TY - JOUR
T1 - Intraschool variation in class size
T2 - Patterns and implications
AU - Boozer, Michael
AU - Rouse, Cecilia
N1 - Funding Information:
1 This is a substantially revised version of NBER Working Paper 5144. We thank Joshua Angrist, Kristin Butcher, David Card, Earl Kim, Alan Krueger, Steve Pischke, Paul Schultz, members of the Columbia University Labor Seminar and Princeton Labor Lunch, participants at the NBER Conference on the Well-being of Children, and anonymous referees for helpful comments, and Herb Abelson, Sybil Chabane, Danielle Gordon, Elana Hahn, David Lee, Karen Livescu, Kerry Radvany, Kevin Radvany, Dirk Reinhardt, Mark Reinhardt, and Tara Yasso for expert help with the survey. We gratefully acknowledge the Center for Economic Policy Studies and the Industrial Relations Section, both at Princeton University, and Rouse thanks the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Academy of Education, and the NAE Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program for financial support. All errors are our own.
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - In this paper we estimate the effect of actual class size on student achievement. Once we address the endogeneity induced by the correlation between class size and the "ability" of the class, we find that larger classes have a significant and negative effect on test scores. Further, since race/ethnicity is correlated with assignment to compensatory education classes, measures of class size that vary only at the school level obscure the true mean racial/ethnic differences in the class sizes. We find that racial/ethnic differences in class size potentially account for a substantial portion of the racial/ethnic differences in test score gains.
AB - In this paper we estimate the effect of actual class size on student achievement. Once we address the endogeneity induced by the correlation between class size and the "ability" of the class, we find that larger classes have a significant and negative effect on test scores. Further, since race/ethnicity is correlated with assignment to compensatory education classes, measures of class size that vary only at the school level obscure the true mean racial/ethnic differences in the class sizes. We find that racial/ethnic differences in class size potentially account for a substantial portion of the racial/ethnic differences in test score gains.
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U2 - 10.1006/juec.2001.2216
DO - 10.1006/juec.2001.2216
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0035697590
SN - 0094-1190
VL - 50
SP - 163
EP - 189
JO - Journal of Urban Economics
JF - Journal of Urban Economics
IS - 1
ER -