College Readiness Assessment
Category: Pathways to and Through Postsecondary
We estimate the long-term consequences of math and reading rank within an elementary school on short and long-term outcomes. We find that higher rank leads to better outcomes. Students ranked at the top in grade 7 perform up to 0.33 standard deviations higher on future school exams, are more likely to graduate high school and university, and earn significantly more at age 28. Math rank is especially predictive of high school completion and income. Reading rank is more strongly associated with university graduation. We find differences in the effect of rank on trajectories by gender for both top and bottom ranks. Our findings suggest that classroom position, even conditional on ability, has persistent effects, with implications for equity and early intervention.
Keywords
Post-secondary Education, School Rank, Gender, Earnings
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/qj4n-av50
