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on Education |
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Issue of 2011‒01‒16
25 papers chosen by Joao Carlos Correia Leitao University of Beira Interior and Technical University of Lisbon |
| By: | Demombynes, Gabriel; Holland, Peter; Leon, Gianmarco |
| Abstract: | Uniquely among Latin American and Caribbean countries, Haiti has a largely non-public education system. Prior to the earthquake of January 2010, just 19 percent of primary school students were enrolled in public schools, with the remainder enrolled in a mix of religious, for-profit, and non-governmental organization-funded schools. This paper examines changes in Haitian schooling patterns in the last century and shows the country experienced tremendous growth in school attainment, driven almost entirely by growth in the private sector. Additionally, it provides evidence that the private market"works"to the extent that primary school fees are higher for schools with characteristics associated with education quality. The paper also analyzes the demand and supply determinants of school attendance and finds that household wealth is a major determinant of attendance. Given these findings, the authors conclude that in the near-term paying school fees for poor students may be an effective approach to expanding schooling access in Haiti. |
| Keywords: | Education For All,Tertiary Education,Primary Education,Disability,Gender and Education |
| Date: | 2010–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5503&r=edu |
| By: | Alexander Muravyev; Oleksandr Talavera |
| Abstract: | This paper takes advantage of a recent policy experiment in Ukraine's secondary education system to study the effect of stricter requirements for proficiency in the state language on linguistic minority students' demand for, as well as opportunities to pursue, further studies at the university level. The reform that we consider obligated all minority students, including those studying in public schools with a full cycle of education in minority languages, to take a standardized school exit test (which is also a university entry test) in Ukrainian, the state language, thus denying them previously granted access to translated tests. Using school-level data and employing the difference-in-difference estimator we find evidence that the reform resulted in a decline in the number of subjects taken by minority students at the school exit test. There was also a notable shift in the take-up of particular subjects, with fewer exams taken by minority students in more linguistically-demanding subjects such as History, Biology, and Geography, and more exams taken in foreign languages and Math. Overall, our results suggest some distortions in the accumulation of human capital by linguistic minority students induced by the language policy. |
| Keywords: | language policy, economics of minorities, education, Ukraine |
| JEL: | I28 J15 |
| Date: | 2010–12–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uea:aepppr:2010_23&r=edu |
| By: | Julie Berry Cullen; Mark C. Long; Randall Reback |
| Abstract: | Beginning in 1998, all students in the state of Texas who graduated in the top ten percent of their high school classes were guaranteed admission to any in-state public higher education institution, including the flagships. While the goal of this policy is to improve college access for disadvantaged and minority students, the use of a school-specific standard to determine eligibility could have unintended consequences. Students may increase their chances of being in the top ten percent by choosing a high school with lower-achieving peers. Our analysis of students’ school transitions between 8th and 10th grade three years before and after the policy change reveals that this incentive influences enrollment choices in the anticipated direction. Among the subset of students with both motive and opportunity for strategic high school choice, as many as 25 percent enroll in a different high school to improve the chances of being in the top ten percent. Strategic students tend to choose the neighborhood high school in lieu of more competitive magnet schools and, regardless of own race, typically displace minority students from the top ten percent pool. The net effect of strategic behavior is to slightly decrease minority students’ representation in the pool. |
| JEL: | D10 H31 H73 I28 J60 J78 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16663&r=edu |
| By: | Mason, Patrick L. |
| Abstract: | Some teacher preparation institutions may provide higher quality teachers than others. Pupil academic achievement is one measure of the quality of teaching. Standardized test scores, e.g., the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests (FCAT), provide a measure of pupil academic achievement. This study seeks to ascertain whether Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU) has a “college preparation effect” on the average pupil’s FCAT reading and mathematics scores. We find that the quality of FAMU’s teachers is statistically indistinguishable from the quality of teachers prepared by all other public colleges and universities in the state of Florida. This appears to be a robust conclusion. Our results are roughly the same regardless of whether we confine the sample to pupils matched with traditionally trained teachers (college of education graduates), all teachers, all traditionally trained African American teachers, or all African American teachers. |
| Keywords: | teacher quality; value-added model; historically black colleges and universities; HBCU; teacher productivity; education and value-added |
| JEL: | J45 I2 J44 J48 J15 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:27904&r=edu |
