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With an estimated 115 million children not attending primary school in the developing world, increasing access to education is critical. Resource constraints limit the effectiveness of demand-based subsidies. This paper focuses on the importance of a supply-side factor--the availability of low-cost teachers--and the resulting ability of the market to offer affordable education. The authors first show that private schools are three times more likely to emerge in villages with government girls' secondary schools (GSS). Identification is obtained by using official school construction guidelines as an instrument for the presence of GSS. In contrast, there is little or no relationship between the presence of a private school and girls' primary or boys' primary and secondary government schools. In support of a supply-channel, the authors then show that, for villages that received a GSS, there are over twice as many educated women and that private school teachers' wages are 27 percent lower in these villages. In an environment with poor female education and low mobility, GSS substantially increase the local supply of skilled women lowering wages locally and allowing the market to offer affordable education. These findings highlight the prominent role of women as teachers in facilitating educational access and resonate with similar historical evidence from developed economies. The students of today are the teachers of tomorrow. Appended are: (1) Selection Issues in the Wage Bill; and (2) Comparing Linear IV and Biprobit estimates. (Contains 2 figures, 7 tables and 23 footnotes.)

This paper reports on findings based on analyses of a unique dataset collected by ACT that includes information on student achievement in a variety of subjects at the high school level, which allow us to examine the relationship between teacher effect estimates derived from VAM specifications employing different student learning assumptions. Specifically we explore the impact of assuming student learning to be unidimensional, prior knowledge ignorable, and achievement not influenced by concurrent teachers (spillover). We find evidence that both the estimated effect size of teacher quality changes and the estimates of individual teacher performance vary depending on learning assumptions. In particular, teacher effects estimated assuming unidimensionality and ignorable prior knowledge results in significantly smaller effect size estimates than those generated from a more traditional lagged score model, as well as changes in inferences about teachers. Similarly, teacher spillovers across subjects are found to have some impact on primary teacher estimates. Results imply that estimating high school teacher effects without explicitly considering the underlying assumptions results in biased estimates of performance; the substantive relevance is a normative question, but, our findings strongly suggest that VAM specification at the high school level warrants further research. (Contains 6 tables and 35 footnotes.)

In light of the recent bans on affirmative action in higher education, this paper provides new evidence on the effects of alternative admissions policies on the persistence and college completion of minority students. I find that the change from affirmative action to the Top 10% Plan in Texas decreased both retention and graduation rates of lower-ranked minority students. Results show that both fall-to-fall freshmen retention and six-year college graduation of second-decile minority students decreased, respectively, by 2.4 and 3.3 percentage points. The effect of the change in admissions policy was slightly larger for minority students in the third and lower deciles: fall-to-fall freshmen retention and six-year college graduation decreased, respectively, by 4.9 and 4.2 percentage points. Moreover, I find no evidence in support of the minority "mismatch" hypothesis. These results suggest that most of the increase in the graduation gap between minorities and non-minorities in Texas, a staggering 90 percent, was driven by the elimination of affirmative action in the 1990s. (Contains 9 tables, 1 figure, and 21 footnotes.)

In this paper we examine the mobility of early-career teachers of varying quality, measured using value-added estimates of teacher performance. Unlike previous studies that have examined these issues, we focus on the variation in these effects across the effectiveness distribution. We find that, on average, more effective teachers tend to stay in their initial schools and in the teaching profession. But there also appears to be heterogeneity in mobility behavior across the performance distribution, and evidence that teacher mobility is affected by student demographics and achievement levels. (Contains 6 tables and 53 footnotes.)

Economic theory commonly models unobserved worker quality as a given parameter that is fixed over time, but empirical evidence supporting this assumption is sparse. In this paper we report on work estimating the stability of value-added estimates of teacher effects, an important area of investigation given that new workforce policies implicitly assume that effectiveness is a stable attribute within teachers. The results strongly reject the hypothesis that true teacher effectiveness is perfectly stable within teachers over time, but the estimated stability is consistent with performance measures from other occupations. Finally, we find that little of the changes in teacher effectiveness estimates within teachers can be explained by observable characteristics. Fitting the Hybrid Model is appended. (Contains 6 figures, 8 tables, and 35 footnotes.)

