Using panel data from a census of public school students in the state of Florida, the authors examine the associations between students' high school course-taking in various subjects and their ...10th-grade test scores, high school graduation, entry into postsecondary institutions, and postsecondary performance. The authors use propensity score matching (based on 8thgrade test scores, other student characteristics, and school effects) within groups of students matched on the composition of the students' course-taking in other subjects to estimate the differences in outcomes for students who take rigorous courses in a variety of subjects. The authors find substantial significant differences in outcomes for those who take rigorous courses, and these estimated effects are often larger for disadvantaged youth and students attending disadvantaged schools.
This article examines the factors that determine a high school's probability of offering Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. The likelihood that a school offers ...advanced courses, and the number of sections that it offers, is largely driven by having a critical mass of students who enter high school with eighth-grade test scores that are far above average. The number and qualifications of the instructional staff, in contrast, play a very small role. The results suggest that the willingness of schools to offer advanced courses is driven by real, perceived, or created student demand and that there may be few resource constraints that prevent schools from supplying advanced courses.
We use panel data on Florida high school students to examine race, poverty, and gender disparities in advanced course-taking. While white students are more likely to take advanced courses than black ...and Hispanic students, these disparities are eliminated when we condition on observable pre—high school characteristics. In fact, black and Hispanic students are more likely than observably similar white students to take advanced courses. Controlling for students' pre—high school characteristics substantially reduces poverty gaps, modestly reduces Asian—white gaps, and makes little dent in female—male gaps. Black and Hispanic students attend high schools that increase their likelihood of taking advanced courses relative to observably similar white students; this advantage is largely driven by minorities disproportionately attending magnet schools. Finally, recent federal and state efforts aimed at increasing access to advanced courses to poor and minority students appear to have succeeded in raising the share of students who take advanced courses from 2003 to 2006. However, secular trends (or spillovers of the policies to non-poor, non-minority students) have spurred faster growth for other students, contributing to widening demographic gaps in these years.
Despite increased requirements for high school graduation, almost one-third of the nation's college freshmen are unprepared for college-level math. The need for remediation is particularly high among ...students who are low income, Hispanic, and black. Female students are also less likely than males to be ready for collegelevel math. This article estimates how much of these gaps are determined by the courses that students take while in high school. Using data on students in Florida public postsecondary institutions, we find that differences among college-going students in the highest math course taken explain 28–35 percent of black, Hispanic, and poverty gaps in readiness and over three-quarters of the Asian advantage. Courses fail to explain gender gaps in readiness. Low-income, black, and Asian students also receive lower returns to math courses, suggesting differential educational quality. This analysis is valuable to policy makers and educators seeking to reduce disparities in college readiness.
With the financial support of several large foundations and the federal government, creating small schools has become a prominent high school reform strategy in many large American cities. While some ...research supports this strategy, little research assesses the relative costs of these smaller schools. We use data on over 200 New York City high schools, from 1996 through 2003, to estimate school cost functions relating per pupil expenditures to school size, controlling for school output and quality, student characteristics, and school organization.
We find that the structure of costs differs across schools depending upon mission—comprehensive or themed. At their current levels of outputs, themed schools minimize per pupil costs at smaller enrollments than comprehensive schools, but these optimally sized themed schools also cost more per pupil than optimally sized comprehensive schools. We also find that both themed and comprehensive high schools at actual sizes are smaller than their optimal sizes.
This paper presents empirical evidence on input and output equity of expenditures, teacher resources, and performance across 840 elementary and middle schools in New York City. Historically, ...researchers have studied interdistrict distributions, but given the large numbers of pupils and schools within many urban districts, it is important to learn about intradistrict distributions as well. The empirical work is built on a framework of horizontal, vertical, and equal opportunity equity. The results show that the horizontal equity distributions are more disparate than what would be expected relative to results of other studies, vertical equity is lacking, especially in elementary schools, and equality of opportunity is at best neutral but more often absent. Middle schools exhibit more equity than elementary schools. The paper is one of the first to measure output equity, using levels and changes in test scores to do so. (DIPF/Orig.)
In 1996, New York State began requiring all graduating high school students (starting with the Class of 1999) to pass rigorous end-of-course exams in five subjects. This study explores whether high ...school resources have been reallocated in the wake of these new standards and whether reallocation patterns differ among high- and low-graduation-rate schools. Using a six-year panel of school-level data, we model resources as a function of school and student characteristics, school graduation rates, and school fixed effects. Regression analyses reveal increases in direct services spending, while the percentage of more experienced and educated teachers fell. We find little evidence, though, of differential patterns related to graduation rates, with the exception of teacher licensure and nonpersonnel expenditures. The findings suggest that schools may have limited ability to redeploy nonteacher resources in the short term. While other funds may be reallocated, these represent a small share of total school resources.
Every school reform initiative promises to improve some aspect of schooling and, ultimately, the academic performance of the target schools and their students. The reform's cost often determines not ...only whether the particular initiative is implemented but also how the reform is implemented. Analyzing the cost-effectiveness of a programmatic or organizational education reform can provide crucial information for decision makers, taxpayers, funders, and the general public that transcends, for example, funding levels and outcomes that may not be directly related to the initiative. Yet neither policymakers nor researchers habitually use analyses measuring school reform cost-effectiveness.
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