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Sorting, School Performance and Quality: Evidence from China

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Abstract

School choice reforms give talented students the option to sort out of low-performing schools but often leave disadvantaged students behind. This study shows how a Chinese city was successful in helping its low-performing schools to catch up by encouraging talented students to sort into these schools. The city identified eleven low-performing middle schools and guaranteed elite high school admission to their top ten-percent graduates. This study documents that the policy improved school performance by 0.19-0.26 standard deviations. Using data on lottery middle school assignment, I further test for potential mechanisms, including strategic sorting and improvement in school value-added.

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  • Song, Yang, 2017. "Sorting, School Performance and Quality: Evidence from China," Working Papers 2018-01, Department of Economics, Colgate University, revised 20 Mar 2018.
    • Handle: RePEc:cgt:wpaper:2018-01
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education Inequality; School Choice; Incentives; Sorting; Peer Effects.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

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