This literature review on school choice analyses the impact of choice schemes on students and on school systems focusing on equity. Reviewing the evidence can be difficult, as the literature is often fragmented and inconclusive, and the political importance of this research often results in high-profile attention given to individual studies rather than systemically understanding collected from a larger empirical base (Berends, Cannata and Goldring, 2011). Different political groups use evidence that supports their positions in favour or against school choice, and their positions relative to school choice are largely based on their ideologies, rather than on empirical work and evidence of effectiveness (Levin and Belfield, 2004). This report steps away from the ideological debate and provides research-based evidence on the impact of choice on disadvantaged students and schools. As "only with data on the consequences of different plans for school choice will we be able to reach sensible judgements rooted in experience (Fuller and Elmore, 1996, p. 8)". It uses analysis and statements that are supported empirically and attempts to cover the widest possible scope of research, and provide responses to the key question of how to balance choice with equity considerations. (Contains 7 tables, 4 figures, 5 boxes and 13 footnotes.)

This paper discusses the most relevant issues concerning teacher evaluation in primary and secondary education by reviewing the recent literature and analysing current practices within the OECD countries. First, it provides a conceptual framework highlighting key features of teacher evaluation schemes. In particular, it emphasises the importance of clarifying the purposes of teacher appraisal, whether summative when designed to assure that the practices enhancing student learning are undertaken or formative when conducted for further professional development objectives. It also encompasses the diverse criteria and instruments commonly used to assess teachers as well as the actors generally involved in the process and potential consequences for teachers' professional life. Second, it deals with a number of contentious points, including the question of the use of student outcomes to measure teaching performance, the advantages and drawbacks of different approaches given the purpose emphasised and resource restrictions, the implementation difficulties resulting from different stakeholders' interests and possible ways to overcome these obstacles. Finally, it provides an account of current empirical evidence, pointing out mixed results stemming from difficulties in assessing the effects of such evaluation schemes on teaching quality, teachers' motivation and student learning. It concludes by considering the circumstances under which teacher evaluation systems seem to be more effective, fair and reliable. Developing a comprehensive approach to evaluate teachers is critical to make demands for educational best practice compatible with teachers' appropriation of the process as well as to enhance the decisive attractiveness and recognition of the teaching profession. (Contains 1 table.)

Education plays an essential role in preparing the children of immigrants for participation in the labour market and society. Giving these children opportunities to fully develop their potential is vital for future economic growth and social cohesion in OECD countries. But migrant students in most OECD countries tend to have lower education outcomes than their native peers. Extensive previous research has described the system level, school level and individual level factors that influence the education outcomes of migrant students. Building on such previous research, this paper looks at the ways in which "education policies" can influence these factors to help provide better educational opportunities for migrant students. (Contains 7 footnotes.) [This review was prepared for the OECD Thematic Review on Migrant Education. It was presented and discussed at the Second Meeting of the Group of National Experts on the Education of Migrants in Paris on 13-14 October 2008.]

Past estimates of the effect of family income on child development have often been plagued by endogeneity and measurement error. In this paper, we use two simulated instrumental variables strategies to estimate the causal effect of income on children's math and reading achievement. Our identification derives from the large, non-linear changes in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) over the last two decades. The largest of these changes increased family income by as much as 20 percent, or approximately $2,100. Using a panel of almost 5,000 children matched to their mothers from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth datasets allows us to address problems associated with unobserved heterogeneity, endogenous transitory income shocks, and measurement error in income. Our baseline estimates imply that a $1,000 increase in income raises combined math and reading test scores by 6 percent of a standard deviation in the short run. The gains are larger for children from disadvantaged families and are robust to a variety of alternative specifications. We find little evidence of long-run income effects, with most of the effects disappearing after one year. The following are appended: (1) Methodological Issues; (2) Description of NLSY Children Data; and (3) State-level School Accountability and Welfare Reform Measures.

