Do Test Scores Help Teachers Give Better Track Advice to Students? A Principal Stratification Analysis

Andrea Ichino, Fabrizia Mealli and Javier Viviens

No 25125, RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series from ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin)

Abstract: We study whether access to standardized test scores improves the quality of teachers' secondary school track recommendations, using Dutch data and a metric based on Principal Stratification in a quasi-randomized setting. Allowing teachers to revise their recommendations when test results exceed expectations increases the share of students successfully placed in more demanding tracks by at least 6%, but misplaces 7% of weaker students. However, only implausibly high weights on the short-term losses of students who must change track because of misplacement would justify prohibiting test-score-based upgrades. Access to test scores also induces fairer recommendations for immigrant and low-SES students.

Keywords: principal stratification; secondary school track recommendations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-11
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