ERIC Number: EJ1070339
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1557-3060
EISSN: N/A
The Relationship between Student Transfers and District Academic Performance: Accounting for Feedback Effects
Welsch, David M.; Zimmer, David M.
Education Finance and Policy, v10 n3 p399-422 Sum 2015
This paper draws attention to a subtle, but concerning, empirical challenge common in panel data models that seek to estimate the relationship between student transfers and district academic performance. Specifically, if such models have a dynamic element, and if the estimator controls for unobserved traits by including district-level effects, then model validity does not allow for a district's academic performance, in turn, to impact future transfers. Yet it seems reasonable that families, having access to publicly available aggregated information on standardized test results, seek to move their children to better-performing districts. In this paper, we demonstrate that, not only is such feedback quantitatively and qualitatively important, but also that allowing for such feedback substantially alters the estimated relationship between transfers and district performance.
Descriptors: Transfer Students, Academic Achievement, Feedback (Response), School Districts, Statistical Analysis, Access to Information, School Choice, Parent Attitudes, Validity, Models, Data, Predictor Variables, Predictive Validity, Standardized Tests, Schematic Studies, Elementary Secondary Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A