One of the best ways to avoid being poor as an adult is to obtain a good education. Individuals with higher academic achievement and more years of schooling earn more than those with lower levels of human capital. This is not surprising given that we believe that schooling makes people more productive, allowing them to command higher wages in the labor market. This paper offers a message of tempered optimism in contrast to a sense of pessimism about the ability of schools to lift poor children's life chances. The past few decades have seen a dramatic improvement in the technology of education policy evaluation, which has enhanced our ability to uncover moderately-sized program impacts within the complex environment that determines schooling outcomes. The available evidence reveals a number of potentially promising ways to improve the learning outcomes of low-income children. This is not to say that everything works: many current and proposed education policies either enjoy no empirical support for their effectiveness, or in some cases have strong empirical evidence for their ineffectiveness. But a careful sifting of the empirical evidence identifies a selected set of interventions that seem to be promising. (Contains 19 notes.)

In the last three decennia, many governments have introduced market mechanisms in education. They have done so by enhancing parental choice and encouraging school competition, through policies like abolishing catchment areas, creating voucher programmes and setting up charter schools. These market mechanisms have given rise to fierce debates in both political and scientific circles. However, most prior reviews of research literature in this area have concluded that the effects of market mechanisms in education are small, if they are found at all. This review tries to answer the question why that is the case, by analysing the causal pathways that link market mechanisms to educational outcomes and by reviewing the empirical evidence for each step along those causal pathways. The findings of this review point to the need for a nuanced and qualified discussion about market mechanisms in education. What market mechanisms mean in actual practice strongly depends on (local) contexts, while the impact of market mechanisms is related to other policies impacting on parental choice behaviour as well as actions taken by schools. Appended are: (1) Country Case Studies; and (2) Terminology. Notes are also included. (Contains 1 table.)

This report seeks to address critical issues such as these by synthesising the evidence on innovations in more market-driven education systems. The analysis draws on data from over 20 OECD and non-OECD countries, including both developed nations that seek to move beyond established systems of state-run schools, and developing nations where formal and de facto policies promote more free-market approaches to educational expansion. In doing this, the report focuses on the primary and secondary levels, where education is usually compulsory. The more universal nature of educational access at those levels provides a different set of conditions and incentives compared to the post-compulsory tertiary level. And the report pays special attention to the charter school experiment in North America, where reformers explicitly tried to create more competitive conditions in order to encourage the development of innovations in the education sector. Policy approaches such as this that use decentralisation, deregulation, greater levels of autonomy, competition and choice may have singular potential to induce innovations in the education sector, both in how education is organised and the school content that is delivered--critical concerns if the education sector is to be more effective and reach under-served populations. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures and 32 endnotes.) [This report was prepared in collaboration with the OECD Secretariat for the project "Innovation Strategy for Education and Training" undertaken by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI).]

The article presents the discussion on EPM Weekly Policy Papers gives details of all policy papers published over the last week. Topics include summarises the 2023 Spring Budget announcement on early years entitlements and sets out further details on funding; and evidence suggests that greater skill levels benefit the economy as a whole but also provide significant economic and social benefits for the individuals.

Human capital--the productive capacity that is embedded in people--is one of the most important contributors to the growth in nations' output and standard of living. Globalisation and technological change have increased the importance of human capital in recent years, to the point that there are now only two options to sustain high profits and high wages in developed nations: escalating the skill levels of individuals or developing superior capacity for managing those skills and "human capital" more broadly. Employers have responded to these new phenomena by increasing wages for employees with more skills and by increasing their use of downsizing and other methods (such as "offshoring") intended to reduce labour costs. There is little evidence, however, that such efforts by employers have improved profits, productivity, or stock price performance. Employer-provided training for employees represents one method of improving the skill level of a nation's workforce. Although long-standing economic theory suggests that existing incentives for employers and employees should naturally yield the delivery of an optimal level of training, there is new awareness of a variety of market failures that may be causing a sub-optimal level of training, despite evidence that points to a positive relationship between employer-provided training and firm outcomes (productivity, profitability, employee retention, customer retention, stock performance). (Contains 3 figures, 3 tables, 1 box and 35 footnotes.)

