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on Education |
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Issue of 2026–06–15
twelve papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão, Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Eunsik Chang; María Padilla-Romo; Cecilia Peluffo |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the effects of early academic rank in elementary school on later cognitive and noncognitive outcomes in the context of Mexico. We use linked administrative records to compare students with similar third-grade achievement but different ordinal positions. These rank differences arise from idiosyncratic variation in the achievement distributions of elementary-school cohorts. We find that a higher third-grade rank increases performance on a high-stakes high school admission exam. Both broader school-cohort rank and classroom rank contribute to this achievement gain when estimated jointly. Higher rank leads to more selective high school choices and improves self-reported measures of self-perception, academic aspirations, classroom responsibility, learning strategies, and teamwork attitudes by the end of ninth grade. We also provide evidence that higher elementary school rank improves students' high school placement outcomes. |
| JEL: | I21 I25 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35267 |
| By: | Bharti, Nitin (University of Western Australia); Malik, Samreen (New York University, Abu Dhabi); Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop (Indian Statistical Institute); Prakash, Nishith (Northeastern University) |
| Abstract: | Despite near-universal school enrollment across many developing economies, the provision of quality education that cultivates lifelong learning and the capacity to apply knowledge in novel circumstances remains elusive. We conduct a cluster-randomized controlled trial in 132 public schools in Uttar Pradesh, India, to evaluate a guided, discovery-based science pedagogy at two intensity levels: a high-intensity Mobile Science Lab (MSL) and a lower-intensity Lab on Bike (LoB). MSL improves motivational beliefs and self-confidence by 0.15--0.18 standard deviations, reduces perceived barriers to education by 0.23 standard deviations, raises engagement by 0.17--0.22 standard deviations, and increases standardized test scores by 0.22--0.34 standard deviations across all subjects. LoB produces limited average effects, with gains concentrated among students completing all sessions. These findings demonstrate that pedagogical design and delivery intensity are critical determinants of multidimensional human capital formation, and that discovery-based pedagogy can shift motivational beliefs, engagement, and achievement in low-capacity public school systems. |
| Keywords: | Experiential Pedagogy, Curiosity, Student Engagement, Randomized Controlled Trial, Human Capital, India |
| JEL: | C93 D83 I21 I24 O15 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18677 |
| By: | Berlinski, Samuel; Giannola, Michele |
| Abstract: | We study the relative effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and interaction of family- and school-based learning interventions using a randomized controlled trial in Colombia that assigns children to a parental engagement program, a teacher professional development program, both, or a control group. Both interventions are grounded in a child-centered learning approach that emphasizes active engagement and the progression from informal to formal mathematical understanding. Each intervention independently generates sizable and statistically similar gains in early numeracy (0.17 and 0.20). Combining them produces no additional learning gains, suggesting that the two interventions act as substitutes over the time horizon and skill domain we study. When benefits accruing to future cohorts are taken into account, the teacher development program becomes at least as cost-effective as the parental engagement intervention. Our results suggest that, in this setting, strategically concentrating resources on a single binding constraint either at home or in school maximizes the short-run learning gains per dollar spent. |
| JEL: | I21 I25 O15 J13 C93 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:14613 |
| By: | Nguyen, Ha; Chapman, Bruce; Le, Huong; Royer, Heather; Dearden, Lorraine; Mitrou, Francis |
| Abstract: | This study uses whole-of-population linked census-administrative data to examine gender gaps in educational outcomes from early primary school through early adulthood in Australia and to assess the contribution of socioeconomic factors to these gaps either at the mean and along the distribution of educational outcomes. Leveraging the richness and large size of the linked data and employing some of the most rigorous empirical approaches in the literature, including mother and twin fixed-effects models, we find that females outperform males as early as ages 5–6 across multiple developmental domains, and that this advantage persists through university. The gender gap in favour of females is larger among lower-performing students. We also find that boys benefit more than girls from growing up in more advantaged families, particularly among academically lower-performing boys. However, this advantage is observed only for outcomes measured in the early years of primary school. By contrast, for outcomes measured at the tertiary level, most indicators of socioeconomic advantage confer stronger benefits to females, especially among individuals at the lower end of the educational attainment distribution. Finally, having ruled out gender differences in birth weight—which favour males—we identify gender differences across siblings in school sector choice and early childhood health conditions, both favouring females, as potential mechanisms underlying these patterns. |