| By: | Cheung, Maria (Department of Economics); Perotta, Maria (Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Food for education (FFE) programs, which consist of meals served in school and in some cases take-home rations and deworming programs conditional on school attendance, are considered a powerful tool to improve educational out- comes, particularly in areas where school participation is initially low. Com- pared to other programs, such as conditional cash transfers and scholarships, school meals may provide a stronger incentive to attend school because chil- dren must be in school in order to receive the rations, and have the potential to improve nutritional and general health status as well. In this paper, we nd that the Cambodia FFE, that was implemented in six Cambodian regions be- tween 1999 and 2003, increased enrollment, school attendance and completed education. We also ask who bene ted the most, and how cost-eective such a program is compared to other types of interventions. |
| Keywords: | School meals; Primary education; Program evaluation; Cambodia |
| JEL: | D61 I20 I38 O22 O53 |
| Date: | 2011–01–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iiessp:0766&r=edu |
| By: | Dhaval M. Dave; Nancy E. Reichman; Hope Corman; Dhiman Das |
| Abstract: | Exploiting variation in welfare reform across states and over time and using relevant comparison groups, this study estimates the effects of welfare reform on an important source of human capital acquisition among women at risk for relying on welfare: vocational education and training. The results indicate that welfare reform reduced enrollment in full-time vocational education and had no significant effects on part-time vocational education or participation in other types of work-related courses, though there is considerable heterogeneity across states with respect to the strictness of educational policy and the strength of work incentives under welfare reform. In addition, we find heterogeneous effects by prior educational attainment. We find no evidence that the previously-observed negative effects of welfare reform on formal education (including college enrollment), which we replicated in this study, have been offset by increases in vocational education and training. |
| JEL: | I3 I38 J24 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16659&r=edu |
| By: | Dan POPESCU (“Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest”); Iulia CHIVU (“Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest”); Alina CIOCÂRLAN-CHITUCEA (“Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest”); Daniela Oana POPESCU (“Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest”) |
| Abstract: | Romanian economic environment, in terms of social and cultural boundaries suppression, was oriented towards the knowledge global trend, but in the absence of strategic options, it was unsystematic, especially manifested informaly and randomly: a local, disorganized phenomenum. The new communication process type of approach outlines a map of knowledge management in education and creates the necessary infrastructure to support teaching and learning within universities, while increasing the quality of academic training provides highly qualified graduates for the Romanian economic environment. |
| Keywords: | technology, education communication, |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rom:km2010:40&r=edu |
| By: | Mason, Patrick L. |
| Abstract: | This study explores important statistical issues on the appropriate functional form and model specification of the value-added educational achievement equation. We also wish to estimate the causal effect of a teacher’s institution of academic preparation and pedagogical training. Standardized test scores, viz., the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests (FCAT), provide a measure of pupil academic achievement. Accordingly, this study uses a value-added regression model to establish whether there is a “college preparation effect” on the average pupil’s FCAT reading and mathematics scores. We find that value-added regression analysis fails to uncover robust and substantive college preparation effects. Regardless of race (African American, Hispanic, or white), male or female status, or FCAT mathematics versus FCAT reading, pupil academic achievement does not vary substantively according to a teacher’s college of preparation. Further, the statistical significance of teacher program effects also depends on the functional form and specification of the value-added model. |
| Keywords: | teacher quality; value-added model; historically black colleges and universities; HBCU; teacher productivity; education and value-added |
| JEL: | J45 I2 J44 J15 J48 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:27903&r=edu |
| By: | Simon Burgess; Deborah Wilson; Jack Worth |
| Abstract: | We test the hypothesis that the publication of school performance tables raises school effectiveness. Our data allow us to implement a classic difference-in-difference analysis comparing outcomes in England and Wales, before and after the abolition of the tables in Wales. We find significant and robust evidence that this reform markedly reduced school effectiveness in Wales. There is significant heterogeneity across schools: schools in the top quartile of the league tables show no effect. We also test whether the reform reduced school segregation in Wales, and find no systematic significant impact on either sorting by ability or by socioeconomic status. |
| Keywords: | school accountability, school effectiveness, performance tables, segregation |
| JEL: | I20 |
| Date: | 2010–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bri:cmpowp:10/246&r=edu |