Executive Order 13096 seeks to improve the educational achievement and academic progress of American Indian and Alaska Native students. Section F of the Order requires the U.S. Department of Education to develop and implement a research agenda for that purpose. Among other things, the research agenda is to include an evaluation of the role of Native language and culture in the development of educational strategies. The purposes of this task order are to review the literature on theories and empirical evidence related to Native language and culture in education; to assess the feasibility of conducting experiments in multiple locations to determine the effectiveness of programs or interventions incorporating Native language and/or culture in education; and, if such experiments are feasible, to produce a preliminary experimental design. This report describes activities conducted by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) under this task order to assess the feasibility of conducting experimental research in culturally based education (CBE). Two data sources were used to write this report. First, the research team conducted a review of extant research on the impact of culturally based education on the school performance of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students. The intent was to identify research studies in which the researcher has some "control over the assignment of subjects" to treatment conditions, using experimental or quasi-experimental designs. Second, a national survey of CBE programs was conducted to uncover existing culturally based education interventions to determine the feasibility of developing experimental or quasi-experimental research designs among existing programs. The purpose of the survey was to reveal the number of similar interventions implemented in different locations that allow the random assignment of students required in experimental or quasiexperimental research. The literature review identified six studies examining the effects of some aspects of CBE programs or interventions that involved random assignment of subjects to treatments. Results of the national survey suggest that random assignment of students to treatment and control conditions is likely to be feasible in a sizable number of the CBE programs. The remaining sections of this report provide background information on culturally based education and describe in greater detail the results of the literature review and the national survey of CBE programs. Appended are: (1) Feasibility Questionnaire; (2) Summary of CBE Survey Results; and (3) Potential CBE Study Sites. (Contains 18 tables and 10 figures.) [This report was originally prepared under the title "Preliminary Study for Experimental Research on Culturally Based Education for American Indian/Alaska Native Students : Task 2: Assess Feasibility" for the Institute of Education Sciences, June 2004.]

This second edition policy brief revisits the long and storied literature on whether money matters in providing a quality education. It includes research released since the original brief in 2012 and covers a handful of additional topics. Increasingly, political rhetoric adheres to the unfounded certainty that money does not make a difference in education, and that reduced funding is unlikely to harm educational quality. Such proclamations have even been used to justify large cuts to education budgets over the past few years. These positions, however, have little basis in the empirical research on the relationship between funding and school quality. In the following brief, the author discusses major studies on three specific topics: (1) whether how much money schools spend matters; (2) whether specific schooling resources that cost money matter; and (3) whether substantive and sustained state school finance reforms matter. Regarding these three questions, the author concludes: (1) Does money matter? Yes; (2) Do state school finance reforms matter? Yes; and (3) Do schooling resources that cost money matter? Yes. The following is appended: Methods and Measures in Money Matters Questions. [For the first edition "Revisiting the Age-Old Question: Does Money Matter in Education?," see ED528632.]

This paper responds to Resolution 9.05 Fall 2007, calling for an update of the Academic Senate's 1996 paper Program Review: Developing a Faculty Driven Process in the light of recent accreditation changes and other emerging issues. This paper has been written to expand on the best elements of the 1996 paper and to stand on its own without requiring that readers also review the earlier paper. Program review has evolved substantially since the development of that paper. Individuals and institutions engage in program review for a variety of reasons. This paper seeks to set a standard for program review in California community colleges based on the authority of local academic senates and their commitment to educational excellence, and also in light of external requirements. The Academic Senate continues to argue that program review must be a faculty-led process, motivated by professionalism and the desire to make community college programs relevant, effective, and exemplary. Appended are: (1) ACCJC Rubric for Program Review; (2) Sample Program Review Guidelines; (3) Visual Guides to Program Review; (4) Online Resources; (5) Bakersfield College Unit Plan Templates; (6) Program Review Models from Santa Monica College; (7) ACCJC Rubric for Student Learning Outcomes; and (8) Riverside City College District Data Collection. (Contains 2 figures, 4 charts and 9 resources.)

