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Full-Text Articles in Education

The Impact Of The Louisiana Scolarship Program On Racial Segregation In Louisiana Schools, Anna J. Egalite, Jonathan N. Mills, Patrick Wolf Feb 2016

The Impact Of The Louisiana Scolarship Program On Racial Segregation In Louisiana Schools, Anna J. Egalite, Jonathan N. Mills, Patrick Wolf

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

The question of how school choice programs affect the racial stratification of schools is highly salient in the field of education policy. We use a student-level panel data set to analyze the impacts of the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) on racial segregation in public and private schools. This targeted school voucher program provides funding for low-income, mostly minority students in the lowest-graded public schools to enroll in participating private schools. Our analysis indicates that the vast majority (82%) of LSP transfers have reduced racial segregation in the voucher students’ former public schools. LSP transfers have marginally increased segregation in the …


The Competitive Effects Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On Public School Performance, Anna J. Egalite Feb 2016

The Competitive Effects Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On Public School Performance, Anna J. Egalite

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Given the significant growth rate and geographic expansion of private school choice programs over the past two decades, it is important to examine how traditional public schools respond to the sudden injection of competition for students and resources. This article uses 1) a school fixed effects approach, and 2) a regression discontinuity framework to examine the achievement impacts of the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP). This targeted school voucher program has provided public funds for low-income students in low-performing public schools to enroll in participating private schools since the 2012-13 school year. The main findings of the competitive effects analysis reveal …


The Effects Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On Student Achievement After Two Years, Jonathan N. Mills Feb 2016

The Effects Of The Louisiana Scholarship Program On Student Achievement After Two Years, Jonathan N. Mills

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

The Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) is a statewide initiative offering publicly-funded vouchers to enroll in local private schools to students in low-performing schools with family income no greater than 250 percent of the poverty line. Initially established in 2008 as a pilot program in New Orleans, the LSP was expanded statewide in 2012. This paper examines the experimental effects of using an LSP scholarship to enroll in a private school on student achievement in the first two years following the program’s expansion. Our results indicate that the use of an LSP scholarship has negatively impacted both ELA and math achievement, …


Examining Inequities In Teacher Pension Benefits, James V. Shuls Dec 2015

Examining Inequities In Teacher Pension Benefits, James V. Shuls

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

From funding to teacher quality, inequities exist between school districts. This paper adds to the literature on inequities by examining the impact of pension plan formulas on pension benefits. Using data from the salary schedules of 464 Missouri school districts, this paper analyzes how various final average salary calculations would impact the benefits of teachers in different districts. All of the schools in this analysis belong to Missouri’s Public Employee Retirement System, which is a defined-benefit pension plan. A teacher’s benefit in this plan is based on her years of experience and her final average salary. The system uses a …


The Effect Of Public And Private Schooling On Anti-Semitism, Jay P. Greene, Cari A. Bogulski Nov 2015

The Effect Of Public And Private Schooling On Anti-Semitism, Jay P. Greene, Cari A. Bogulski

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Most major American Jewish organizations oppose voucher and other school choice programs based in part on the fear that private, mostly religious, schools do not check the development of anti-Semitism as well as do government-operated public schools. To examine whether private and public schools differ in their effect on the emergence of anti-Semitic attitudes in adults later in life, we conducted a large survey of a nationally representative sample of adults in the United States. Subjects were asked to provide details on the type of school they attended each year between 1st and 12th grade, including whether the school was …


When You Say Nothing At All: The Predictive Power Of Student Effort On Surveys, Collin Hitt Oct 2015

When You Say Nothing At All: The Predictive Power Of Student Effort On Surveys, Collin Hitt

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Character traits and noncognitive skills are important for human capital development and longrun life outcomes. Research in economics and psychology now shows this clearly. But research into the exact determinants of noncognitive skills have been slowed by a common data limitation: most large-scale datasets do not contain adequate measures of noncognitive skills. This is a particularly acute problem in education policy evaluation. We demonstrate that there are important latent data within any survey dataset that can be used as proxy measures of noncognitive skills. Specifically, we examine the amount of conscientious effort that students exhibit on surveys, as measured by …


Discipline Disproportionalities In Schools: The Relationship Between Student Characteristics And School Disciplinary Outcomes, Kaitlin Anderson, Gary W. Ritter Oct 2015

Discipline Disproportionalities In Schools: The Relationship Between Student Characteristics And School Disciplinary Outcomes, Kaitlin Anderson, Gary W. Ritter