| By: | Patricia M. Anderson; Kristin F. Butcher; Elizabeth U. Cascio; Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we investigate the impact of attending school on body weight and obesity. We use school starting age cutoff dates to compare weight outcomes for similar age children with different years of school exposure. As is the case with academic outcomes, school exposure is related to unobserved determinants of weight outcomes because some families choose to have their child start school late (or early). If one does not account for this endogeneity, it appears that an additional year of school exposure results in a greater BMI and a higher probability of being overweight or obese. When actual exposure is instrumented with expected exposure based on school starting dates and birthday, the significant positive effects disappear, and most point estimates become negative and insignificant. However, for children not eating the school lunch, there is a significant negative effect on the probability of being overweight. |
| JEL: | I12 I21 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16673&r=edu |
| By: | Iuliana DOBRE (Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti) |
| Abstract: | Worldwide, there are more and more enterprises, organizations and educational institutions where the educational process works partially or exclusively via the Internet using a wide range of online courses. In such an online course design, resources and materials made available to learners must compensate the missing of the physical presence of the trainer or teacher as well as the missing of a direct and permanent communication between learners and trainers/teachers, these features being common to traditional educational process through classroom courses. The stages of such process, which will be presented in this article, are of similar order with those of making a traditional classroom course, but require a more effort, a more specialized people involved and a greater number of activities. |
| Keywords: | E-learning, learning content management systems, online education |
| JEL: | C92 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rom:km2010:26&r=edu |
| By: | Carlos Chiapa (El Colegio de México); José Luis Garrido (El Colegio de México); Silvia Prina (Case Western Reserve University) |
| Abstract: | Investment in human capital is an important tool for reducing poverty. However, the poor may lack the capacity to aspire, which often results in underinvestment in their children’s education. This paper studies the effect of a social program on the educational aspirations of the poor, and explores the role of exposure to educated professionals as a possible channel for increasing aspirations. First, using differences-in-differences, we show that beneficiary parents of the Mexican antipoverty program PROGRESA have higher educational aspirations for their children of a third of a school year than do non-beneficiary parents. This effect corresponds to a 15% increase in the proportion of parents who aspire for their children to finish college. Then, we exploit the design of the program whose requirements cause its target population to have different levels of mandated exposure to doctors and nurses. Our triple difference estimate shows that, educational aspirations for children from high-exposure households (relative to low- exposure households) in treatment villages (relative to control villages) were a third of a school year higher six months after the start of the program (relative to before its introduction). These results suggest that the change in aspirations is driven by exposure to highly educated professionals. |
| Keywords: | social programs, educational aspirations, poverty, educational aspirations |
| JEL: | I32 I21 I22 I38 H53 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emx:ceedoc:2010-11&r=edu |
| By: | Rucker C. Johnson |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the extent and ways in which childhood school quality factors causally influence subsequent adult socioeconomic and health outcomes. The study analyzes the life trajectories of children born between 1950 and 1970, and followed through 2007, using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The PSID data are linked with multiple data sources that describe the neighborhood attributes and school quality resources that prevailed at the time these children were growing up. I estimate the long-run impacts of court-ordered school desegregation plans on adult attainments by exploiting quasi-random variation in the timing of initial court orders, which generated differences in the timing and scope of the implementation of these plans during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Difference-in-differences estimates, sibling-difference estimates, and 2SLS/IV estimates indicate that school desegregation and the accompanied increases in school quality resulted in significant improvements in adult attainments for blacks. I find that, for blacks, school desegregation significantly increased educational attainment and adult earnings, reduced the probability of incarceration, and improved adult health status; desegregation had no effects on whites across each of these outcomes. The results suggest that the mechanisms through which school desegregation led to beneficial adult attainment outcomes for blacks include improvement in access to school resources reflected in reductions in class size and increases in per-pupil spending. This narrowed black-white adult socioeconomic and health disparities for the cohorts exposed to integrated schools during childhood. The results highlight the significant impacts of educational attainment on future health status and risk of incarceration, and point to the importance of school quality in influencing socioeconomic mobility prospects, which in turn have far-reaching impacts on health. |
