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  5. The Impacts of Educational Policies on Disadvantaged Groups
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The Impacts of Educational Policies on Disadvantaged Groups

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 3, 2025 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (PST)

Hilton San Francisco Union Square
Hosted By: American Economic Association
  • Chair: Christopher Walters, University of California-Berkeley

The Disparate Long Run Impacts of Academic Probation

Serena Canaan
,
Simon Fraser University
Stefanie Fischer
,
Monash University
Pierre Mouganie
,
Simon Fraser University
Geoffrey Schnorr
,
University of California-Los Angeles and The California Employment Development Department

Abstract

Academic Probation is a widely used tool that is implemented in nearly all North American universities and in many other universities worldwide. Broadly defined, academic probation involves notifying low-performing students that they need to improve their GPA or will be dismissed from university. Despite its popularity, the long-run effects of academic probation are still poorly understood. Our paper is the first to look at the effects of this policy on students' labor market outcomes. To do so, we draw on rich linked administrative data for all first-year students entering a large public university in the state of California from 2007 to 2009. We use a regression discontinuity design that leverages as-good-as-random variation in the likelihood that students are placed on academic probation based on a 2.0 GPA cutoff. Results indicate that academic probation has negative effects on 6-year graduation and earnings but estimates are not statistically significant at conventional levels. These overall effects mask substantial heterogeneity based on socioeconomic background. High-income students’ academic and labor market outcomes are largely unaffected by probation. However, low-income students experience a significant 27.6 percentage point (42%) decrease in 6-year graduation rates and a 42% drop in earnings. This has serious policy implications for ongoing discussions on the widening of socioeconomic gaps in the U.S.

The Effects of Accelerated Middle School Math on STEM Degree Completion

Laura Giuliano
,
University of California-Santa Cruz and NBER
David Card
,
University of California-Berkeley and NBER

Abstract

Women are less likely than men to graduate from college with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields – a gap that is often attributed to pre-college factors. We study the effects of an accelerated middle school math program for high-achieving students on college completion and major choice, focusing on potential gender differences. The program creates an upper track for students who are already taking advanced math in 6th grade: we use a regression discontinuity approach to show that admission to the upper track leads to substantial gains the fraction completing algebra and/or geometry by 8th grade, with larger effects for female students. It also leads to a significant 15 percentage point (ppt) gain in the fraction of females taking calculus by the end of high school, and a 9 ppt rise in the share of young women who graduate high school on time and enter college the next fall. These changes are accompanied by a 7 ppt rise in the share of young women who graduate within 5 years with a bachelor’s degree in STEM, and a 10 ppt rise in the share with a degree in STEM or business/economics. In contrast, the effects on the college completion and major choice of males are uniformly small and insignificant.

Should States Allow For-Profit Companies to Train Teachers? Evidence from Texas

Christa Deneault
,
Federal Trade Commission
Evan Riehl
,
Cornell University

Abstract

This paper examines the efficacy of for-profit teacher training programs in Texas. To combat teacher shortages, Texas has taken a unique approach by allowing potential teachers to fulfill their training requirements through programs run by for-profit companies. For-profit programs offer a quicker path to a teaching career than traditional university-based programs, but they are often criticized for providing low-quality training. There is little evidence on the efficacy of these for-profit programs despite the fact that they produce roughly half of all newly-certified teachers in Texas and are expanding operations to other states. Our paper fills this gap by using Texas administrative data to examine how the growth of for-profit programs impacted the supply and quality of Texas teachers. Our identification strategy exploits the staggered rollout of for-profit openings across Texas. Using a difference-in-differences design, we find that the entry of for-profit programs increased the probability that college graduates pursued teaching careers, thus increasing the supply of teachers. On the other hand, we show that teachers who received their training through for-profit programs have lower value-added and higher turnover rates than university-trained teachers. Future work will examine the relative magnitudes of these supply and quality effects by estimate their net impact on the achievement of Texas public school students.

Labor Market Strength and Declining Community College Enrollment

Joshua Goodman
,
Boston University and NBER
Joseph Winkelmann
,
Harvard University

Abstract

In the U.S., declining college enrollment has driven substantial policy conversation about the health of the postsecondary sector. We first show descriptively that enrollment declines: have little to do with the four-year sector; are driven largely by community colleges; and that some of this apparent decline is to changing classifications of college sectors. Pre-Great Recession data shows that a 1 percent point increase in the local unemployment rate reduces first-time community college enrollment by about 2 percent. Applying this estimate suggests that strengthening labor markets since 2009 explain about half of the post-Great Recession decline in first-time community college enrollment. The marginal missing student appears unlikely to have completed a college degree.

Discussant(s)
Serena Canaan
,
Simon Fraser University
Evan Riehl
,
Cornell University
Damon Clark
,
University of California-Irvine
Melanie Wasserman
,
University of California-Los Angeles
JEL Classifications
  • I2 - Education and Research Institutions
  • J0 - General