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

According to a 2014 report from the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, black students represent only 15% of students across the nation, but 35% of students suspended once are black, 44% of students suspended more than once are black, and 36% of expelled students are black. These disparate disciplinary aggregate outcomes, while troubling, do not provide as much information as policymakers need. In this study, we exploit three years of student-level discipline data from Arkansas to assess the extent to which black students or other minority students were more likely to receive certain types of punishments, even …


Effects Of Dual-Language Immersion On Students’ Academic Performance, Jennifer L. Steele, Robert O. Slater, Gema Zamarro, Trey Miller, Jennifer Li, Susan Burkhauser, Michael Bacon Oct 2015

Effects Of Dual-Language Immersion On Students’ Academic Performance, Jennifer L. Steele, Robert O. Slater, Gema Zamarro, Trey Miller, Jennifer Li, Susan Burkhauser, Michael Bacon

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Using data from seven cohorts of language immersion lottery applicants in a large, urban school district, we estimate the causal effects of immersion on students’ test scores in reading, mathematics, and science, and on English learners’ (EL) reclassification. We estimate positive intent-to-treat (ITT) effects on reading performance in fifth and eighth grades, ranging from 13 to 22 percent of a standard deviation, reflecting 7 to 9 months of learning. We find little benefit in terms of mathematics and science performance, but also no detriment. By sixth and seventh grade, lottery winners’ probabilities of remaining classified as EL are three to …


Falling Below The Line: Minimum Subgroup Size And Special Education Enrollment, Sivan Tuchman Aug 2015

Falling Below The Line: Minimum Subgroup Size And Special Education Enrollment, Sivan Tuchman

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) brought high-stakes accountability testing into every American public school with the goal of 100 percent proficiency for all students. Making annual yearly progress (AYP) toward this proficiency goal for the total student population as well as at-risk subgroups was required in order for schools to avoid possible sanctions, such as school restructuring. In implementing NCLB, states had flexibility to determine the minimum size of these subgroups as to provide statistical reliability and accountability for as many schools as possible. If a school did not meet the state’s minimum subgroup size, the …


No Excuses Charter Schools: A Meta-Analysis Of The Experimental Evidence On Student Achievement, Albert Cheng, Collin Hitt, Brian Kisida, Jonathan N. Mills Jul 2015

No Excuses Charter Schools: A Meta-Analysis Of The Experimental Evidence On Student Achievement, Albert Cheng, Collin Hitt, Brian Kisida, Jonathan N. Mills

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

While charter schools differ widely in philosophy and pedagogical views, the United States’s most famous urban charter schools typically use the No Excuses approach. Enrolling mainly poor and minority students, these schools feature high academic standards, strict disciplinary codes, extended instructional time, and targeted supports for low-performing students. The strenuous and regimented style is controversial amongst some scholars, but others contend that the No Excuses approach is needed to rapidly close the achievement gap. We conduct the first meta-analysis of the achievement impacts of No Excuses charter schools. Focusing on experimental studies, we find that No Excuses charter schools significantly …


The Intergenerational Transmission Of Noncognitive Skills And Their Effect On Education And Employment Outcomes, Ildefonso Mendez, Gema Zamarro Jun 2015

The Intergenerational Transmission Of Noncognitive Skills And Their Effect On Education And Employment Outcomes, Ildefonso Mendez, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

We use information on second-generation migrants to study the existence of a cultural component on the formation process of noncognitive skills and its effect on education and employment outcomes. Our measures of noncognitive skills include: personality traits that children are encouraged to learn and civic capital. Individuals whose cultural heritage places a lower value on child qualities positively associated to the conscientiousness personality factor report lower education, worse occupational status and lower wages on average. Individuals with a higher inherited civic capital declare a higher educational level, but we find no effect of civic capital on adult labor market outcomes.


Non-Cognitive Abilities And Spanish Regional Differences In Student Performance In Pisa 2009, Ildefonso Mendez, Gema Zamarro, Jose G. Clavel, Collin Hitt Jun 2015

Non-Cognitive Abilities And Spanish Regional Differences In Student Performance In Pisa 2009, Ildefonso Mendez, Gema Zamarro, Jose G. Clavel, Collin Hitt

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

The goal of this paper is to analyze the role that non-cognitive skills and, in particular, regional differences in those skills, play on the observed differences in 15-year-old student’s academic performance, across Spanish regions, on PISA 2009. Previous research has shown the relevance of differences in student’s personal, family and school characteristics in accounting for academic differences across Spanish regions but it has also found that a sizeable part of the observed differences remained unexplained. We have found that differences in the distribution of certain non-cognitive skills associated to academic performance like focus, perseverance and resilience play a prominent role …


