Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Korthals, Roxanne
Author-workplace-name: Macro, International & Labour Economics, RS: GSBE DUHR
Title: The effects of accelerating the school curriculum on student outcomes
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to estimate the causal effects of an accelerated curriculum, in which students progress through the course material faster, on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. I employ two methods: First, I make use of the cohorts before and after the introduction of the possibility to accelerate and of classes which are and which are not considered for acceleration using a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) strategy. However, it seems reasonable that the best students benefit from this policy, while it is less clear that the less able students would benefit. Therefore I also employ a second method in which I only look at the effects for the marginal student. For this, I use school grades to employ a fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design (fRDD). Using both methods, I find that after one year the students who accelerated scored significantly higher on certain sub scores of the mathematics tests. I find no definitive results on non-cognitive skills: Using the DiD, I find that this positive cognitive effect is countered by lower scores on the teacher rated scores on perseverance, concentration, and conversation skills. For the marginal student, I find almost no effects on non-cognitive skills.
Classification-JEL: i20,i21
Series: GSBE Research Memoranda
Creation-Date: 20170101
Number: 003
File-URL: https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/files/6401346/RM17003.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 752763
Handle: Repec:unm:umagsb:2017003
DOI: 10.26481/umagsb.2017003