Counting Rotten Apples: Student Achievement and Score Manipulation in Italian Elementary Schools

Erich Battistin (), Michele De Nadai and Daniela Vuri ()

No 11667, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We derive bounds on the distribution of math and language scores of elementary school students in Italy correcting for pervasive manipulation. A natural experiment that randomly assigns external monitors to schools is used to deal with endogeneity of manipulation as well as possible misclassification of the manipulation status. Bounds are obtained from properties of the statistical model used to detect classes with manipulated scores, and from restrictions on the relationship between manipulation and true scores. Our results show that score distributions are heavily affected by manipulating behavior, with regional rankings by academic performance being reversed once manipulation is taken into account.

Keywords: Measurement error; Non-parametric bounds; Partial identification; Score manipulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C31 C81 I21 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Counting rotten apples: Student achievement and score manipulation in Italian elementary Schools (2017)
Working Paper: Counting Rotten Apples: Student Achievement and Score Manipulation in Italian Elementary Schools (2014)
Working Paper: Counting Rotten Apples: Student Achievement and Score Manipulation in Italian Elementary Schools (2014)
Working Paper: Counting Rotten Apples: Student Achievement and Score Manipulation in Italian Elementary Schools (2014)
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