William Sander

Teachers and Student Achievement in the Chicago Public High Schools

We estimate the importance of teachers in Chicago public high schools using matched student‐teacher administrative data. A one standard deviation, one semester improvement in math teacher quality raises student math scores by 0.13 grade equivalents or, over 1 year, roughly one‐fifth of average yearly gains. Estimates are relatively stable over time, reasonably impervious to a variety of conditioning variables, and do not appear to be driven by classroom sorting or selective score reporting. Also, teacher quality is particularly important for lower‐ability students. Finally, traditional human capital measures—including those determining compensation—explain little of the variation in estimated quality.

Catholic Grade Schools and Academic Achievement

The effect of a Catholic grade school education on the test scores of non-Hispanic whites is examined. Particular attention is given to the issue of selection into the Catholic grade school sector. It is shown that eight years in a Catholic grade school is associated with higher vocabulary, mathematics, and reading test scores. No Catholic grade school effect is found on science test scores. Further, it is shown that there is not positive selection into the Catholic school sector. Thus, higher test scores cannot be attributed to selecting superior students. It is also shown that the positive Catholic schooling effect is driven by non-Catholics who attend Catholic grade schools. Once non-Catholics in Catholic schools are eliminated from the sample, the Catholic school effect becomes zero. Data from the third follow-up survey of the High School and Beyond 1980 Sophomore Cohort are used.

Grades and student evaluations of teachers

Understanding the relationship between grading practices and student evaluations is especially important in higher education because of the increasing importance of this instrument in the promotion process. If evaluations can be increased by giving higher grades, then they are a flawed instrument for the evaluation of teaching. Further, this process may be contributing to the inflation of grades in higher education if faculty have an incentive to increase their evaluations. Also, grade inflation dilutes the signaling role of educational credentials in screening workers for the labor market. In this paper, we revisit the determinants of student evaluations in a model that allows for the possibility that (expected) grades are simultaneously determined. We estimate evaluations using both OLS and two-stage least squares (TSLS) and find that grades do affect an instructor’s evaluation. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that instructors can “buy” better evaluations through more lenient grading. [ JEL I20]

Schooling and Quitting Smoking

The effect of schooling on the odds that smokers quit smoking is estimated. Particular attention is given to the possible importance of unobservables in measuring the schooling effect. It is shown that schooling has a relatively substantial positive effect on the odds that men and women ages twenty-five and older quit smoking. Copyright 1995 by MIT Press.

Private Schools and Public School Achievement

The effects of private schools on public elementary and secondary school achievement in Illinois are estimated. The percentage of students in private schools in a school district is treated as an endogenous variable in the achievement equation. Catholic religion is used to identify a two-stage model. It is shown that private schools have no direct effect on public school achievement.

Expenditures and student achievement in Illinois: New evidence

Abstract This study examines educational outcomes in Illinois for the 1989–1990 school year. Several measures of educational attainment are analyzed including ACT scores, high school graduation rates, and the percentage in a high school planning to attend college. The most important results are that an increase in average teachers salary increases ACT scores and the percentage college-bound and an increase in the pupil-teacher ratio reduces the graduation rate and the percentage college-bound.

Schooling and smoking

Abstract The effect of schooling on the odds that men and women smoke is estimated for five age cohorts. Particular attention is given to the issue of endogeneity between schooling and smoking behavior. It is shown that schooling reduces the odds that men ages 25 to 54 smoke. Schooling also reduces the odds that women ages 25 to 44 smoke. Schooling either has no effect or a positive effect on the likelihood that older men and women smoke.

Catholicism and the Economics of Fertility

The economic approach to fertility is an application of the economic theory of consumer behaviour. It is assumed that utility-maximizing decisions regarding children are affected by explicit and implicit prices and income. One of the criticisms of this approach is that social norms tend to be given short shrift. In this paper, we examine the effect of Catholicism on fertility in the United States. Several new findings are presented. Most importantly, it is shown that many studies on Catholicism are flawed because of sample selection bias, which arises because ex-Catholics prefer smaller families than non-Catholics. We also show that religious activity has no effect on fertility if it is treated as an endogenous variable. Further, it is shown that the fertility transition in the United States is partly related to the changing effect of Catholic norms.

Religion and human capital

Abstract Evidence indicates that education is positively associated with religious activity. However, it is not necessarily the case that education increases religious activity. The results in this study suggest that education is not an exogenous determinant of attendance at weekly religious services and religious contributions. Furthermore, no causal effect of education on religious activity is found when education is treated as endogenous.

Catholicism and marriage in the united states

This study examines the effects of a Catholic background on age at first marriage, the odds of never marrying, and the odds of ever divorcing. Estimates using Catholic upbringing are compared with estimates using Catholic at the time of the survey. A case is made that if the latter measure of Catholicism is used, serious selection bias problems occur in some cases because this measure excludes defectors and includes converts. Further, it is shown that a Catholic upbringing generally has no effect on men’s age at first marriage and has a positive effect on the age when women marry. It is also shown that older Baptist men are substantially more likely than Catholic men to experience a divorce. Older Catholic women are somewhat less likely to experience a divorce than non-Baptist Protestant women. There is no Catholic effect on the odds that younger men and women will divorce.