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on Education |
| By: | Jordan S. Berne; Brian A. Jacob; Tareena Musaddiq; Anna Shapiro; Christina Weiland |
| Abstract: | Transitional Kindergarten (TK) is a relatively recent entrant into the U.S. early education landscape, combining features of public pre-K and regular kindergarten. We provide the first estimates of the impact of Michigan’s TK program on 3rd grade test scores. Using an augmented regression discontinuity design, we find that TK improves 3rd grade test scores by 0.29 (math) and 0.19 (English Language Arts) standard deviations relative to a counterfactual that includes other formal and informal early learning options. These impacts are notably large relative to the prior pre-K literature. |
| JEL: | I20 I21 I24 I28 J01 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32236&r=edu |
| By: | Zhao, Yuejun (University of Edinburgh); Markussen, Simen (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research); Røed, Knut (Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | Can lowering school starting age promote equality of opportunities and reduce the achievement gaps between pupils? We provide evidence on the heterogeneous (positional) effects on early school performance of two mandatory schooling reforms in Norway specifically aimed at reducing achievement gaps based on family background and immigrant status. Whereas the first reform reduced the school starting age from seven to six, the second changed the first-year curriculum from a play-oriented kindergarten pedagogy to a learning-oriented school pedagogy. We apply repeated simple difference models to evaluate the two reforms based on high-quality administrative register data, using children's grade point average (GPA) rank at age 15 to 16 and high school completion at age 21 as the main outcomes. We find no evidence that any of the reforms had the intended effect of reducing socioeconomic achievement gaps or immigrant-native differentials. Both reforms left educational inequalities more or less unchanged. |
| Keywords: | school performance, socioeconomic status, parental earnings, immigrant children, relative age, social mobility |
| JEL: | I24 I28 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16851&r=edu |
| By: | Aggarwal, Khushboo (Christ University); Barua, Rashmi (Jawaharlal Nehru University); Vidal-Fernandez, Marian (University of Sydney) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of groundwater contamination on educational outcomes in India. Our study leverages variations in the geographical coverage and timing of construction of safe government piped water schemes to identify the effects of exposure to contaminants. Using self-collected survey data from public schools in Assam, one of the most groundwater-contaminated regions in India, we find that prolonged exposure to unsafe groundwater is associated with increased school absenteeism, grade retention, and decreased test scores and Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). To complement our findings and to study the effect of one such contaminant, arsenic, we use a large nationally representative household survey. Using variations in soil textures across districts as an instrument for arsenic concentration levels we find that exposure to arsenic beyond safe threshold levels is negatively associated with school attendance. |
| Keywords: | water contamination, education, India |
| JEL: | I15 I25 F63 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16863&r=edu |
| By: | Aksoy, Cevat Giray (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development); Khanna, Gaurav (University of California, San Diego); Marino, Victoria (EBRD, London); Tumen, Semih (Amazon) |
| Abstract: | How does violence in origin areas affect the educational outcomes of refugees in their destinations? Using administrative panel data, we find that heightened violence in the hometowns of Syrian students leads to improvements in their school outcomes in Türkiye. Turkish language and Math scores of refugee students improve, with larger impacts on Turkish scores. There is no impact on naturalized Syrian students. We observe positive spillovers on Turkish students. These findings suggest ongoing violence in refugee-origin areas reduces the prospect of returning home, and induces students to increase their integration effort by investing in education. |
| Keywords: | conflict, forced migration, integration effort, return migration |
| JEL: | J15 I21 I25 F51 O15 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16862&r=edu |
| By: | Francesco Agostinelli; Margaux Luflade; Paolo Martellini |
| Abstract: | We define educational access as the component of a neighborhood's value that is determined by the set of schools available to its residents. This paper studies the extent to which educational access is determined by sorting based on heterogeneous preferences over school attributes, or local institutions that constrain residential location and school choice---such as school catchment areas and housing regulation. We develop a spatial equilibrium model of residential sorting and school choice, estimated using data from a large school district in the United States. The model replicates the responses of house prices and school enrollment to quasi-experimental variation in school peer composition and school transportation provision. We find that low-income families prioritize proximity to schools while high-income families and families with high-skilled children place more value on school peer composition. We use the model to evaluate how the geography of neighborhood sorting influences the aggregate and distributional outcomes of a school-choice expansion (place-based) and a housing voucher (people-based) policy. We find that both policies result in net welfare losses, with only marginal improvements in school peer composition for the average low-income family. Although eligible families benefit from these policies, the negative impact falls on families who currently invest in their children's education by residing in expensive neighborhoods. Under both policies, higher-income families are less exposed to the inflow of low-income children into their schools, either because of their longer distance from target neighborhoods or because of the cost imposed by residential zoning regulation on voucher recipients. |
| JEL: | I24 J13 R23 R31 |
| Date: | 2024–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32246&r=edu |
| By: | Acevedo, Ivonne; Fernández, Raquel; Pagés, Carmen; Székely, Miguel |
| Abstract: | Education is a crucial asset for a countrys economic prospects and for its inhabitants. In addition to its direct impact on growth via the accumulation of human capital, it is a critical ingredient in producing an informed citizenry, enhancing their ability to obtain and exert human and political rights and their facility to adapt to changing environments (generated by, e.g., technological or climatic change) among other benefits. In this chapter, we study education inequality in LAC (both in quantity and quality), assess how it emerges and amplifies or dampens existing inequalities, and examine the interaction of education inequality with other forms of inequality, primarily income and labor market outcomes. Our analysis is based on primary data from multiple sources. |
| Keywords: | Education and Inequality;Education and Economic Development;returns to education |
| JEL: | I24 I25 I26 |
| Date: | 2023–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:13198&r=edu |