IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this paper

Are Measured School Effects Just Sorting?

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • David I. Levine
  • Gary Painter

Abstract

Youths who share a school and neighborhood often have similar academic achievement, but some studies find all or most of this apparent effect is due to sorting, not to the neighborhood itself. We present a collage of evidence from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS) indicating that a significant fraction of the apparent correlation is causal, rather than solely due to sorting. We first show that the importance of school effects is robust to very rich measures of family background. We then use the fact that the characteristics of the high school that students will attend are an additional indicator of family background. This measure can be used as an instrument to identify family background separately from neighborhood and junior high school effects. Even after this correction, the point estimate of school effects on student achievement remains large and statistically significant. Finally, we use regression and seminonparametric matching methods to show that the test scores of youths who change schools begin to converge with those of their new classmates.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://lusk.usc.edu/sites/default/files/working_papers/wp_2003_1002.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Paper provided by USC Lusk Center for Real Estate in its series Working Paper with number 8619.

as
in new window

Length:
Date of creation: 2003
Handle: RePEc:luk:wpaper:8619
Contact details of provider: Postal:
Von KleinSmid Center 363, Los Angeles, California 90089-0626

Phone: (213) 740-6842
Web page: http://lusk.usc.edu/

More information through EDIRC

Keywords: National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS); Academics; Neighborhoods;

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

as
in new window


  1. Jens Otto Ludwig & Greg Duncan & Joshua C. Pinkston, 2000. "Neighborhood Effects on Economic Self-Sufficiency: Evidence from a Randomized Housing-Mobility Experiment," JCPR Working Papers 159, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
  2. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
  3. Lawrence Katz & B. Jeffrey Liebman, 2000. "Moving to Opportunity in Boston: Early Results of a Randomized Mobility Experiment," Working Papers 820, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
  4. repec:fth:prinin:441 is not listed on IDEAS
  5. Lawrence F. Katz & Jeffrey R. Kling & Jeffrey B. Liebman, 2001. "Moving to Opportunity in Boston: Early Results of a Randomized Mobility Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 116(2), pages 607-654.
  6. Katherine M. O'Regan & John M. Quigley, 1996. "Spatial effects upon employment outcomes: the case of New Jersey teenagers," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue May, pages 41-64.
  7. Hanushek, Eric A. & Kain, John F. & Rivkin, Steven G., 2004. "Disruption versus Tiebout improvement: the costs and benefits of switching schools," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1721-1746, August.
  8. Alejandro Gaviria & Steven Raphael, 2001. "School-Based Peer Effects And Juvenile Behavior," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(2), pages 257-268, May.
  9. Evans, William N & Oates, Wallace E & Schwab, Robert M, 1992. "Measuring Peer Group Effects: A Study of Teenage Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 966-991, October.
  10. 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)

The CitEc project has not yet found citations to this item.

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Access and download statistics

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:luk:wpaper:8619. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Chris Steins)

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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

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

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.