Working Paper: NBER ID: w14475
Authors: Esther Duflo; Pascaline Dupas; Michael Kremer
Abstract: To the extent that students benefit from high-achieving peers, tracking will help strong students and hurt weak ones. However, all students may benefit if tracking allows teachers to present material at a more appropriate level. Lower-achieving pupils are particularly likely to benefit from tracking if teachers would otherwise have incentives to teach to the top of the distribution. We propose a simple model nesting these effects. We compare 61 Kenyan schools in which students were randomly assigned to a first grade class with 60 in which students were assigned based on initial achievement. In non-tracking schools, students randomly assigned to academically stronger peers scored higher, consistent with a positive direct effect of academically strong peers. However, compared to their counterparts in non-tracking schools, students in tracking schools scored 0.14 standard deviations higher after 18 months, and this effect persisted one year after the program ended. Furthermore, students at all levels of the distribution benefited from tracking. Students near the median of the pre-test distribution benefited similarly whether assigned to the lower or upper section. A natural interpretation is that the direct effect of high-achieving peers is positive, but that tracking benefited lower-achieving pupils indirectly by allowing teachers to teach at a level more appropriate to them.
Keywords: tracking; peer effects; teacher incentives; Kenya; education
JEL Codes: I20; O1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Tracking (L87) | Student Achievement (I24) |
| Tracking (L87) | Teacher Effectiveness (A29) |
| Tracking (L87) | Peer Learning Dynamics (C92) |
| Tracking (L87) | Lower Achieving Students' Achievement (I24) |
| Tracking (L87) | Higher Achieving Students' Achievement (I24) |
| Tracking allows tailored instruction (A21) | Lower Achieving Students' Achievement (I24) |
| Tracking (L87) | Improvement in Learning Outcomes for All Students (I24) |