American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics
ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)
Effects of School Quality on Student Achievement: Discontinuity Evidence from Kenya
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
(pp. 234–63)
Abstract
The most desirable Kenyan secondary schools are elite government schools that admit the best students from across the country. We exploit the random variation generated by the centralized school admissions process in a regression discontinuity design to obtain causal estimates of the effects of attending one of these elite public schools on student progression and test scores in secondary school. Despite their reputations, we find little evidence of positive impacts on learning outcomes for students who attended these schools, suggesting that their sterling reputations reflect the selection of students rather than their ability to generate value-added test score gains.Citation
Lucas, Adrienne M., and Isaac M. Mbiti. 2014. "Effects of School Quality on Student Achievement: Discontinuity Evidence from Kenya." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 6 (3): 234–63. DOI: 10.1257/app.6.3.234Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- H52 National Government Expenditures and Education
- I21 Analysis of Education
- I28 Education: Government Policy
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration