The Long-Term Impacts of Low-Achieving Childhood Peers: Evidence from Project STAR
(2015) In Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University- Abstract
- This paper evaluates how sharing a kindergarten classroom with low-achieving repeaters affects the long-term educational performance of regular first-time kindergarten students. Exploiting random assignment of teachers and students to classes in Project STAR, I document three sets of causal impacts: students who are exposed to repeaters (1) score lower on standardized tests at the end of kindergarten, an effect that fades out in later grades; (2) show persistent improvements in non-cognitive skills such as effort and discipline; and (3) are more likely to graduate from high school and to take a college entrance exam around the age of eighteen. I show that the positive spillovers from repeaters on long-term educational attainment are likely... (More)
- This paper evaluates how sharing a kindergarten classroom with low-achieving repeaters affects the long-term educational performance of regular first-time kindergarten students. Exploiting random assignment of teachers and students to classes in Project STAR, I document three sets of causal impacts: students who are exposed to repeaters (1) score lower on standardized tests at the end of kindergarten, an effect that fades out in later grades; (2) show persistent improvements in non-cognitive skills such as effort and discipline; and (3) are more likely to graduate from high school and to take a college entrance exam around the age of eighteen. I show that the positive spillovers from repeaters on long-term educational attainment are likely driven by the differential accumulation of non-cognitive skills by repeater-exposed students during childhood. The improvements in these skills are in turn a result of behavioral adjustments by teachers, students, or parents to the presence of low-achieving repeaters in the classroom. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8230923
- author
- Bietenbeck, Jan LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Working paper
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Project STAR, early childhood, non-cognitive skills, peer effects
- in
- Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University
- issue
- 35
- pages
- 41 pages
- publisher
- Department of Economics, Lund University
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 12e3960c-4d82-423f-a961-37ec7caf5db8 (old id 8230923)
- alternative location
- http://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2015_035.htm
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 11:58:03
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 21:08:15
@misc{12e3960c-4d82-423f-a961-37ec7caf5db8, abstract = {This paper evaluates how sharing a kindergarten classroom with low-achieving repeaters affects the long-term educational performance of regular first-time kindergarten students. Exploiting random assignment of teachers and students to classes in Project STAR, I document three sets of causal impacts: students who are exposed to repeaters (1) score lower on standardized tests at the end of kindergarten, an effect that fades out in later grades; (2) show persistent improvements in non-cognitive skills such as effort and discipline; and (3) are more likely to graduate from high school and to take a college entrance exam around the age of eighteen. I show that the positive spillovers from repeaters on long-term educational attainment are likely driven by the differential accumulation of non-cognitive skills by repeater-exposed students during childhood. The improvements in these skills are in turn a result of behavioral adjustments by teachers, students, or parents to the presence of low-achieving repeaters in the classroom.}, author = {Bietenbeck, Jan}, language = {eng}, note = {Working Paper}, number = {35}, publisher = {Department of Economics, Lund University}, series = {Working Paper / Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University}, title = {The Long-Term Impacts of Low-Achieving Childhood Peers: Evidence from Project STAR}, url = {http://swopec.hhs.se/lunewp/abs/lunewp2015_035.htm}, year = {2015}, }