Working Paper: NBER ID: w17286
Authors: Will Dobbie; Roland G. Fryer Jr.
Abstract: Publicly funded exam schools educate many of the world's most talented students. These schools typically contain higher achieving peers, more rigorous instruction, and additional resources compared to regular public schools. This paper uses a sharp discontinuity in the admissions process at three prominent exam schools in New York City to provide the first causal estimate of the impact of attending an exam school in the United States on longer term academic outcomes. Attending an exam school increases the rigor of high school courses taken and the probability that a student graduates with an advanced high school degree. Surprisingly, however, attending an exam school has little impact on Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, college enrollment, or college graduation -- casting doubt on their ultimate long term impact.
Keywords: exam schools; academic achievement; New York City; college enrollment; educational policy
JEL Codes: I20; J00
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Attending an exam school (I23) | Taking more rigorous high school coursework (A21) |
| Attending an exam school (I23) | Probability of graduating with an advanced high school diploma (C12) |
| Attending an exam school (I23) | SAT reading and writing scores (C12) |
| Attending an exam school (I23) | SAT math scores (C00) |
| Attending an exam school (I23) | College enrollment rates (I23) |
| Attending an exam school (I23) | College graduation rates (I23) |
| Eligibility for Brooklyn Tech (I24) | College graduation rates (I23) |
| Eligibility for Bronx Science and Stuyvesant (I29) | College graduation rates (I23) |