| Keywords: | Education; Gender Gap; Socioeconomic Status; Administrative data; Census; Australia. |
| JEL: | I2 I24 I26 J1 J6 R2 |
| Date: | 2026–02 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:129344 |
| By: | Ferreira, João R.; Sandholtz, Wayne Aaron |
| Abstract: | We use administrative data to measure sibling spillovers on academic performance before and after the introduction of Free Secondary Education (FSE) in Tanzania. Prior to FSE, students whose older siblings narrowly passed the secondary school entrance exam were less likely to go to secondary school themselves; with FSE, the effect became positive. A triple-differences analysis, using geographic variation in FSE exposure, shows that FSE caused the reversal. Mechanism analyses suggest that changes in parental investments were a more likely channel for this reversal than direct sibling interactions. By alleviating financial constraints, FSE allowed households to invest in more children. |
| Keywords: | free secondary education; high-stakes exams; intra-household allocation; resource constraints; sibling spillovers; Tanzania |
| JEL: | O15 D13 J13 |
| Date: | 2026–05–14 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:138613 |
| By: | Peter Bergman; Nat Chowanajin |
| Abstract: | We conduct a meta-analysis of 82 randomized controlled trials across more than 20 countries to estimate the effects of low-cost, remote parental engagement interventions delivered through text messages, phone calls, and apps. We estimate a joint likelihood function that incorporates both written studies and unwritten studies identified through trial registries, funder records, research labs, evidence clearinghouses, and other sources. By also recording sample sizes for unwritten studies, the model estimates the distribution of standard errors, identifies write-up probabilities conditional on significance, and characterizes the file drawer by estimating effect distributions for written and unwritten studies. Bias-corrected effects are 0.05 SD for test scores, 0.07 SD for grades, 0.05 SD for attendance, and 0.03 SD for enrollment. In the best-identified domain, test scores, statistically insignificant results are still written up at high rates. We also find that larger studies tend to estimate smaller latent effects, which could indicate that true effects are correlated with study precision, violating a common meta-analysis assumption. In smaller-sample domains, our approach helps identify selection probabilities by anchoring the absolute write-up rates. Finally, we estimate the value of additional RCTs to inform adoption decisions. Any single study estimate is unlikely to dissuade adoption because parent interventions have high marginal value of public funds. Instead, future research is most valuable when it can explain heterogeneity across settings. |
| JEL: | H43 I20 I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35299 |
| By: | Kuzmanic, Danilo; Engzell, Per (University College London); Jerrim, John |
| Abstract: | Good teachers are role models. Using Chilean administrative data, we estimate how teacher value-added (VA) affects the VA of students who later become teachers. Exposure to a math teacher with 1 SD higher VA raises teacher VA in the next generation by 0.14 SD and student achievement one generation removed by 0.04 SD. Effects compound with longer exposure and appear driven by observable classroom practices. Under plausible assumptions, these spillovers raise cumulative returns to instructional quality by 28 percent after one generation and 39 percent in the long run. |
| Date: | 2026–05–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:4nrek_v1 |
| By: | Yi Chen; Chao Fu; Hongbin Li; Teng Li; Siyan Tang |
| Abstract: | Extensive discussion centers around the question of whether affirmative action (AA) in higher education “works, ” despite AA being in practice a continuous policy instrument. We study the dose effects of AA on its intended beneficiaries by exploiting the ethnic minority bonus-point policy in China's centralized college admissions system, where targeted students receive explicit point advantages. Exploring cohort-level fluctuations in exam score distributions that generate plausibly exogenous variation in the effective dose of AA, we show that higher AA doses increase recipients' admissions to colleges and elite colleges, but lower their academic rankings, shift them toward lower-earning majors, and reduce their satisfaction with college life. From data linking college entrance exam (CEE) records to comprehensive card transaction records 10–23 years after CEE, we find that low AA doses increase long-term consumption by 19% but high doses reduce it by 25%. Such non-monotonic dose responses exist across expenditure categories, including child-related expenditure, suggesting potential impacts on future generations. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that while the positive effects of low AA doses persist across student groups, students from stronger academic backgrounds are more resilient to the negative effects of high AA doses. Overall, our results suggest that careful calibration of AA policies is crucial for achieving their intended goals. |
| JEL: | H75 I2 I3 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35281 |
| By: | Patrick Agte; Daniel R. Morales; Christopher Neilson; Sebastián Otero; Gautam Rao |
