The Relationship Between Student Transfers and District Academic Performance: Accounting for Feedback Effects

David M. Welsch () and David Zimmer
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David M. Welsch: Department of Economics College of Business and Economics University of Wisconsin

Education Finance and Policy, 2015, vol. 10, issue 3, 399-422

Abstract: This paper draws attention to a subtle, but concerning, empirical challenge common in panel data models that seek to estimate the relationship between student transfers and district academic performance. Specifically, if such models have a dynamic element, and if the estimator controls for unobserved traits by including district-level effects, then model validity does not allow for a district's academic performance, in turn, to impact future transfers. Yet it seems reasonable that families, having access to publicly available aggregated information on standardized test results, seek to move their children to better-performing districts. In this paper, we demonstrate that, not only is such feedback quantitatively and qualitatively important, but also that allowing for such feedback substantially alters the estimated relationship between transfers and district performance.

Keywords: student transfers; district performance; school districts; standardized testing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 I21 I26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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