How Can We Accurately Measure Whether Students Are Gaining Relevant Outcomes In Higher Education?, Tatiana Melguizo, Gema Zamarro, Tatiana Velasco, Fabio Sanchez Jun 2015

How Can We Accurately Measure Whether Students Are Gaining Relevant Outcomes In Higher Education?, Tatiana Melguizo, Gema Zamarro, Tatiana Velasco, Fabio Sanchez

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

The main objective of this study is to empirically test a number of theory-based models (i.e. fixed effects (FE), random effects (RE), and aggregated residuals (AR)) to measure both, the generic knowledge as well as the degree attainment rates and early labor outcomes, gained by students in different programs and institutions in higher education. There are four main findings: First, the results of the paper confirm the need of using models that address the issue of student selection into programs and institutions in order to avoid biased estimates. Second, our findings provide suggestive evidence in favor of using FE models. …


Comparisons Of Student Perceptions Of Teacher's Performance In The Classroom: Using Parametric Anchoring Vignette Methods For Improving Comparability, Hana Vonkova, Gema Zamarro, Vera Deberg, Collin Hitt Jun 2015

Comparisons Of Student Perceptions Of Teacher's Performance In The Classroom: Using Parametric Anchoring Vignette Methods For Improving Comparability, Hana Vonkova, Gema Zamarro, Vera Deberg, Collin Hitt

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Self-reports are an indispensable source of information in education research but might be affected by reference group bias if the frame of reference (i.e. implicit standards), used to answer the questions, differs across students. The anchoring vignettes method was introduced, in other areas of social science, precisely to correct for this source of bias. However, studies that make use of this approach in education are rare and more research is needed to study its potential. This paper uses data from PISA 2012 to investigate the use of the parametric model of the anchoring vignettes method to correct for differential implicit …


Collective Bargaining And District Costs For Teacher Health Insurance: An Examination Of The Data From The Bls And Wisconsin, Robert M. Costrell May 2015

Collective Bargaining And District Costs For Teacher Health Insurance: An Examination Of The Data From The Bls And Wisconsin, Robert M. Costrell

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

District costs for teachers’ health insurance are, on average, higher than employer costs for private-sector professionals. How much of this is attributable to collective bargaining? This paper examines the question using data from the National Compensation Survey (NCS) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the state of Wisconsin. In addition, the impact of collective bargaining on employer costs is decomposed into the impact on total premiums and the employer’s share of those premiums. The BLS data show that unionization is associated with higher total premiums, higher employer costs, and lower employee contributions in both the public and private …


Does Financial Literacy Contribute To Food Security?, Katherine Grace Carman, Gema Zamarro Jan 2015

Does Financial Literacy Contribute To Food Security?, Katherine Grace Carman, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Food insecurity, not having consistent access to adequate food for active, healthy lives for all household members is most common among low income households. However, income alone is not sufficient to explain who experiences food insecurity. This study investigates the relationship between financial literacy and food security. We find that low income households who exhibit financial literacy are less likely to experience food insecurity.


Does Retirement Make You Happy? A Simultaneous Equations Approach, Raquel Fonseca, Arie Kapteyn, Jinkook Lee, Gema Zamarro Sep 2014

Does Retirement Make You Happy? A Simultaneous Equations Approach, Raquel Fonseca, Arie Kapteyn, Jinkook Lee, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Continued improvements in life expectancy and fiscal insolvency of public pensions have led to an increase in pension entitlement ages in several countries, but its consequences for subjective well-being are largely unknown. Financial consequences of retirement complicate the estimation of effects of retirement on subjective well-being as financial circumstances may influence subjective well-being, and therefore, the effects of retirement are likely to be confounded by the change in income. At the same time, unobservable determinants of income are probably related with unobservable determinants of subjective wellbeing, making income possibly endogenous if used as control in subjective wellbeing regressions. To address …


Finance For All: The Impact Of Financial Literacy Training In Compulsory Secondary Education In Spain, Laura Hospido, Ernesto Villanueva, Gema Zamarro Jun 2014

Finance For All: The Impact Of Financial Literacy Training In Compulsory Secondary Education In Spain, Laura Hospido, Ernesto Villanueva, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

We estimate the impact on objective measures of financial literacy of a 10-hour financial education program among 15-year-old students in compulsory secondary schooling. We use a matched sample of students and teachers in Madrid and two different estimation strategies. Firstly, we use reweighting estimators to compare the performance in a test of financial knowledge of students in treatment and control schools. In another specification, we use school fixed-effect estimates of the effect of the course on changes in scores in tests of financial knowledge. The program increased treated students’ financial knowledge by between one-fourth and one-third of a standard deviation. …


