Private school location and neighborhood characteristics

Using data from Illinois, I examine relationships between the number of private schools and characteristics of the public schools and surrounding population. I find positive, statistically significant relationships between number of private schools in 1998 and public school 3rd grade class size, the percent college educated, and the percent over 55 years of age. I find significant negative relationships between number of private schools and average household income and racial concentration.Looking at private school entry, areas with larger increases in the school-aged population had less entry, and areas with increasing income dispersion experienced greater entry. The results suggest that if a universal education voucher program is introduced, parents in relatively well-educated, racially diverse, and more moderate income areas will likely have greater access to private school options because of more existing private schools in their area. These areas will also likely have more private school entry in response.     

Endowment spending rates, intergenerational equity and the sources of capital gains

This paper analyzes how James Tobin’s widely cited concept of “intergenerational equity” for university endowments relates to the economic concepts of intertemporal substitutability and risk aversion. I show that Tobin’s concept of intergenerational equity is a very special case of intertemporal substitutability; a special case that implies very low tolerance for risk. Using the more general case, I show that the observed reduction in university spending rates during the 1990s can be viewed as a reasonable response to a period of non-recurring capital gains.     

Social order perspective on raising student achievement

Despite significant and sustained gains recorded on the national secondary school leaving examinations between 1999–2004, South Africa’s large-scale secondary school reform has receive little international attention. Defenders of the reforms have argued that the ‘success’ in raising student achievement extended beyond gains in the percentage pass rates to include increased numbers of students completing secondary schooling, a growth in the number of students eligible for admissions to university and a decline in the number of ‘collapsed’ secondary schools in disadvantaged communities. Using a comprehensive dataset that includes national examination results for all candidates between 1996 and 2004, survey information from a group of ‘collapsed’ secondary schools located in disadvantaged communities, qualitative data from school ethnographies, as well as official and unofficial documentary sources, the paper locates student achievement within a framework of structural change in the post-apartheid social order. It shows how student achievement is embedded in complex shifts in the state, economy and civil society. Specifically, the paper examines how structural shifts are enacted at the levels of time-in-school, student expectations, school choice and student selectivity.

The changing quality of business education

There is a pervasive perspective that both students and college courses are not what they used to be. A utility maximization model exhibits why students prefer easier courses to those that provide more challenge, and presumably more knowledge. The model also demonstrates why faculty members accommodate these students with less stringent courses. Survey data from professors in various disciplines in colleges of business across the United States verify the perception of declining quality in many of 18 different categories.     

Examining the impact of capital on academic achievement

While a growing body of literature on education production looks at the impact school inputs have on academic achievement, virtually no research is examining the impact capital is having on academic achievement. In this study, we take an initial step towards that end. By using school districts' level of bond indebtedness as a proxy for capital, we find evidence that capital stock does affect academic achievement. In light of these findings along with the general lack of research on capital inputs, we conclude that capital expenditures should be given greater attention in future research.     

Immigration and its effect on the college-going outcomes of natives

In this paper, I analyze immigration's effect on the SAT-scores and college application patterns of high school students in California and Texas. The student-level dataset used is longitudinal in nature and is matched via a unique algorithm to the Census 2000 summary tabulation files to determine immigration at the local census-place level. The Census measure of immigration developed here is extremely specific and improves upon existing immigration measures. Using empirical strategies to account for issues of selection, this essay's main finding is that the 1990s immigration did not harm, and possibly benefited the student outcomes of U.S. citizens.     

The effect of grade retention on educational and labor market outcomes

Grade retention is a major issue in the ongoing debate over how to improve primary and secondary education in the United States. This paper examines the retention decision and its empirical effects using an economic framework. Within our model, the retention decision is endogenous with respect to such observables as dropping out of school and labor market earnings and this endogeneity needs to be accounted for in empirical work. In the empirical section of the paper we use the High School and Beyond (HSB) data set to examine the effects of retention on the probability of dropping out of high school and on labor market earnings several years after the student has entered the workforce. We account for the endogeneity of grade retention by using instrumental variables (IV) estimation where the key instrument is based on exogenous variation across states in kindergarten entry dates.     