| JEL: | I00 I21 I28 J15 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16664&r=edu |
| By: | Marta-Christina SUCIU (Academy of Economic Studies); Alexandru GHITIU-BRATESCU (Academy of Economic Studies); Ana-Maria NEAGU (Academy of Economic Studies); Mina FANEA-IVANOVICI (Academy of Economic Studies) |
| Abstract: | Nowadays knowledge and its strategic applications have become a major source of competitive advantage for organizations, regions and countries. According to the Complexity science approach KM regards to join all the capabilities (called by some authors “core competences”) such as to contribute for acquiring, creating, sharing, diffusing, utilizing, and storing knowledge among organizational members. Knowledge management seems to be one of the major factors for an organization long-run sustainable development and it plays a crucial role in developing a sustained competitive advantage for organizations, especially in a complex and dynamic environment. We consider the results of our study just a starting point for possible future theoretical and empirical investigations. This paper seeks to develop in Romania a framework of knowledge internalization based on the learning cycle theory. We appreciate that such a study could be quite a useful approach for both the academic and business communities in our country. |
| Keywords: | knowledge management, competitive advantage, education, lifelong learning, investment in education, knowledge-based society. |
| JEL: | I23 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rom:km2010:4&r=edu |
| By: | Kristinn Hermannsson (Department of Economics, Strathclyde University); Katerina Lisenkova (Department of Economics, Strathclyde University); Patrizio Lecca (Fraser of Allander Institute, Strathclyde University); Peter McGregor (Fraser of Allander Institute, Strathclyde University); Kim Swales (Department of Economics, Strathclyde University) |
| Abstract: | There have been numerous attempts to assess the overall impact of Higher Education Institutions on regional economies in the UK and elsewhere. There are two disparate approaches focussing on: demand-side effects of HEIs, exerted through universities’ expenditures within the local economy; HEIs’ contribution to the “knowledge economy”. However, neither approach seeks to measure the impact on regional economies that HEIs exert through the enhanced productivity of their graduates. We address this lacuna and explore the system-wide impact of the graduates on the regional economy. An extensive and sophisticated literature suggests that graduates enjoy a significant wage premium, often interpreted as reflecting their greater productivity relative to non-graduates. If this is so there is a clear and direct supply-side impact of HEI activities on regional economies through the employment of their graduates. However, there is some dispute over the extent to which the graduate wage premium reflects innate abilities rather than the impact of higher education per se. We use an HEI-disaggregated computable general equilibrium model of Scotland to estimate the impact of the growing proportion of graduates in the Scottish labour force that is implied by the current participation rate and demographic change, taking the graduate wage premium in Scotland as an indicator of productivity enhancement. We conduct a range of sensitivity analyses to assess the robustness of our results. While the detailed results do, of course, vary with alternative assumptions about future graduate retention rates and the size of the graduate wage premium, for example, they do suggest that the long-term supply-side impacts of HEIs provide a significant boost to regional GDP. Furthermore, the results suggest that the supply-side impacts of HEIs are likely to be more important than the expenditure impacts that are the focus of most “impact” studies. |
| Keywords: | Supply side impact; higher education institutions; computable general equilibrium model |
| JEL: | I23 E17 D58 R13 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:str:wpaper:1026&r=edu |
| By: | Joshua Angrist; Philip Oreopoulos; Tyler Williams |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the effects of academic achievement awards for first and second-year college students on a Canadian commuter campus. The award scheme offered linear cash incentives for course grades above 70. Awards were paid every term. Program participants also had access to peer advising by upperclassmen. Program engagement appears to have been high but overall treatment effects were small. The intervention increased the number of courses graded above 70 and points earned above 70 for second-year students, but there was no significant effect on overall GPA. Results are somewhat stronger for a subsample that correctly described the program rules. We argue that these results fit in with an emerging picture of mostly modest effects for cash award programs of this type at the post-secondary level. |
| JEL: | I21 I22 I28 J24 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16643&r=edu |
| By: | Kristinn Hermannsson (Department of Economics, Strathclyde University); Katerina Lisenkova (Department of Economics, Strathclyde University); Peter McGregor (Fraser of Allander Institute, Strathclyde University); Kim Swales (Department of Economics, Strathclyde University) |
