Schools and Student Achievement

Institutional Structures and Student Achievement

Overview

My research using micro data of international student tests such as PISA and TIMSS shows that institutional structures such as exam systems, school autonomy, competition from privately operated schools, and tracking are important determinants of student achievement and thus of the efficiency and equity of school systems.

While teachers play an important role in this, the effects of class size, computers, and spending levels are rather limited.

In international comparisons, early childhood education and later tracking prove important factors for equality of opportunity. In the United States, the socioeconomic achievement gap has been large and but not increasing for four decades. The gap in educational aspirations does not close by providing information on the benefits and costs of higher education. Outside school, mentoring is an important approach to help disadvantaged adolescents. The Covid school closures appear to have hit low-achieving students particularly hard. The intertemporal cultural factors patience and risk-taking are fundamental to international differences in student achievement.

Reforms that terminated compulsory religious education in German schools reduced religiosity of affected students in adulthood and also affected their family and labor-market outcomes. Internationally, our work on exam systems and school autonomy also draws on reforms of school policies over time.

Schools and Student Achievement

Institutional Structures and Student Achievement

Teachers, Resources, and Student Achievement

Equality of Opportunity: Families and Student Achievement

School Reforms

Overview