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on Education |
| By: | Bach, Maximilian; Klein, Thilo; McNamara, Sarah |
| Abstract: | Though the use of tracking policies to stratify students is commonplace, evi- dence concerning the effects of ability-based tracking on student performance is mixed. Using rich data from the Hungarian secondary school centralized assignment mechanism and a quasi-experimental framework, we find that at- tending the highest track noticeably improves standardized test scores and university aspirations two years post-match. Heterogeneity analysis finds this effect is independent of socioeconomic status, prior achievement, and parents' educational attainment, and we find only limited evidence of peer spillover effects in terms of academic ability. Given socioeconomic disparities in track placement, tracking may reinforce educational inequality. |
| Keywords: | education, school choice, tracking, centralized school admissions, student achievement, inequality of opportunity |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I28 E47 C26 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:312194 |
| By: | Adam Lavecchia; Philip Oreopoulos; Noah Spencer |
| Abstract: | This paper presents estimates of the causal effect of a comprehensive support program for low-income high school students on crime. The program, called Pathways to Education, bundles a number of supports including regular coaching, tutoring, group activities, free public transportation tickets and bursaries for postsecondary education. Our empirical strategy uses administrative data on high school enrollment linked to administrative court records and a difference-in-differences methodology that compares the evolution of crime outcomes of students living in the public housing communities where Pathways operates to similar public housing students who are ineligible for the program. We find that eligibility for Pathways reduces the likelihood of being charged with a crime at its Regent Park location by 6 percentage points (33 percent of the pre-treatment mean) and has no statistically significant effect at its Rexdale and Lawrence Heights locations. Our results suggest that the reductions in criminal activity are driven by the reduction of property crimes. |
| Keywords: | low-income youth, education and crime, youth programs |
| JEL: | I24 I26 I28 L31 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11676 |
| By: | Sanchis-Guarner, Rosa; Montalbán, José; Weinhardt, Felix |
| Abstract: | Using administrative data, we estimate the effect of home broadband speed on student-level value-added test scores. Our headline estimate relies on jumps in connection quality between close neighbours that occur across thousands of invisible telephone exchange station catchment-area boundaries. We find that increasing speed by 1 Mbit/s increases test scores by 1.37 percentile ranks, equivalent to 5% of a standard deviation. School-level factors or broadband take-up cannot explain this. Instead, the positive effects are concentrated among high-ability and non-free-school-meal eligible students and result from more education-oriented internet use. Differences in ICT quality can thus lead to increasing education inequalities. |
| Keywords: | broadband; education; spatial regression discontinuity |
| JEL: | J24 I21 I28 D83 |
| Date: | 2024–02–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:126832 |
| By: | Piza, Caio; Furtado, Isabela Brandao; Amorim, Vivian De Fatima |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether providing financial education in elementary and middle school grades improves students' financial proficiency and actual behavior. It uses a cluster randomized control trial to evaluate a pilot program implemented in 101 Brazilian municipal schools in 2015. The findings show positive impacts on financial proficiency, mainly among middle school students, and suggestive evidence of improvements in short-term behavioral outcomes. However, the analysis indicates that the program did not impact students' school achievements in both the short and longer terms, which suggests that the program's effects were not strong enough to shift students' behavior decisions. |
| Date: | 2023–06–28 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10511 |
| By: | Andersen, Simon Calmar (Aarhus University); Michel, Bastien (Aarhus University); Nielsen, Helena Skyt (Aarhus University) |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of peer coaching separately from the effect of training on teachers' implementation of new teaching techniques. We conducted a preregistered field experiment involving 68 teachers and 1, 490 students in Denmark. Teachers in an active control group took part in a teaching program that introduced new teaching techniques. On top of the teaching program, the treatment group received coaching from peers. External observers, blinded to the treatment status, assessed teachers' use of the program techniques in the classroom. While we observe increased transfer to teachers' practices, the overall effects are mixed, calling for caution. |
| Keywords: | coaching, knowledge transfer, school teachers, field experiment |
| JEL: | I21 J24 |
| Date: | 2025–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17728 |