In response to the rapid rise in court cases related to the adequacy of school funding, a variety of alternative methods have been developed to provide an analytical base about the necessary expenditure on schools. These approaches have been titled to give an aura of a thoughtful and solid scientific basis: the professional judgment model, the state-of-the-art approach, the successful schools method, and the cost function approach. Unfortunately, none can provide a reliable and unbiased answer to the question "how much do adequate schools cost?" Each is highly manipulable, generally satisfying the interested party commissioning the work to be done but not meeting the fundamental tenets of scientific inquiry. This paper reviews and critiques the methodology as applied in a substantial number of states. (Contains 43 endnotes.)

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to describe the implementation of Ohio's version of the Evidence-Based Model (OEBM) state school finance system in 2009. Data sources included state budget documents and analyses as well as interviews with local school officials. The new system was responsive to three policy objectives ordered by the Ohio Supreme Court in the DeRolph lawsuit: (a) a distribution formula based on student needs; (b) elimination of phantom revenue; and (c) decreased reliance on the property tax. An examination of the distributional effects assuming full funding showed that the OEBM is designed to provide adequate funding from the state, when combined with a local property tax rate of just two percent. However, the OEBM was enacted with state appropriations far below full funding, and the new formula had no effect on distribution of state funds in 2009-10. Analysis of the distribution of all state funds for schools found that property tax reimbursement to public school districts and funding for choice schools were big competitors for the education dollar. (Contains 9 tables, 1 graph, and 2 endnotes.)

This study investigates why teachers, identified by their school principal as being leaders or having leadership potential, chose not to become school principals. At a time in which the literature is reporting a shortage of qualified applicants for school administrative positions the identified reasons most cited by teacher leaders include testing/accountability pressures too great, job generally too stressful, too much time required, and societal problems make it difficult to focus on instruction. The key factors for teacher leaders choosing not to pursue a career in school administration are categorized as stress and time demands are too great. (Contains 5 tables.)

In recent years, several large urban districts, including Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, and Kansas City, Missouri have converted their middle schools (generally grades 6-8) to K-8 schools in the hope of improving student achievement, attendance, and behavior, while also enhancing parental involvement. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, which supports all bona fide efforts to improve schooling for young adolescents (ages 10-14), recommends that such efforts be grounded in evidence-based research. Current research on grade configuration, however, is not definitive. More evidence is needed to document the positive outcomes achieved by 6-8 and K-8 schools on young adolescents, as well as by other organizational structures. The National Forum believes that what is most important for the education of young adolescent learners is what takes place inside each middle-grades school, not grade configuration per se. The National Forum has put forth a comprehensive policy agenda for middle-grades education designed to bring about positive and lasting school improvement. This paper summarizes the history and research surrounding grade configuration, along with the Forum's own experiences in identifying high-performing schools that serve young adolescents. These suggest that focusing on changing grade configuration as the solution to middle-grades problems and challenges may not achieve the intended results. [For "Small Schools and Small Learning Communities. Policy Statement. Issue 4," see ED528790.]

This policy brief revisits the long and storied literature on whether money matters in providing a quality education. Increasingly, political rhetoric adheres to the unfounded certainty that money doesn't make a difference in education, and that reduced funding is unlikely to harm educational quality. Such proclamations have even been used to justify large cuts to education budgets over the past few years. These positions, however, have little basis in the empirical research on the relationship between funding and school quality. In this brief, the author discusses selected major studies on three specific topics: (a) whether money in the aggregate matters; (b) whether specific schooling resources that cost money matter; and (c) whether substantive and sustained state school finance reforms matter. (Contains 75 endnotes.)