Disentangling Disadvantage: Can We Distinguish Good Teaching From Classroom Composition?, Gema Zamarro, John Engberg, Juan Esteban Saavedra, Jennifer Steele Jan 2014

Disentangling Disadvantage: Can We Distinguish Good Teaching From Classroom Composition?, Gema Zamarro, John Engberg, Juan Esteban Saavedra, Jennifer Steele

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

This paper focuses on the use of teacher value-added estimates to assess the distribution of effective teaching across students of varying socioeconomic disadvantage. We use simulation methods to examine the extent to which different commonly used teacher-value added estimators accurately capture both the rank correlation between true and estimated teacher effects and the distribution of effective teaching across student characteristics in the presence of classroom composition effects. Varying the amount of teacher sorting by student characteristics, the withinteacher variability in classroom composition, and the amount of student learning decay, we compare aggregated residuals, teacher random effects, and teacher fixed effects …


Blaine It On Politics: The (Non-) Effect Of Anti-Aid Amendments On Private School Choice Programs In The U.S. States, Patrick J. Wolf, Richard D. Komer, Michael Q. Mcshane Aug 2012

Blaine It On Politics: The (Non-) Effect Of Anti-Aid Amendments On Private School Choice Programs In The U.S. States, Patrick J. Wolf, Richard D. Komer, Michael Q. Mcshane

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

James G. Blaine was a prominent American politician of the late 19th Century. Although Blaine was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for President in 1884, U.S. Secretary of State, Speaker of the House, and a Senator from Maine, his primary legacy was the enshrinement of "anti-aid" amendments in the constitutions of 39 U.S. states. These so-called "Blaine Amendments" were designed to prohibit government funds from supporting "sectarian" religious organizations such as schools and charities. In Blaine's day, "sectarian" was widely understood to be a euphemism for "Catholic". Nondenominationally Protestant organizations such as the public schools of the day were considered to …


When Rights, Incentives, And Institutions All Clash: The Case Of School Vouchers And Special Education In Milwaukee, Patrick J. Wolf, John F. Witte, David J. Fleming Aug 2012

When Rights, Incentives, And Institutions All Clash: The Case Of School Vouchers And Special Education In Milwaukee, Patrick J. Wolf, John F. Witte, David J. Fleming

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Two highly controversial issues in the field of K-12 education in the U.S. are special education and parental school choice. Those two policy concerns converge surrounding the question of what proportion of students in school voucher programs compared to public schools have education-related disabilities, and whether or not the two school sectors are properly classifying and serving students with special education needs. We might expect private voucher-receiving schools to serve fewer students with disabilities than local public school systems due to the legal framework and institutional incentives surrounding special education and private schools. Most federal disability laws do not apply …


Induced Entry Into The Social Security Disability Program: Using Past Sga Changes As A Natural Experiment, Nicole Maestas, Kathleen J. Mullen, Gema Zamarro Aug 2012

Induced Entry Into The Social Security Disability Program: Using Past Sga Changes As A Natural Experiment, Nicole Maestas, Kathleen J. Mullen, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

The number of American adults receiving benefits from the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program has increased dramatically over the past several decades. A proposed solution to rising program costs is to change program rules to encourage fully or partially recovered SSDI beneficiaries to return to work. One such option is a benefit offset policy, which would reduce SSDI benefits by $1 for every $2 of earned income. While a benefit offset could generate savings from increased labor supply and program exit among current beneficiaries, it could also generate unintended costs if the more generous work rules induce significant numbers …


Family Labor Participation And Child Care Decisions: The Role Of Grannies, Gema Zamarro Jan 2011

Family Labor Participation And Child Care Decisions: The Role Of Grannies, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

One of the most significant long term trends in the labor market in most OECD countries has been the increase in the proportion of working mothers. However, not all countries show the same pattern. Countries in Southern Europe (Italy, Greece and Spain) show an average participation rate of about 45% whereas the participation rates in Northern countries (Denmark, Sweden) are around 75%. The characteristics of child care systems also differ significantly across OECD countries. This along with the characteristics of the labor market may have led families to get the necessary social services in an alternative way, i.e. through grandmothers. …


Boot Camps And Science Camps: Comparing The Kipp And Harmony Charter School Networks, Robert Maranto Jan 2011

Boot Camps And Science Camps: Comparing The Kipp And Harmony Charter School Networks, Robert Maranto

