Working Paper: NBER ID: w28194
Authors: C. Kirabo Jackson; Shanette C. Porter; John Q. Easton; Sebastin Kiguel
Abstract: We estimate the longer-run effects of attending an effective high school (one that improves a combination of test scores, survey measures of socio-emotional development, and behaviors in 9th grade) for students who are more versus less educationally advantaged (i.e., likely to attain more years of education based on 8th-grade characteristics). All students benefit from attending effective schools, but the least advantaged students experience larger improvements in high-school graduation, college going, and school-based arrests. This heterogeneity is not solely due to less-advantaged groups being marginal for particular outcomes. Commonly used test-score value-added understates the long-run importance of effective schools, particularly for less-advantaged populations. Patterns suggest this partly reflects less-advantaged students being relatively more responsive to non-test-score dimensions of school quality.
Keywords: effective schools; socioemotional development; educational advantage; high school graduation; college enrollment
JEL Codes: H0; I20; J0
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Effective schools (I24) | High school graduation rates (I21) |
| Effective schools (I24) | College enrollment (I23) |
| Effective schools (I24) | School-based arrests (K40) |
| Disadvantaged students (I24) | High school graduation rates (I21) |
| Disadvantaged students (I24) | College enrollment (I23) |
| Disadvantaged students (I24) | School-based arrests (K40) |
| Least effective schools (I24) | High school graduation rates (predicted) (I21) |
| Least effective schools (I24) | College enrollment (predicted) (I23) |
| Least effective schools (I24) | School-based arrests (predicted) (I21) |