Combination classes and educational achievement
Jaime L. Thomas
Economics of Education Review, 2012, vol. 31, issue 6, 1058-1066
Abstract:
Using the ECLS-K and considering first graders in single-grade and K–1 and 1–2 combination classes, I discuss the mechanisms underlying the combination-class effect and address the systematic school-, teacher-, and student-level differences that confound estimates of this effect. I find evidence for positive selection into 1–2 classes, but using a rich set of control variables, find no relationship between class type and student achievement in first grade within schools, and no difference in overall first-grade achievement between single-grade and combination schools in a matched school sample. The results I present suggest that first graders are not harmed by being in a combination class or by their schools offering combination classes. As long as other stakeholders such as parents, teachers, and students in other grades are not made worse off, these results suggest that offering combination classes may be a Pareto-improving option for school administrators.
Keywords: Costs; Educational economics; Educational finance; Human capital; Input output analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775712000908
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:31:y:2012:i:6:p:1058-1066
DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2012.07.013
Access Statistics for this article
Economics of Education Review is currently edited by E. Cohn
More articles in Economics of Education Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().