The Long-Run Educational Benefits of High-Achieving Classrooms

59 Pages Posted: 22 Aug 2022

See all articles by Serena Canaan

Serena Canaan

Simon Fraser University

Pierre Mouganie

Simon Fraser University

Peng Zhang

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; Shenzhen Finance Institute

Abstract

Despite the prevalence of school tracking, evidence on whether it improves student success is mixed. This paper studies how tracking within high school impacts high-achieving students’ short- and longer-term academic outcomes. Our setting is a large and selective Chinese high school, where first-year students are separated into high-achieving and regular classrooms based on their performance on a standardized exam. Classrooms differ in terms of peer ability, teacher quality, class size, as well as level and pace of instruction. Using newly collected administrative data and a regression discontinuity design, we show that high-achieving classrooms improve math test scores by 23 percent of a standard deviation, with effects persisting throughout the three years of high school. Impacts on performance in Chinese and English language subjects are more muted. Importantly, we find that high-achieving classrooms raise enrollment in elite universities by 17 percentage points, as they substantially increase scores on the national college entrance exam—the sole determinant of university admission in China. Effects are concentrated among lower-income students.

Keywords: I21, I24, I26, J24

Suggested Citation

Canaan, Serena and Mouganie, Pierre and Zhang, Peng, The Long-Run Educational Benefits of High-Achieving Classrooms. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4196944 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4196944

Serena Canaan (Contact Author)

Simon Fraser University ( email )

8888 University Drive
Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6
Canada

Pierre Mouganie

Simon Fraser University ( email )

8888 University Drive
Burnaby, V5A1S6
Canada

Peng Zhang

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen ( email )

Shenzhen Finance Institute

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