| Abstract: | This paper replicates the analysis of Scottish HEIs in Hermannsson et al (2010a) to identify the impact of London-based HEIs on the English economy in order to provide a self-contained analysis that is readily accessible by those whose primary concern is with the regional impacts of London HEIs. When we treat each of the 38 London-based Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that existed in England in 2006 as separate sectors in conventional input-output analysis, their expenditure impacts per unit of final demand appear rather homogenous (though less so than HEIs in Wales and Scotland), with the apparent heterogeneity of their overall impacts being primarily driven by scale. However, a disaggregation of their income by source reveals considerable variation in their dependence upon general public funding and their ability to draw in income/funding from external sources. Acknowledging the possible alternative uses of the public funding and deriving balanced expenditure multipliers reveals large differences in the net-expenditure impact of London HEIs upon the English economy, with the source of variation being the origin of income. Applying a novel treatment of student expenditure impacts, identifying the amount of exogenous spending per student, modifies the heterogeneity of the overall expenditure impacts. On balance this suggests that the impacts of impending budget cut-backs will be quite different by institution depending on their sensitivity to public funding. However, predicting the outcome of budget cutbacks at the margin is problematic for reasons that we identify. |
| Keywords: | London Higher Education Institutions, Input-Output, England, Impact study, Multipliers, budget constraint. |
| JEL: | R51 R15 H75 I23 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:str:wpaper:1030&r=edu |
| By: | Alexandra Maria Ioana FLOREA (Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania); Alina-Mihaela ION (Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania); Iuliana BOTHA (Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania) |
| Abstract: | Today we witness an increase in the role of universities in civil society. The international trends show the universities’ openness towards the alternative offered by new technologies. The article shows the actual perspectives in our country, presents the main characteristics and the structure of a computerized university management system, and also indicates the possibility of informatic integration for the system modules. The development of such a project must be controlled and validated by a standardized methodology for project management, which is shown in the article. |
| Keywords: | Project Management, informatic system, management of an educational institution, portal application integration, methodology, Prince2 |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rom:km2010:32&r=edu |
| By: | Aniel Altamirano (LAC-UNDP); Luis Felipe López-Calva (Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean-UNDP); Isidro Soloaga (El Colegio de México) |
| Abstract: | The goal of this paper is to assess in which way socioeconomic and other family characteristics affect youth’s aspirations for education in urban Mexico. The theoretical approach, grounded in Sen´s capabilities approach, incorporates recent developments in two strands of the literature: a) one that assesses the impact of economic mobility on individuals´ aspirations and on the impact of aspirations on individuals behavior; and b) one that stresses the importance of agency, both, as a goal itself for human development and because its instrumental value for people to achieve whatever goals or values they regard as important. What follows presents the theoretical approach and an empirical application to Mexico DF. The paper elaborates on the plausible impact of the findings for the intergenerational transmission of inequality in LAC countries. |
| Keywords: | inequality, education, economic mobility |
| JEL: | D63 H52 I21 I22 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emx:ceedoc:2010-07&r=edu |
| By: | Mihaela MUREªAN (Christian University “Dimitrie Cantemir”, Bucharest); Emilia GOGU (Christian University “Dimitrie Cantemir”, Bucharest) |
| Abstract: | The paper approaches a subject of great novelty in knowledge-based society related to regional strategic decision making. This work and the innovative solutions introduced represent the results of a Romanian research project: “Regional Knowledge Management Architecture for the Regional Sustainable Strategy Development” (KnowHowReg), funded by the National Council for Higher Education and Research, Programme Ideas (code: 896, contract number: 383/2007). The research emphasizes the necessity of increasing the vitality of the local knowledge poles, by intensive use of scientific knowledge generated in the academic and research environment for a better fundament of the strategic decision making process at the regional level. The solution proposed, based on web 2.0 technologies, integrates e-Knowledge and e-Consultation tools in a regional portal, facilitating the bottom-up decision-making processes related to the regional strategy design and implementation. The paper focuses on e-Knowledge approach as a driver for the improvement of the decision making processes. |
| Keywords: | bottom-up decision making, regional knowledge management, e-Governance, e-Consultation. |
| JEL: | D81 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rom:km2010:39&r=edu |
| By: | Kristinn Hermannsson (Department of Economics, Strathclyde University); Katerina Lisenkova (Department of Economics, Strathclyde University); Peter McGregor (Fraser of Allander Institute, Strathclyde University); Kim Swales (Department of Economics, Strathclyde University) |