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

The Obama administration has encouraged "high quality" charter school networks to improve the achievement of disadvantaged students, viewing this as a struggle for civil rights (Maranto and McShane 2011; Paige and Witty 2010). The best known of these is the 109 campus strong Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP), which started in Houston in 1994. KIPP now serves 32,000 students in 20 states and the District of Columbia, more than 90% African American or Latino/a, and more than 80% low income (KIPP Foundation 2011). Journalists (Mathews 2009; Guggenheim 2010) and scholars (Thernstrom and Thernstrom 2003; Maranto and Maranto 2006; Macey et …


Seeking Relevance: Toward A Strategic Plan For Political Science, Robert Maranto, Dirk C. Van Raemdonck Sep 2010

Seeking Relevance: Toward A Strategic Plan For Political Science, Robert Maranto, Dirk C. Van Raemdonck

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Surveys suggest that in the 1970s most political scientists wished they had chosen a different profession, a true tragedy, as Ricci (1984) writes. We discuss the causes of alienation, but also offer data suggesting that the situation had improved markedly by 1999. We speculate that this has much to do with a better job market and more realistic expectations about that job market. Nonetheless, all is not well. Both conservative senators and prominent political scientists continue to question the importance of Political Science (e.g., Cohen 1999). The APSA has attempted to increase its relevance by returning to its Progressive roots, …


Cops, Teachers, And The Art Of The Impossible: Explaining The Lack Of Diffusion Of Impossible Job Innovations, Robert Maranto, Patrick J. Wolf Aug 2010

Cops, Teachers, And The Art Of The Impossible: Explaining The Lack Of Diffusion Of Impossible Job Innovations, Robert Maranto, Patrick J. Wolf

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

In their now classic Impossible Jobs in Public Management, Hargrove and Glidewell (1990) argue that public agencies with limited legitimacy, high conflict, low professional authority, and weak "agency myths" have essentially impossible jobs. Leaders of such agencies can do little more than "cope," which is also a theme of James Q. Wilson (1989), among others. Yet in the years since publication of Impossible Jobs, one such position, that of police commissioner has proven possible. Over a sustained 17-year period, the New York City Police Department has achieved dramatic reductions in crime with relatively few political repercussions, as described by Kelling …


What Explains The Gender Gap In Financial Literacy? The Role Of Household Decision-Making, Raquel Fonseca, Kathleen J. Mullen, Gema Zamarro, Julie Zissimopoulos Jun 2010

What Explains The Gender Gap In Financial Literacy? The Role Of Household Decision-Making, Raquel Fonseca, Kathleen J. Mullen, Gema Zamarro, Julie Zissimopoulos

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Research has shown that financial illiteracy is widespread among women, and that many women are unfamiliar with even the most basic economic concepts needed to make saving and investment decisions. This gender gap in financial literacy may contribute to the differential levels of retirement preparedness between women and men. However, little is known about the determinants of the gender gap in financial literacy. Using data from the RAND American Life Panel, we examined potential explanations for the gender gap including the role of marriage and division of financial decision-making among couples. We found that differences in the demographic characteristics of …


Teacher Effectiveness In Urban High Schools, Richard Buddin, Gema Zamarro Aug 2009

Teacher Effectiveness In Urban High Schools, Richard Buddin, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

This research examines whether teacher licensure test scores and other teacher qualifications affect high school student achievement. The results are based on longitudinal student-level data from Los Angeles. The achievement analysis uses a value-added approach that adjusts for both student and teacher fixed effects. The results show little relationship between traditional measures of teacher quality (e.g., experience and education level) and student achievement in English Language Arts (ELA) or math. Similarly, teacher aptitude and subject-matter knowledge, as measured on state licensure tests, have no significant effects on student achievement. Achievement outcomes differ substantially from teacher to teacher, however, and the …


Teacher Qualifications And Middle School Student Achievement, Richard Buddin, Gema Zamarro Jun 2009

Teacher Qualifications And Middle School Student Achievement, Richard Buddin, Gema Zamarro

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

This research examines whether teacher licensure test scores and other teacher qualifications affect middle school student achievement. The results are based on longitudinal student-level data from Los Angeles. The achievement analysis uses a value-added approach that adjusts for both student and teacher fixed effects. The results show little relationship between traditional measures of teacher quality (e.g., experience and education level) and student achievement in reading or math. Similarly, licensure test scores in general aptitude, subject-matter knowledge, and reading pedagogy had no significant effects on student achievement. Teachers with elementary school credentials had slightly better success in the classroom than did …