The Role of Homework on Student Learning Outcomes: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Abstract

This paper describes a field experiment in the classroom where principles of microeconomics students are randomly assigned into homework-required and not-required groups. We find that homework plays an important role in student learning, especially so for students who initially perform poorly in the course. Students in the homework-required group have higher retention rates, higher test scores (5% to 6%), a larger percentage of good grades (A’s or B’s), and lower failure rates. We also study the relationship between endogenous homework submission and test performance using instrumental variable estimation. We find that homework submission has a large positive effect on test performance - approximately one-half of a letter grade.

Keywords: Classroom Experiment, Student Performance, Homework Assignment

JEL Classification: H52, I21