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EPI Working papers

Showing 31 - 60 of 61 results

EPI Working papers

Differential Pricing in Undergraduate Education: Effects on Degree Production by Field

June 1, 2013

Kevin Stange

In the face of declining state support, many universities have introduced differential pricing by undergraduate program as an alternative to across-the-board tuition increases. This practice aligns price more closely with instructional costs and...

Two students walking on a college campus

EPI Working papers

Financial Aid Policy: Lessons from Research

May 1, 2013

Susan Dynarski, Judith Scott-Clayton

In the nearly fifty years since the adoption of the Higher Education Act of 1965, financial aid programs have grown in scale, expanded in scope, and multiplied in form. As a result, financial aid has become the norm among college enrollees. Aid now...

EPI Working papers

Simplifying Tax Incentives and Aid for College: Progress and Prospects

January 1, 2013

Susan Dynarski, Mark Wiederspan, Judith Scott-Clayton

The application for federal student aid is longer than the tax returns filled out by the majority of US households. Research suggests that complexity in the aid process undermines its effectiveness in inducing more students into college. In 2008, an...

EPI Working papers

College as Country Club: Do Colleges Cater to Students' Preferences for Consumption?

January 1, 2013

Brian Jacob, Brian McCall, Kevin Stange

This paper investigates whether demand-side market pressure explains colleges' decisions to provide consumption amenities to their students. We estimate a discrete choice model of college demand using micro data from the high school classes of 1992...

EPI Working papers

Student Aid Simplification: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

February 1, 2012

Susan Dynarski, Mark Wiederspan

Each year, fourteen million households seeking federal aid for college complete a detailed questionnaire about their finances, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). At 116 questions, the FAFSA is almost as long as IRS Form 1040 and...

EPI Working papers

Gains and Gaps: Changing Inequality in U.S. College Entry and Completion

December 1, 2011

Susan Dynarski, Martha Bailey

We describe changes over time in inequality in postsecondary education using nearly seventy years of data from the U.S. Census and the 1979 and 1997 National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth. We find growing gaps between children from high- and...

Two students collaborating on a computer assignment

EPI Working papers

The Consumption Value of Postsecondary Education

November 1, 2011

Kevin Stange, Brian Jacob, Brian McCall

Education provides both investment and consumption benefits; the former being realized after schooling is completed but the latter accruing only while schooling is actually taking place. In this paper, we quantify the importance of consumption value...

EPI Working papers

Organizing Schools to Improve Student Achievement: Start Times, Grade Configurations, and Teacher Assignments

September 1, 2011

Brian Jacob, Jonah Rockoff

Education reform proposals are often based on high-profile or dramatic policy changes, many of which are expensive, politically controversial, or both. In this paper, we argue that the debates over these “flashy” policies have obscured a potentially...

EPI Working papers

New Evidence on Teacher Labor Supply

February 1, 2011

Brian Jacob, Mimi Engel

Recent evidence on the large variance in teacher effectiveness has spurred renewed interest in teacher labor market policies. A substantial body of prior research documents that more highly qualified teachers tend to work in more advantaged schools,...

EPI Working papers

Manipulation in the Grading of New York's Regents Examinations

February 1, 2011

Brian Jacob, Thomas Dee, Justin McCrary

The challenge of designing effective performance measurement and incentives is a general one in economic settings where behavior and outcomes are not easily observable. These issues are particularly prominent in education where, over the last two...

EPI Working papers

The Effect of Employment Protection on Worker Effort: Evidence from Public Schooling

February 1, 2010

Brian Jacob

This paper studies the effect of employment protection on worker productivity and firm output in the context of a public school system. In 2004, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) signed a new collective bargaining...

EPI Working papers

Do Principals Fire the Worst Teachers?

February 1, 2010

Brian Jacob

This paper takes advantage of a unique policy change to examine how principals make decisions regarding teacher dismissal. In 2004, the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) signed a new collective bargaining agreement that...

EPI Working papers

Who Benefits from KIPP?

February 1, 2010

Susan Dynarski, Joshua Angrist, Thomas Kane, Parag Pathak, Christopher Walters

Charter schools affiliated with the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) are emblematic of the No Excuses approach to public education. These schools feature a long school day, an extended school year, selective teacher hiring, strict behavior norms...

EPI Working papers

Rational Ignorance in Education: A Field Experiment in Student Plagarism

January 1, 2010

Brian Jacob, Thomas Dee

Despite the concern that student plagiarism has become increasingly common, there is relatively little objective data on the prevalence or determinants of this illicit behavior. This study presents the results of a natural field experiment designed...

EPI Working papers

Educational Expectations and Attainment

January 1, 2010

Brian Jacob, Tamara Wilder

This paper examines the role of educational expectations in the educational attainment process. We utilize data from a variety of datasets to document and analyze the trends in educational expectations between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s. We...

