Should Sixth Grade be in Elementary or Middle School? An Analysis of Grade Configuration and Student Behavior

Philip J Cook, Robert MacCoun, Clara Muschkin and Jacob Vigdor

No 12471, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Using administrative data on public school students in North Carolina, we find that sixth grade students attending middle schools are much more likely to be cited for discipline problems than those attending elementary school. That difference remains after adjusting for the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the students and their schools. Furthermore, the higher infraction rates recorded by sixth graders who are placed in middle school persist at least through ninth grade. A plausible explanation is that sixth graders are at an especially impressionable age; in middle school, the exposure to older peers and the relative freedom from supervision have deleterious consequences.

JEL-codes: H52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-pbe and nep-ure
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