The Training Centre Infrastructure Fund (TCIF) was initially announced in Budget 2004 and represented an immediate measure of the broader Workplace Skills Strategy. TCIF was a three-year $25 million pilot project, designed to address the growing need for union-employer training centres to replace aging equipment and simulators that were not up to current industry standards. TCIF was terminated after the first year in September 2006 as part of cost-saving measures resulting from an expenditure review process, hence not completing the full duration of the pilot. The Government of Canada decided to make investments which focused on direct contributions to individuals and employers, such as the measures announced in the Budget 2006--the Apprenticeship Incentive Grant, the Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit, and the Tools Tax Deduction. During it existence, 46 projects were funded with $6.5 million distributed to Union Training Centres (UTCs) across Canada in amounts ranging from under $20,000 to $465,000, with the average agreement being approximately $150,000. This evaluation of the Training Centre Infrastructure Fund (TCIF) focuses on program rationale and relevance, results or success, and cost-effectiveness. The evaluation gathered information from four different lines of inquiry: 1) review of program documents and files; 2) literature review including sources from Canada, United States, Australia and Great Britain; 3) 14 key informant interviews; and 4) a survey of 66 UTC administrators who applied for funding. The findings indicate that overall TCIF was successful in achieving its intended outcomes as indicated by the following: (1) TCIF did help to leverage funds through the 50% contribution by UTCs, with a majority indicating their UTC's trust funds overall expenditures on training equipment increased the year they received funding compared to previous years; (2) New partnerships were established by 47% of the UTCs funded; (3) There is evidence that the equipment purchased with TCIF funding responded to the changing technological needs of the industries; (4) The new equipment resulted in changes to training including more hands-on opportunity, additional courses and changes to existing curriculum. Experts and external key informants emphasized the importance of hands-on training in order to maximize the benefits of training; (5) UTCs reported that they believed that the skills acquired during training were applied in the work setting because the equipment was similar or identical to that funded by TCIF; (6) UTC representatives indicated that training on TCIF-funded equipment did lead to job enrichment and/or increased opportunities; and (7) TCIF has positively contributed to the existing skill gap through providing trained workers. However, it is impossible to measure the actual impact of TCIF on the skill gap since other factors, such as wage growth, vacancies, turnover and demographics, also impact on the skill gap. Based on the information from the survey, over 10,000 people have been trained on TCIF-funded equipment between the time of purchase and the time of the survey in summer of 2008. It was also seen by some key informants to motivate the private sector to contribute more. The preceding suggests that TCIF may be an effective approach. However, it cannot be concluded that it is the best approach nor that is a cost-effective approach. Appendices include: (1) Program Logic Model; (2) Evaluation Issues and Questions Matrix; and (3) Bibliography. (Contains 10 tables and 35 footnotes.)

I survey the evidence on patterns in U.S. high school graduation rates over the period 1970-2010 and report the results of new research conducted to fill in holes in the evidence. I begin by pointing out the strengths and limitations of existing data sources. I then describe six striking patterns in graduation rates. They include stagnation over the last three decades of the twentieth century, significant race-, income-, and gender-based gaps, and significant increases in graduation rates over the first decade of the twenty-first century, especially among blacks and Hispanics. I then describe the models economists use to explain the decisions of individuals to invest in schooling, and examine the extent to which the parameters of the models explain recent patterns in graduation rates. I find that increases in the nonmonetary costs of completing high school and the increasing availability of the GED credential help to explain stagnation in the face of substantial gaps between the wages of high school graduates and school dropouts. I point out that there are several hypotheses, but to date, very little evidence to explain the increases in high school graduation rates over the first decade of the twenty-first century. I conclude by reviewing the evidence on effective strategies to increase high school graduation rates, and explaining why the causal evidence is quite modest.

This paper uses a novel dataset to test the important theoretical prediction that the level of investment in schooling is increasing in the rate of return to education. We exploit a unique episode where different Israeli kibbutzim shifted from equal sharing to productivity-based wages in different years, resulting in sharp increases in the return to education. We use a difference-in-differences approach comparing educational outcomes of high school students in kibbutzim that reformed early (the treatment group) and late (the control group), before and after the early reforms (but before the late reforms). The treatment group is shown to be nearly identical to the control group in observable characteristics and pre-reform mean outcomes. We find that students in kibbutzim that reformed early increased their investment in education, as reflected by outcomes such as whether they graduated high school and their average matriculation scores. This effect is stronger for males, and is mainly driven by students whose parents have lower levels of education. It is also stronger for students in kibbutzim that reformed to a greater degree. We use various falsification tests to support our identification strategy and to show that our results are not driven by other factors such as differential time trends or differential exit rates. Our findings support the prediction that education is highly responsive to changes in returns, especially for students from weaker backgrounds.

