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Multiple outcomes of education
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A Quantitative Study of Mathematical Language in Upper Elementary Classrooms
This study provides the first large-scale quantitative exploration of mathematical language use in upper elementary U.S. classrooms. Our approach employs natural language processing techniques to describe variation in teachers’ and students’ use of mathematical language in 1,657 fourth and fifth grade lessons in 317 classrooms in four districts over three years. Students’ exposure to mathematical language varies substantially across lessons and between teachers. Results suggest that teacher modeling, defined as the density of mathematical terms in teacher talk, does not substantially cause students to uptake mathematical language, but that teachers may encourage student use of mathematical vocabulary by means other than mere modeling or exposure. However, we also find that teachers who use more mathematical language are more effective at raising student test scores. These findings reveal that teachers who use more mathematical vocabulary are more effective math teachers.
Fadeout and Persistence of Intervention Impacts on Social-Emotional and Cognitive Skills in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-Analytic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials
Researchers and policymakers aspire for educational interventions to change children’s long-run developmental trajectories. However, intervention impacts on cognitive and achievement measures commonly fade over time. Less is known, although much is theorized, about socialemotional skill persistence. The current meta-analysis investigated whether intervention impacts on social-emotional skills demonstrated greater persistence than impacts on cognitive skills. We drew studies from eight pre-existing meta-analyses, generating a sample of 86 educational RCTs targeting children from infancy through adolescence, together involving 56,662 participants and 450 outcomes measured at post-test and at least one follow-up. Relying on a meta-regression approach for modeling persistence rates, we tested the extent to which post-test impact magnitudes predicted follow-up impact magnitudes. We found that post-test impacts were equally predictive of follow-up impacts for cognitive and social-emotional skills at 6- to 12- months follow-up, indicating similar conditional persistence rates across skill types. At 1- to 2- years follow-up, rates were lower and, if anything, cognitive skills showed greater conditional persistence than social-emotional skills. A small positive follow-up effect was observed, on average, beyond what was directly predicted by the post-test impact, indicating that interventions may have long-term effects that are not fully mediated by post-test effects. This pattern of results implied that smaller post-test impacts produced more persistent effects than larger post-test impacts, and social-emotional skill impacts were smaller, on average, than cognitive skill impacts. Considered as a whole, intervention impacts on both social-emotional and cognitive skills demonstrated fadeout, especially for interventions that produced larger initial effects. Implications for theory and future directions are discussed.
Education, gender, and family formation
We study the effect of educational attainment on family formation using regression discontinuity designs generated by centralized admissions processes to both secondary and tertiary education in Finland. Admission to further education at either margin does not increase the likelihood that men form families. In contrast, women admitted to further education are more likely to both live with a partner and have children. We then pre-register and test two hypotheses which could explain each set of results using survey data. These suggest that the positive association between men's education and family formation observed in the data is driven by selection. For women, our estimates are consistent with the idea that, as increased returns to social skills shift the burden of child development from schools to parents and particularly mothers, education can make women more attractive as potential partners.
The Effects of Public Pre-K for 3-year-olds on Early Elementary School Outcomes: Evidence from the DC Centralized Lottery
This study examines the effects of universal public pre-kindergarten for 3-year-olds (Pre-K3) on later public education outcomes, including enrollment, school mobility, special education status, and in-grade retention from kindergarten through second grade. While universal pre-kindergarten programs typically target 4-year-olds, interest in expanding to 3-year-olds is growing. Using the centralized assignment lottery in the District of Columbia as the basis for a quasi-experimental design, we find that Pre-K3 students are more likely to persist in the public system and remain in the same school. These effects are strongest for residents of low-income neighborhoods and communities of color and for students enrolled in dual language programs. Overall, public Pre-K3 appears to stabilize children’s early educational experiences, especially those starting furthest from opportunity.
The Graduation Part II: Graduate Program Graduation Rates
This paper documents several facts about graduate program graduation rates using administrative data covering public and nonprofit graduate students in Texas. Despite conventional wisdom that most graduate students complete their programs, only 58 percent of who started their program in 2004 graduated within 6 years. Between the 2004 and 2013 entering cohorts, graduate student completion rates grew by 10 percentage points. Graduation rates vary widely by field of study--ranging from an average of 81 percent for law programs to 53 percent for education programs. We also find large differences in graduation rates across institutions. On average, 72 percent of students who entered programs in flagship public universities graduated in 6 years compared to only 57 percent of those who entered programs in non-research intensive (non-R1) institutions. Graduate students who do not complete may face negative consequences due to lower average earnings and substantial levels of student debt.
Can States Sustain and Replicate School District Improvement? Evidence from Massachusetts
Limited scholarship examines districtwide turnaround reforms beyond the first few years of implementation or efforts to replicate successes in new contexts. We study Massachusetts, home to a state takeover of the Lawrence school district that led to academic gains in early reform years, and where state leaders attempted to replicate this success in three additional communities. We use statewide student-level administrative data (2006-07 to 2018- 19) and event study methods to estimate medium-term impacts on student outcomes across four districts. We find the initial improvements were largely sustained in Lawrence. We observe evidence of successful replication in Springfield but not Holyoke or Southbridge. The two turnarounds with positive outcomes both struck a unique balance between state and local input into decision-making.
Priceless Benefits: Effects of School Spending on Child Mortality
The academic and economic benefits of school spending are well-established, but focusing on these outcomes may underestimate the full social benefits of school spending. Recent increases in U.S. child mortality are driven by injuries and raise questions about what types of social investments could reduce child deaths. We use close school district tax elections and negative binomial regression models to estimate effects of a quasi-random increase in school spending on county child mortality. We find consistent evidence that increased school spending from passing a tax election reduces child mortality. Districts that narrowly passed a proposed tax increase spent an additional $243 per pupil, mostly on instruction and salaries, and had 4% lower child mortality after spending increased (6-10 years after the election). This increased spending also reduced child deaths of despair (due to drugs, alcohol, or suicide) by 5% and child deaths due to accidents or motor vehicle accidents by 7%. Estimates predicting potential mechanisms suggest that lower child mortality could partly reflect increases in the number of teachers and counselors, higher teacher salaries, and improved student engagement.
The Peer Effect of Persistence on Student Achievement
How do hybrid school leaders measure program success? Experimental evidence from a national sample of hybrid schools
Hybrid school enrollments are trending up and many parents express a diverse range of reasons for enrolling their children in hybrid schools. Yet little is known about the pedagogical goals pursued by hybrid schools. We aim to help close this gap in the literature with a stated preferences experiment of hybrid school leaders’ perceptions of program success. Sixty-three school leaders participated in a survey experiment in which we randomly assigned attributes to hypothetical programs and asked school leaders to identify the most successful program. We find that hybrid school leaders consider a broad range of student outcomes when evaluating program success, including labor market outcomes, civic outcomes, and family life. Students’ religious observance produced the largest effect sizes, a reasonable finding considering that roughly two-thirds of the schools represented in our sample have some religious affiliation. We do not find evidence that test score outcomes and higher education matriculation contribute meaningfully to perceived success.
The Role of Education-Industry Match in College Earnings Premia
There is substantial variation in the returns to a college degree. One determinant is whether a worker’s employment is “matched” with their education. With a novel education-industry crosswalk and panel data on 295,000 graduates, we provide the first estimates of an education-industry match premium leveraging within-person variation in earnings. We document which majors have the most and least matching, how earnings premia vary across fields and gender, and how premia evolve over time. With robust estimators, we show that workers in industries “matched” with their degree experience an average earnings premium of 7-11%, with variation by degree level and major.