Effects of weight on children's educational achievement

In this paper, we investigate the association between weight and children's educational achievement, as measured by scores on Peabody Individual Achievement Tests in math and reading, and grade attainment. Data for the study came from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), which contains a large, national sample of children between the ages of 5 and 12 between 1986 and 2004. We obtained estimates of the association between weight and achievement using several regression model specifications that controlled for a variety of observed characteristics of the child and his or her mother, and time-invariant characteristics of the child. Our results suggest that, in general, children who are overweight or obese have achievement test scores that are about the same as children with average weight.     

Educational reform in Turkey

There are a number of reform initiatives underway in Turkey but some of these, which are concerned with curricular and structural changes, have encountered serious difficulties. This paper begins with a brief summary of school effectiveness and school improvement research guiding many educational reforms. It then gives some information about school demographics in Turkey, and the country's performance in some international benchmarking studies. It continues with the shifts introduced as a result of recent curricular reorganisation in Turkey and, subsequently, with various issues related to their implications. Finally, the efforts to legislate some structural changes and the major controversies arising are presented.     

Tuition fees and the demand for university places

Estimating the effect of tuition fee increases on demand for a university education is complicated by the potential endogeneity of tuition fees. The relative homogeneity of university tuition fees within Canadian provinces and the role of provincial governments in university funding and policies, provides an opportunity to use changes in the political party in power to identify plausibly exogenous changes in tuition fees. System estimates that take into account endogeneity of fees show large effects relative to single equation estimates, and to previous Canadian studies – a C$1000 increase in university tuition fees is estimated to reduce the enrolment rate by between 2.5 and 5 percentage points.     

Teacher licensure status and student achievement: Lessons from private schools

Data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 (NELS:88) were used to investigate the effect of teacher licensure status on private school students’ 12th grade math and science test scores. This data includes schooling and family background information on students that can be linked to employment information on teachers. We find that, contrary to conventional wisdom, private school students of fully certified 12th grade math and science teachers do not appear to outperform students of private school teachers who are not fully certified.     

Filipino parents’ school choice and loyalty: a factor analysis

This quantitative study aims to ascertain the significant relationship existing between parents’ profile, and their school choice and school loyalty. Data were gathered using the researcher’s two-part made instrument. Respondents were first asked to fill in a robotfoto for purpose of profiling their baseline characteristics and were later asked to rate listed indicators, using a modified 8-point Likert scale. Using statistical tools such as the ANOVA, factor analysis, correlation, mean, and standard deviation, data were treated indepth. It is interesting to note that although parents are loyal to their alma mater, this does not have a much impact on their choice of school for their children. On the whole, parents’ choice of school is based on its indispensable qualities. Among the three interval-scale profiles of the parent respondents such as age, income, tuition fee payment and number of children, none of these relate to school choice, but age, income, and tuition fee payment negatively relate to school loyalty. From their nominal-scale profiles, significant differences were noted in their school choice when grouped according to civil status, place of work, and terms of payment. With respect to school loyalty, significant differences occurred in their responses when classified according to gender, terms of payment and their active participation in the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).     

The effective use of student time: a stochastic frontier production function case study

The relationship between student study time allocation and examination performance is little understood. We model the allocation of student time into formal study (lectures and classes) and self study and its relationship to university examination scores using a stochastic frontier production function. This case study uses unique time budget data and detailed personal records from one university in Spain. The results suggest that, within the formal system of teaching in Spain, both formal study and self study are significant determinants of exam scores but that the former may be up to four times more important than the latter. We also find that self study time may be insignificant if ability bias is corrected for.     

Blocking student performance in high school?

Block schedules have been used in several different high schools in various areas of the United States. Reasons for their use vary from better preparing students for college work to fewer disruptions of the school day. Several studies have examined the impact of changing from a semester system to a block system on the academic performance in specific areas with varying results. This paper examines the impact of a change of schedule on overall academic performance as measured by a student’s Grade Point Average. This study indicates that for the specific case studied, the change in systems did have a positive effect on performance.     

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