Socioeconomic status or noise? Tradeoffs in the generation of school quality information

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mizala, Alejandra; Romaguera, Pilar; Urquiola, Miguel
• 署名单位: Columbia University; Universidad de Chile
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2006.09.003
• 发表日期: 2007
• 页码: 61-75
• 关键词: tradeoff; Socioeconomic status; School performance

摘要

This paper calculates a time series of simple, standard measures of schools' relative performance. These are drawn from a 1997-2004 panel of Chilean schools, using individual-level information on test scores and student characteristics for each year. The results suggest there is a stark tradeoff in the extent to which rankings generated using these measures: i) can be shown to be very similar to rankings based purely on students' socioeconomic status, and ii) are very volatile from year to year. At least in Chile, therefore, producing a meaningful ranking of schools that may inform parents and policymakers may be harder than is commonly assumed. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.