IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp2371.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Large an Effect Can We Expect from School Reforms?

Author

Listed:
  • Konstantopoulos, Spyros

    (Michigan State University)

  • Hedges, Larry

    (Northwestern University)

Abstract

Judging the success of school reform requires an interpretative context in which to judge whether effects obtained are large enough to be important or so small as to be a disappointment. The logic of school reform suggests two frameworks with which to judge the importance of effects. One is the size of the existing achievement gaps between important groups in society. The other is the size of gaps in mean achievement among schools (adjusted for student characteristics). NAEP data is used to demonstrate that in national data, gaps which appear large by one standard may appear small by the other. We argue that the most appropriate framework for judging reform effects is the national distribution of school effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Konstantopoulos, Spyros & Hedges, Larry, 2006. "How Large an Effect Can We Expect from School Reforms?," IZA Discussion Papers 2371, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2371
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp2371.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hanushek, Eric A, 1986. "The Economics of Schooling: Production and Efficiency in Public Schools," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 24(3), pages 1141-1177, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wo[ss]mann, Ludger & West, Martin, 2006. "Class-size effects in school systems around the world: Evidence from between-grade variation in TIMSS," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 695-736, April.
    2. Ma, Lingjie & Koenker, Roger, 2006. "Quantile regression methods for recursive structural equation models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 134(2), pages 471-506, October.
    3. Michael Podgursky, 2006. "Is Teacher Pay Adequate?," Working Papers 0601, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    4. Machado, Matilde P., 2001. "Dollars and performance: treating alcohol misuse in Maine," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 639-666, July.
    5. Barrow, Lisa & Rouse, Cecilia Elena, 2004. "Using market valuation to assess public school spending," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1747-1769, August.
    6. Corak, Miles & Lauzon, Darren, 2009. "Differences in the distribution of high school achievement: The role of class-size and time-in-term," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 189-198, April.
    7. Downes, Thomas A. & Pogue, Thomas F., 1994. "Adjusting School Aid Formulas for the Higher Cost of Educating Disadvantaged Students," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 47(1), pages 89-110, March.
    8. Thomas S. Dee & William N. Evans, 2003. "Teen Drinking and Educational Attainment: Evidence from Two-Sample Instrumental Variables Estimates," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 178-209, January.
    9. Justin L. Tobias & Mingliang Li, 2003. "A finite-sample hierarchical analysis of wage variation across public high schools: evidence from the NLSY and high school and beyond," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(3), pages 315-336.
    10. Gilpin, Gregory A., 2012. "Teacher salaries and teacher aptitude: An analysis using quantile regressions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 15-29.
    11. TANAKA Ryuichi & WANG Tong, 2024. "How do Classmates Matter for the Class-size Effects?," Discussion papers 24004, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    12. Bourdon, Jean & Frölich, Markus & Michaelowa, Katharina, 2007. "Teacher Shortages, Teacher Contracts and their Impact on Education in Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 2844, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Chaudhary, Latika, 2010. "Taxation and educational development: Evidence from British India," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 279-293, July.
    14. Carolina Arteaga Cabrales, 2011. "Human Capital Externalities and Growth," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, vol. 29(66), pages 12-47, December.
    15. Brewer, Dominic J., 1996. "Does more school district administration lower educational productivity? Some evidence on the "Administrative Blob" in New York public schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 111-124, April.
    16. Alfred A. Haug & Vincent C. Blackburn, 2017. "Government secondary school finances in New South Wales: accounting for students’ prior achievements in a two-stage DEA at the school level," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 69-83, August.
    17. David Brasington & Don Haurin, 2005. "Capitalization of Parent, School, and Peer Group Components of School Quality into House Price," Departmental Working Papers 2005-04, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    18. Cécile Bonneau, 2020. "The Concentration of investment in education in the US (1970-2018)," Working Papers halshs-02875965, HAL.
    19. Gordon Winston & David Zimmerman, 2004. "Peer Effects in Higher Education," NBER Chapters, in: College Choices: The Economics of Where to Go, When to Go, and How to Pay For It, pages 395-424, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Frölich, Markus & Michaelowa, Katharina, 2004. "Peer effects and textbooks in primary education: Evidence from francophone sub-Saharan Africa," HWWA Discussion Papers 311, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    multi-level models; academic achievement; school effects;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2371. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.