David M. Welsch

For‐profit versus not‐for‐profit charter schools: an examination of Michigan student test scores

The role of for‐profit educational organizations in the predominantly public and not‐for‐profit K–12 US schooling system is being fiercely debated across our nation. Little empirical research is available to help policy‐makers develop informed decisions regarding the educational value that for‐profit schools provide to our students. This paper fills in part, for the first time in detail, this void. This paper uses a four‐year panel of charter schools from the state of Michigan to estimate a school‐level education production function and employ a random effects model that controls for student and district characteristics. The results find no evidence of a change in efficiency when a charter school is run by a for‐profit company (versus a not‐for‐profit company). The analysis developed in this paper takes the debate one step further as well, and examines the role that the size of for‐profit firms plays in the associated outcomes. There is some evidence that small for‐profit companies are either less efficient or enroll a different type of cohort of students than not‐for‐profit schools.

The Effect of Peer and Professor Gender on College Student Performance

The effects of peer and professor gender on student performance have been examined separately but not in conjunction. We augment previous research by including peer and professor gender, as well as their interaction, in estimations of student performance. After controlling for both student and faculty fixed effects we find that female students typically perform better than males, but this performance gap varies depending on the gender of the professor and of the classroom. Overall the effect of professor gender on student performance is small at best if classrooms are predominantly female and much larger if classrooms are predominantly male.

CHARTER SCHOOL COMPETITION AND ITS IMPACT ON EMPLOYMENT SPENDING IN MICHIGAN'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS

This paper seeks to determine how competition from charter schools affects a broad range of employees including instructors, administrators, and support personnel. Three empirical models are estimated utilizing a panel data from Michigan: a fixed effect model, a fixed effect model with lagged dependent variable, and an instrumental variable model. The key findings are that when a school district faces competition from charter schools they spend a larger percentage on instructors (most likely most of this is going toward teachers and not teacher aides), while spending a smaller percentage on employees that support instructors. The models seem to imply that the increased spending on teachers may not be reflected in a salary increase.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENT TRANSFERS AND DISTRICT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: ACCOUNTING FOR FEEDBACK EFFECTS

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 districts 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.

The Effect of Student Evaluations on Academic Success.

This article uses longitudinal student-level data from the American University of Sharjah, a large comprehensive university in the Middle East, to examine the relationship between student evaluations of teachers and current and future student achievement. Our model strategies control for the observed and unobserved heterogeneity of students and use unique instruments. We find that when all disciplines are examined together there is a positive relationship between current evaluation and current grade point average (GPA) but a negative relationship between past evaluations and current GPA. Discipline-specific estimations find the same results in the math and science course subsample, but for other course types there is little relation between evaluation and GPA.

Government Expenditures on Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Education

Most underdeveloped countries spend much more on tertiary education per student versus primary and secondary education per student, while in developed countries this ratio is much smaller. To examine this issue I present an overlapping generations model with heterogeneous agents. Heterogeneity arises from differential innate ability. Agents choose how many years of school to attend. The government also provides different amounts of funding for primary plus secondary schooling and tertiary schooling. The government allows only the top percentile of students graduating from secondary education to participate in tertiary education. I find that insufficient funding for primary and secondary school hurts every individual in the economy as well as decreasing output and increasing inequality, while excessive funding for primary plus secondary school per pupil leads to a huge tax burden, decreasing the welfare of all individuals.

Childcare quality and pricing: evidence from Wisconsin

Childcare prices vary dramatically both between and within states. We identify the effects of demographic and provider characteristics on childcare pricing, but focus primarily on whether unique government-provided information on childcare quality has an effect on pricing. Using provider-level observations across three adjacent counties in southern Wisconsin, we find that this government-provided information on childcare quality does not significantly affect pricing. Recognizing that information asymmetry may be the root cause of the insignificant relationship, we test the relationship further within multiple subsamples and with alternative models. Only the lowest quality childcare providers are significantly associated with lower prices in areas that we hypothesize suffer from greater information asymmetry.

Homeschooling Choice and Timing: An Examination of Socioeconomic and Policy Influences in Wisconsin

ABSTRACT Over the past two decades homeschooling has become increasingly popular, but this educational alternative has lacked rigorous empirical evaluation because of data limitations. Since little data are available for individual students, we examine homeschooling participation at the statewide and district level in Wisconsin. The most compelling finding is the large decrease in homeschooling at the upper levels of high school which may distort the evaluation of homeschooling as preparation for college. We also examine district and community factors associated with overall homeschooling participation and find evidence, for example, of the importance of test scores and specific religious preferences to that choice. Specifically, we find that higher district level homeschool participation is associated with lower district grade school test scores, lower expenditure per pupil, and a lower percentage of Catholic individuals living in the surrounding area.

Student gender, counselor gender, and college advice

ABSTRACT A gender gap currently exists in college STEM majors, with a lower percentage of females entering math intensive fields. One possible explanation is the advice students receive in high school. We conduct a survey of high school guidance counselors, soliciting their advice regarding hypothetical high school students’ college and major choices. We find counselors are more likely to believe outstanding female students will be successful at our selective college than outstanding male students, but are still less likely to recommend math majors to any female students.

Location decisions of charter schools: an examination of Michigan

ABSTRACT Using school level data we examine which factors influence charter school location decisions. We augment previous research by employing a panel dataset, recently developed geographic techniques to measure distances and define areas, and employing a hurdle model to deal with the excess zero problem. The main results of our research indicate that, after controlling for other factors, charters are more likely to locate in areas with higher median income, fewer students who receive a free or reduced lunch, lower reading scores, a larger percentage of black students, and more racial diversity.