Classroom Grade Composition and Pupil Achievement

Edwin Leuven and Marte Rønning

No 5922, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper exploits discontinuous grade mixing rules in Norwegian junior high schools to estimate how classroom grade composition affects pupil achievement. Pupils in mixed grade classrooms are found to outperform pupils in single grade classrooms on high stake central exit tests and teacher set and graded tests. This effect is driven by pupils benefiting from sharing the classroom with more mature peers from higher grades. The presence of lower grade peers is detrimental for achievement. Pupils can therefore benefit from de-tracking by grade, but the effects depend crucially on how the classroom is balanced in terms of lower and higher grades. These results reconcile the contradictory findings in the literature.

Keywords: peer effects; educational production; combination classes; class size (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2011-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Economic Journal, 2016, 126 (593), 1164-1192

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https://docs.iza.org/dp5922.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Classroom Grade Composition and Pupil Achievement (2016)
Working Paper: Classroom grade composition and pupil achievement (2012)
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