| Abstract: | This paper replicates the analysis of Scottish HEIs in Hermannsson et al (2010a) for the case of Wales in order to provide a self-contained analysis that is readily accessible by those whose primary concern is with the regional impacts of Welsh HEIs. When we treat each of the twelve Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that existed in Wales in 2006 as separate sectors in conventional input-output analysis, their expenditure impacts per unit of final demand appear rather homogenous, with the apparent heterogeneity of their overall impacts being primarily driven by scale. However, a disaggregation of their income by source reveals considerable variation in their dependence upon funding from the devolved Welsh Assembly Government and their ability to draw in income/funding from external sources. Acknowledging the binding budget constraint of the Welsh Assembly Government and deriving balanced expenditure multipliers reveals large differences in the net-expenditure impact of HEIs upon the Welsh economy,with the source of variation being the origin of income. Applying a novel treatment of student expenditure impacts, identifying the amount of exogenous spending per student, modifies the heterogeneity of the overall expenditure impacts. On balance this suggests that the impacts of impending budget cut-backs will be quite different by institution depending on their sensitivity to public funding. However, predicting the outcome of budget cutbacks at the margin is problematic for reasons that we identify. |
| Keywords: | Higher Education Institutions, Input-Output, Wales, Impact study, Multipliers, Devolution. |
| JEL: | R51 R15 H75 I23 |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:str:wpaper:1027&r=edu |
| By: | Raymundo M. Campos-Vázquez (El Colegio de México); Freddy Damián Romero Urbina (Conejo Nacional de Evaluación) |
| Abstract: | Este artículo utiliza un modelo de efectos mixtos para medir la relación entre el conocimiento de una prueba estandarizada a nivel nacional (ENLACE) con pruebas bimestrales administradas a nivel aula. Utilizamos una base de datos confidencial donde observamos tanto el resultado en la prueba ENLACE como las calificaciones bimestrales de los alumnos de educación primaria en el Distrito Federal para el periodo 2006-2009. Si el aprendizaje de las aulas se transmite a la prueba ENLACE, entonces las calificaciones bimestrales deberían determinar los resultados en Enlace. Sin embargo, los resultados implican que el aprendizaje de las aulas afecta alrededor de 0.30 desviaciones estándar a la prueba ENLACE. Asimismo, los resultados muestran que la estructura de la escuela tiene un impacto mayor, alrededor de 0.70 desviaciones estándar, sobre el resultado en pruebas estandarizadas que el desempeño del alumno y del docente. |
| Keywords: | Mexico; education, standardized tests, ENLACE, teachers |
| JEL: | H40 I20 I21 O10 O54 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:emx:ceedoc:2010-19&r=edu |
| By: | Larry L. Howard (California State University, Fullerton); Nishith Prakash (Cornell University, CReAM, and IZA) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the effects of school lunch subsidies provided through the meanstested component of the National School Lunch Program on the dietary patterns of children age 10- to 13 yr in the USA. Analyzing data on 5,140 public school children in 5th grade during spring 2004, we find significant increases in the number of servings of fruit, green salad, carrots, other vegetables, and 100 percent fruit juice consumed in one week for subsidized children relative to unsubsidized children. The effects on fruit and other vegetable consumption are stronger among the children receiving a full subsidy, as opposed to only a partial subsidy, and indicate the size of the subsidy is an important policy lever underlying the program's effectiveness. Overall, the findings provide the strongest empirical evidence to date that the means-tested school lunch subsidies increase children’s consumption over a time period longer than one school day. |
| Keywords: | National School Lunch Program, Dietary Patterns, Means-Tested Subsidies. |
| JEL: | H51 I12 I38 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:201101&r=edu |
| By: | Irina-Elena NICOLAE (“Ion Creanga” National College, Bucharest) |
| Abstract: | Physics is considered the basis of future in the economic development of any civilized country. Regarding education and research as a whole, at world level, there are three factors that influence education directly with profound implications, respectively the economical factor, the political one and the military one. On the one hand , these factors created a state of intensity that stimulate through massive financial investments the evolution of specialists and, on the other hand, they led to the founding of a few elite education centres (post-universitary), where the pedagogic methodology of teaching physics is avant-garde. Particular roles have computers, by creating virtual reality (V.R.), in training their own scholars and specialists of financial giants, being the highest form of the human-computer system. Nowadays, the study of physics assisted by V.R. is at an informal level, which means studying physics outside of an organized group, without objectives and without established operational behaviour. |
| JEL: | O14 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rom:km2010:48&r=edu |
| By: | Adina Ileana UÞÃ (Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania); Anca ANDREESCU (Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania) |
| Abstract: | The paper presents some aspects concerning the evaluation of e-learning systems, emphasizing in particular the tutor's role in such a training system and the evaluation of course materials’ quality. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge, E-learning, Evaluation, Distance Learning Education, Tutor, Course content |
| JEL: | D85 |
| Date: | 2010–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rom:km2010:43&r=edu |