Working Paper: NBER ID: w27468
Authors: Jeffrey T. Denning; Richard Murphy; Felix Weinhardt
Abstract: This paper considers an unavoidable feature of the school environment, class rank. What are the long-run effects of a student’s ordinal rank in elementary school? Using administrative data on all public-school students in Texas, we show that students with a higher third-grade academic rank, conditional on achievement and classroom fixed effects, have higher subsequent test scores, are more likely to take AP classes, graduate from high school, enroll in and graduate from college, and ultimately have higher earnings 19 years later. We also discuss the necessary assumptions for the identification of rank effects and propose new solutions to identification challenges. The paper concludes by exploring the tradeoff between higher quality schools and higher rank in the presence of these rank-based peer effects.
Keywords: class rank; long-run outcomes; educational achievement; peer effects
JEL Codes: I20; I23; I28
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Student Rank in Third Grade (I24) | Educational Outcomes (I21) |
| Higher Rank (Y80) | Higher Test Scores (C12) |
| Higher Rank (Y80) | Advanced Course Completion (Y20) |
| Higher Rank (Y80) | High School Graduation (I23) |
| Higher Rank (Y80) | College Enrollment (I23) |
| Higher Rank (Y80) | Earnings (J31) |
| Rank Effects (C29) | Disadvantaged Students (I24) |