Working Paper: NBER ID: w27162
Authors: Dario Cestau; Dennis Epple; Richard Romano; Holger Sieg; Carl Wojtaszek
Abstract: Assessing the effectiveness of education by race and gender is as difficult as it is important. We investigate this question utilizing data for eleven cohorts at West Point, a distinguished military academy and highly ranked liberal arts college. Employing matching using entry scores on three comprehensive measures, we obtain exceptional matches of score distributions for black and matched white students. We find black students have lower graduating achievement scores than matched white students, but comparable rates of graduation, retention in the Army after graduation, and early promotion. Hispanic-white comparisons reveal no differences. Female-male comparisons reveal women have lower attainment and retention rates.
Keywords: education; race; gender; military; achievement gaps
JEL Codes: I21; J15; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Differences in college readiness skills (D29) | Achievement and career outcomes (D29) |
| Initial college readiness (A21) | Graduation rates between black and white cadets (I24) |
| Initial academic preparedness of black cadets (I29) | Achievement gap on Order of Merit List (OML) (I24) |
| Gender disparities (J16) | Graduation and retention rates (I23) |
| College readiness skills (A21) | Differences in achievement scores at graduation (I24) |