EPI Working papers

Accountability and Flexibility in Public Schools: Evidence from Boston's Charters and Pilots

November 1, 2009

Susan Dynarski, Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Joshua Angrist, Thomas Kane, Parag Pathak

Charter schools are publicly funded but operate outside the regulatory framework and collective bargaining agreements characteristic of traditional public schools. In return for this freedom, charter schools are subject to heightened accountability....

Student walking down a hallway at school

EPI Working papers

The Impact of No Child Left Behind on Student Achievement

November 1, 2009

Brian Jacob, Thomas Dee

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act compelled states to design school-accountability systems based on annual student assessments. The effect of this Federal legislation on the distribution of student achievement is a highly controversial but...

EPI Working papers

Cheaper by the Dozen: Using Sibling Discounts at Catholic Schools to Estimate the Price Elasticity of Private School Attendance

October 1, 2009

Susan Dynarski, Jonathan Gruber, Danielle Li

The effect of vouchers on sorting between private and public schools depends upon the price elasticity of demand for private schooling. Estimating this elasticity is empirically challenging because prices and quantities are jointly determined in the...

EPI Working papers

Can You Recognize an Effective Teacher When You Recruit One?

November 1, 2008

Brian Jacob, Jonah Rockoff, Thomas Kane, Douglas Staiger

Research on the relationship between teachers' characteristics and teacher effectiveness has been underway for over a century, yet little progress has been made in linking teacher quality with factors observable at the time of hire. However, most...

EPI Working papers

The Persistence of Teacher-Induced Learning Gains

June 1, 2008

Brian Jacob, Lars Lefgren, David Sims

Educational interventions are often narrowly targeted and temporary, and evaluations often focus on the short-run impacts of the intervention. Insofar as the positive effects of educational interventions fadeout over time, however, such assessments...

Student paying attention to teacher in class

EPI Working papers

Teacher Attitudes on Pay for Performance: A Pilot Study

October 1, 2007

Brian Jacob, Matthew Springer

Researchers at the National Center on Performance Incentives recently examined teacher attitudes towards pay for performance policies in education, and how these views vary by teacher experience, subject area specialization, grade level taught,...

EPI Working papers

The Effect of Grade Retention on High School Completion

October 1, 2007

Brian Jacob, Lars Lefgren

Low-achieving students in many school districts are retained in a grade in order to allow them to gain the academic or social skills that teachers believe are necessary to succeed academically. This practice is highly controversial, with many...

EPI Working papers

Is Gaining Access to Selective Elementary Schools Gaining Ground? Evidence from Randomized Lotteries

September 1, 2007

Brian Jacob, Julie Berry Cullen

In this paper, we examine whether expanded access to sought-after schools can improve academic achievement. The setting we study is the "open enrollment" system in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). We use lottery data to avoid the critical issue of...

Young child completing a written assignment

EPI Working papers

Do High School Exit Exams Influence Educational Attainment or Labor Market Performance?

April 1, 2006

Brian Jacob, Thomas Dee

State requirements that high school graduates pass exit exams were the leading edge of the movement towards standards-based reform and continue to be adopted and refined by states today. In this study, we present new empirical evidence on how exit...

EPI Working papers

Principals as Agents: Subjective Performance Measurement in Education

June 1, 2005

Brian Jacob, Lars Lefgren

In this paper, we compare subjective principal assessments of teachers to the traditional determinants of teacher compensation - education and experience - and another potential compensation mechanism – value-added measures of teacher effectiveness...

EPI Working papers

The Effect of School Choice on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Randomized Lotteries

November 1, 2003

Brian Jacob, Julie Berry Cullen, Steven Levitt

School choice has become an increasingly prominent strategy for enhancing academic achievement. Evaluating the impact of such programs is complicated by the fact that a highly select sample of students takes advantage of these programs. To overcome...

EPI Working papers

Rotten Apples: An Investigation of the Prevalence and Predictors of Teacher Cheating

December 1, 2002

Brian Jacob, Steven Levitt

We develop an algorithm for detecting teacher cheating that combines information on unexpected test score fluctuations and suspicious patterns of answers for students in a classroom. Using data from the Chicago Public Schools, we estimate that...

EPI Working papers

Accountability, Incentives, and Behavior: The Impact of High-Stakes Testing in the Chicago Public Schools

June 1, 2002

Brian Jacob

The recent federal education bill, No Child Left Behind, requires states to test students in grades three to eight each year, and to judge school performance on the basis of these test scores. While intended to maximize student learning, there is...

EPI Working papers

Remedial Education and Student Achievement: A Regression-Discontinuity Analysis

May 1, 2002

Brian Jacob, Lars Lefgren

As standards and accountability have become an increasingly prominent feature of the educational landscape, educators have relied more on remedial programs such as summer school and grade retention to help low-achieving students meet minimum...

EPI Working papers

The Impact of Teacher Training on Student Achievement: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from School Reform Efforts in Chicago

April 1, 2002

Brian Jacob, Lars Lefgren

While there is a substantial literature on the relationship between general teacher characteristics and student learning, school districts and states often rely on in-service teacher training as a part of school reform efforts. Recent school reform...