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Do Grade Weights Promote More Advanced Course-Taking?

Author

Listed:
  • Kristin Klopfenstein

    (Education Innovation Institute University of NorthernColorado Greeley, CO)

  • Kit Lively

    (Independent Consultant Dallas, TX)

Abstract

When calculating class rank, high schools often give additional weight to grades earned in College Board Advanced Placement (AP) courses as an incentive for students to take hard courses. This paper examines changes in student course-taking behavior after an increase in AP grade weights at Texas high schools. We find that raising the magnitude of the AP grade weight in schools already using weights has a small impact that is limited to white students who are not eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL). When schools introduce grade weights for the first time, the impact is large and widespread with the probability of taking an AP course increasing by 3 to 12 percent and the number of AP courses taken increasing by 0.13 to 0.95 standard deviations. Impacts are largest among students who are not FRPL eligible.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristin Klopfenstein & Kit Lively, 2016. "Do Grade Weights Promote More Advanced Course-Taking?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 11(3), pages 310-324, Summer.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:edfpol:v:11:y:2016:i:3:p:310-324
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    File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/EDFP_a_00182
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. C. Kirabo Jackson, 2010. "A Little Now for a Lot Later: A Look at a Texas Advanced Placement Incentive Program," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(3).
    2. Juanna Schrøter Joensen & Helena Skyt Nielsen, 2009. "Is there a Causal Effect of High School Math on Labor Market Outcomes?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(1).
    3. Heather Rose & Julian R. Betts, 2004. "The Effect of High School Courses on Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(2), pages 497-513, May.
    4. Goodman, Joshua Samuel, 2012. "The Labor of Division: Returns to Compulsory Math Coursework," Scholarly Articles 9403178, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    5. Kahneman, Daniel & Knetsch, Jack L & Thaler, Richard H, 1990. "Experimental Tests of the Endowment Effect and the Coase Theorem," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1325-1348, December.
    6. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    7. Klopfenstein, Kristin, 2004. "Advanced Placement: do minorities have equal opportunity?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 115-131, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Russell T. Warne, 2017. "Research on the Academic Benefits of the Advanced Placement Program," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(1), pages 21582440166, January.

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