| Abstract: | Scaling up effective policies often requires the attention of frontline bureaucrats with many competing responsibilities. Even when policymakers adopt effective programs, implementation may not follow. In a nationwide experiment in the Dominican Republic, we test interventions to increase school principals' implementation of an educational program proven effective in a previous RCT. Only 37% of control schools verifiably implemented the intervention when ordered to by the Ministry of Education, compared with 83% in the original trial. Implementation was no higher among schools that previously implemented the program in the RCT, suggesting that fixed costs of adoption do not explain non-adoption. We find precise null effects of sharing research evidence, providing modest financial incentives, or offering implementation assistance to principals. In contrast, additional reminder calls increased implementation by 20 percentage points. A second experiment targeting a different mandated program yields the same pattern: reminders produce large effects, while monitoring messages have smaller effects. Our findings point to limited attention among bureaucrats as an important barrier to scaling policies. |
| JEL: | D9 O1 O15 O20 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35291 |
| By: | Lordan, Grace; Mcguire, Alistair |
| Abstract: | Through a cluster randomised field trial, we evaluate the impact of an evidence-based, soft skills curriculum aimed at adolescents, referred to as Healthy Minds, that ran in 35 high schools in England over four years (2013/14 – 2017/18). We find supportive evidence that Healthy Minds positively augments the primary outcome of self-reported physical health in the treated adolescents. Treated pupils have global health attainment that is 0.235 standard deviations higher than children in the control group, resulting in a 10-percentile increase in their measured health status. We also find evidence of positive impacts on behaviour. There is no evidence of impacts on improved emotional wellbeing. We note significant gender differences in the effects found, strongly favouring boys. Overall, we provide strong evidence that a designed, taught life skills curriculum can improve related outcomes during the adolescent years, and that differential learning styles across visible aspects of diversity are worthy of consideration Healthy Minds. |
| Keywords: | health; soft skills; high school curriculum; adolescent education |
| JEL: | I18 I20 |
| Date: | 2026–05–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:128806 |
| By: | Yaow, Yu Hung (University of Maryland); Gershenson, Seth (American University); Blazar, David (University of Maryland); Hutt, Ethan (UNC Chapel Hill) |
| Abstract: | Researchers, educators, and policymakers have long worried about the consequences of student absences for educational achievement and attainment—concerns that have grown with the significant rise in absenteeism during and following the Covid-19 pandemic. Using administrative data from Maryland, North Carolina, and a large urban school district, we find that the impact of absences on test scores was modestly (about 5 to 20%) smaller in 2022-23 than in 2018-19 but still practically and statistically significant. Consistent with prior research, these harmful effects of absences are approximately linear and exhibit little heterogeneity across race and gender pre-Covid. In Maryland, the impact of tenth-grade absences on high-school graduation and 2-year college enrollment was much (about 40%) smaller after the pandemic than before, but the impact of absences on any (2- or 4-year) college enrollment increased slightly. Post-Covid reductions in the harmful effects were larger for white students on test scores and larger for Black students on graduation. |
| Keywords: | chronic absence, attendance, learning loss |
| JEL: | I2 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18652 |
| By: | Khushid, Jawairiah; Siddiqui, Danish Ahmed |
| Abstract: | In recent years, higher education institutions have increasingly adopted e-learning courses to remove the barriers of time and space throughout the world, which makes it vital to ensure the conditions for greater student's engagement in online learning environment. In this regard, previous studies have demonstrated a lack of consistent results with respect to the prediction of students' engagement. The goal of this study is to examine the relationship between e-learning readiness and students' engagement for both traditional and non-traditional student and the moderating roles of cultural dimensions and personality traits. The theoretical framework is based upon social constructivist theories. Quantitative method is used, whereby an online survey questionnaire was shared to obtain data from 200 postgraduate students enrolled in an online postgraduate certification course in education at ICE and 200 questionnaires distributed to post graduate students enrolled in University of Karachi. The collected data was analyzed using the structural equation modelling technique in conjunction with multi-group analysis. The results shows computer/internet self-efficacy negatively impacting emotional engagement, Skill and performance. Learners control has positive but insignificant relationship with performance and participation. Motivation for learning has negative relation with participation. Online communication self-efficacy has no significant relation with participation and skill. Self-directed learning has negative relationship with emotion, performance and skill and no significant relationship with participation. |
| Keywords: | Students’ Engagement, E-Learning, Online learning, e-learning readiness, Self directed learning, traditional students, non-traditional students |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:341061 |