Maciej Jakubowski

The effects of delaying tracking in secondary school: evidence from the 1999 education reform in Poland

ABSTRACT Delaying tracking, extending students’ exposure to a general academic education and increasing their time on task on basic competences (reading, mathematics) could improve academic outcomes. To test the hypothesis that delayed vocational streaming improves academic outcomes, this paper analyzes Polands significant improvements in international achievement tests and the restructuring of the system which expanded general schooling. Estimates using propensity-score matching and difference-in-differences estimates show that delaying vocational education and increasing time on task have a positive and significant impact on student performance on the order of a standard deviation.

Latent Variables and Propensity Score Matching

This paper examines how including latent variables can benefit propensity score matching. A researcher can estimate, based on theoretical presumptions, the latent variable from the observed manifest variables and can use this estimate in propensity score matching. This paper demonstrates the benefits of such an approach and compares it with a method more common in econometrics, where the manifest variables are directly used in matching. We intuit that estimating the propensity score on the manifest variables introduces a measurement error that can be limited when estimating the propensity score on the estimated latent variable. We use Monte Carlo simulations to test how various matching methods behave under distinct circumstances found in practice. Also, we apply this approach to real data. Using the estimated latent variable in the propensity score matching increases the efficiency of treatment effect estimators. The benefits are larger for small samples, for non-linear processes, and for a large number of the manifest variables available, especially if they are highly correlated with the latent variable.

Will the last be first and the first last? The role of classroom registers in cognitive skill acquisition

The paper estimates the effect of students’ position in the classroom register on their academic performance. We use a unique dataset from Poland which contains information on the academic outcomes of students in the humanities, science and mathematics lower secondary school exams as well as the position students occupy in their classroom register. We find that students whose names are recorded near the end of the class list have lower performance than those students whose names are recorded near the beginning of the list. The effect appears to be larger for performance in the humanities exam, and for low-achieving boys who attend large classes.

Teaching Quality and Decentralization

This paper attempts to assess outcomes of school system decentralization in Poland. National examination results are analyzed using the value-added model of teaching quality. Variation in decentralized spending is related to estimates of achievement growth. Exploring exam results for three consecutive student cohorts, we are able to control for hidden characteristics of local governments when estimating their impact on student progress. Preceding the main analysis, the paper provides detailed description of trends in local government school spending and service provision over the last 15 years. The main conclusion is that while there is some evidence that decentralization changed patterns of school expenditure, there is no evidence that expenditures have any systematic impact on teaching quality. There is also no evidence that higher spending translates to more equally distributed outcomes. It seems that the only non-negligible impact local governments could have on student achievement is through provision of preschool facilities. However, evidence presented in the paper suggests that many local governments decided to limit preschool services, especially in poor rural areas. That could importantly increase educational inequalities.