In this paper we determine how the receipt of gifted and talented (GT) services affects student outcomes. We identify the causal relationship by exploiting a discontinuity in eligibility requirements and find that for students on the margin there is no discernable impact on achievement even though peers improve substantially. We then use randomized lotteries to examine the impact of attending a GT magnet program relative to GT programs in other schools and find that, despite being exposed to higher quality teachers and peers that are one standard deviation higher achieving, only science achievement improves. We argue that these results are consistent with an invidious comparison model of peer effects offsetting other benefits. Evidence of large reductions in course grades and rank relative to peers in both regression discontinuity and lottery models are consistent with this explanation.

Half of all college students take at least one remedial course as part of their postsecondary experience, despite mixed evidence on the effectiveness of this intervention. Using a regression-discontinuity design with data from a large urban community college system, we extend the research on remediation in three ways. First, we articulate three alternative models of remediation to help guide interpretation of sometimes conflicting results in the literature. Second, in addition to credits and degree completion we examine several under-explored outcomes, including the initial decision to enroll, grades in subsequent college courses, and post-treatment proficiency test scores. Finally, we exploit rich high school background data to examine heterogeneity in the impact of remedial assignment by predicted academic risk. We find that remediation does little to develop students' skills. But we also find relatively little evidence that it discourages either initial enrollment or persistence, except for a subgroup we identify as potentially mis-assigned to remediation. Instead, the primary effect of remediation appears to be diversionary: students simply take remedial courses instead of college-level courses. These diversionary effects are largest for the lowest-risk students. Implications for remediation policy are discussed.

The intergenerational transmission of human capital and the extent to which policy interventions can affect it is an issue of importance. Policies are often evaluated on either short term outcomes or just in terms of their effect on individuals directly targeted. If such policies shift outcomes across generations their benefits may be much larger than originally thought. We provide evidence on the intergenerational impact of policy by showing that educational reform in Sweden reduced crime rates of the targeted generation and their children by comparable amounts. We attribute these outcomes to improved family resources and to better parenting.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) targeted substantial School Improvement Grants (SIGs) to the nation's "persistently lowest achieving" public schools (i.e., up to $2 million per school annually over 3 years) but required schools accepting these awards to implement a federally prescribed school-reform model. Schools that met the "lowest-achieving" and "lack of progress" thresholds within their state had prioritized eligibility for these SIG-funded interventions. Using data from California, this study leverages these two discontinuous eligibility rules to identify the effects of SIG-funded whole-school reforms. The results based on these "fuzzy" regression-discontinuity designs indicate that there were significant improvements in the test-based performance of schools on the "lowest-achieving" margin but not among schools on the "lack of progress" margin. Complementary panel-based estimates suggest that these improvements were largely concentrated among schools adopting the federal "turnaround" model, which compels more dramatic staff turnover.

We investigate how undergraduates' financial aid packages affect their subsequent donative behavior as alumni. The empirical work is based upon micro data on alumni giving at an anonymous research university. We focus on three types of financial aid, scholarships, loans, and campus jobs. A novel aspect of our modeling strategy is that, consistent with the view of some professional fundraisers, we allow the receipt of a given form of aid per se to affect alumni giving. At the same time, our model allows the amount of the support to affect giving behavior nonlinearly. Our main findings are: 1) Individuals who took out student loans are less likely to make a gift, other things being the same. We conjecture that this phenomenon is caused by an "annoyance effect"--alumni resent the fact that they are burdened with loans. 2) Scholarship aid reduces the size of a gift, but has little effect on the probability of donating. The negative effect of receiving a scholarship on donations decreases in absolute value with the size of the scholarship. We do not find any evidence that scholarship recipients give less because they have relatively low incomes post graduation. 3) Aid in the form of campus jobs does not have a strong effect on donative behavior.