high-educated families. The increase in genetic prediction was particularly pronounced among the first cohort experiencing the new system. From the perspective of genetic prediction, the reform to a more universalist curriculum was successful in promoting equality of opportunity. The results also highlight the potential of various turbulent circumstances – such as puberty or ongoing restructuring of institutional practices – in magnifying genetic effects. |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2023-015&r=edu |
| By: | Eric A. Hanushek; Jin Luo; Andrew J. Morgan; Minh Nguyen; Ben Ost; Steven G. Rivkin; Ayman Shakeel |
| Abstract: | A fundamental question for education policy is whether outcomes-based accountability including comprehensive educator evaluations and a closer relationship between effectiveness and compensation improves the quality of instruction and raises achievement. We use synthetic control methods to study the comprehensive teacher and principal evaluation and compensation systems introduced in the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas ISD) in 2013 for principals and 2015 for teachers. Under this far-reaching reform, educator evaluations that are used to support teacher growth and determine salary depend on a combination of supervisor evaluations, student achievement, and student or family survey responses. The reform replaced salary scales based on experience and educational attainment with those based on evaluation scores, a radical departure from decades of rigid salary schedules. The synthetic control estimates reveal positive and significant effects of the reforms on math and reading achievement that increase over time. From 2015 through 2019, the average achievement for the synthetic control district fluctuates narrowly between -0.27 s.d. and -0.3 s.d., while the Dallas ISD average increases steadily from -0.28 s.d. in 2015 to -0.08 s.d. in 2019, the final year of the sample. Though the increase for reading is roughly half as large, it is also highly significant. |
| JEL: | H75 I20 I21 J30 J45 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31073&r=edu |
| By: | Conceição, Otavio; Oliveira, Rodrigo; Souza, André Portela |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of the Science without Borders (Ciência sem Fronteiras - CSF) program on participants’ post-graduation enrollment, employment, and entrepreneurship. The program was launched in 2011 to increase students’ human capital and interest in science and postgraduate education studies through a substan tial increase in scholarships for Brazilians to carry out part of their undergraduate studies abroad. We exploit variation in the approval rate across CSF selection calls for the same destination country and year and combine seventeen public and private administrative records to track CSF candidates’ outcomes up to eight years after the call. The main results suggest that the program did not achieve its goals of in creasing approved student enrollment in postgraduate education programs in Brazil. Even though the program could have improved student skills and acted as a market signaling, we do not find effects on the probability of working in the formal labor market, or as formal entrepreneurs. Using detailed data from one top university, we show that approved students graduate more often, but take longer to graduate, which may have negative impacts on their labor market outcomes. Finally, although we cannot rule out that students moved to a foreign country after the program, we show that the likelihood of this event may have decreased over time. |
| Date: | 2023–04–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fgv:eesptd:562&r=edu |
| By: | Zhou, Renee (University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | To test whether education can change risk preference, I exploit the Indonesian school construction programme and the Mexican education reform in compulsory schooling as two separate natural experiments. Applying the instrumental variable approach, I do not find a causal effect of education on risk preference. The results are consistent in the two different settings, so my findings are externally valid. The results suggest that a change in risk preference may not be the channel via which the impact of education on risk-taking in real life. This paper contributes to the literature on the determinants of social preferences and the outcomes of education. |
| Keywords: | Risk preference ; risk aversion ; education JEL classifications: I25 ; D90 |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:wrkesp:45&r=edu |
| By: | Sadegh Eshaghnia; James J. Heckman; Rasmus Landersø |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a new approach to measuring the intergenerational transmission of well-being and a novel perspective on which measures and what age ranges to use to estimate intergenerational social mobility. We select the measures and the age ranges that best predict important human capital outcomes of children. The predictive power of parental resources varies among measures of parental resources as well as the age ranges used to measure them. Lifetime measures outperform traditional snapshot proxies for lifetime incomes based on income flows at certain age windows in predicting child outcomes, regardless of the ages when child outcomes are measured. The sensitivity of IGE estimates to the ages at which parental resources are measured is far smaller than their sensitivity to whether lifetime measures are used or whether snapshot measures are used. We also find that the financial resources of parents compensate in part for nonmonetary inputs to child human capital such as the stability of the family and education of parents. We interpret our estimates using the technology of skill formation modified to account for the emergence of new skills in adolescence. |
| JEL: | D31 I24 I30 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31093&r=edu |
| By: | Jérôme Gonnot; Mauro Lanati |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how visa policy affects international student migration. Using administrative data on community colleges in Canada, we evaluate a reform that introduced a new visa stream - the Student Partners Program (SPP) - with shorter processing times and higher approval rates for student visa applicants able to demonstrate that they have the financial resources and language skills to succeed academically. Using a triple difference estimator, we find that SPP increased student migration from treated countries by 33% relative to what would have occurred without the reform. In line with our theoretical model, we further show that SPP had a large and positive effect on international enrollment only in countries where migration fraud was a major concern, and that higher enrollment was driven by an increase in both the approval rate and the volume of applications to study at treated institutions. We also leverage the SPP reform to investigate potential crowding-out effects. While we find no evidence that the enrollment of international students took place at the expense of domestic students, our results indicate that the recruitment of students from countries eligible to SPP had a crowding-in effect on noneligible foreign students. |
| Keywords: | International Migration;Students;Visa Policy;Information |
| JEL: | F22 H52 I23 O15 |
| Date: | 2023–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cii:cepidt:2023-07&r=edu |