The Central Role of Noise in Evaluating Interventions that Use Test Scores to Rank Schools

Chay, K.Y. and Mcewan, P.J. and Urquiola, M. (2005) The Central Role of Noise in Evaluating Interventions that Use Test Scores to Rank Schools. American Economic Review, 95 (4). pp. 1237-1258.

Preview

PDF - Published Version | Preview

Abstract

Many programs reward or penalize schools based on students’ average performance. Mean reversion is a potentially serious hindrance to the evaluation of such interventions. Chile’s 900 Schools Program (P-900) allocated resources based on cutoffs in schools’ mean test scores. This paper shows that transitory noise in average scores and mean reversion lead conventional estimation approaches to overstate the impacts of such programs. It further shows how a regressiondiscontinuity design can be used to control for reversion biases. It concludes that P-900 had significant effects on test score gains, albeit much smaller than is widely believed.

Item Type:	Article
Author Affiliation:	Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, 549 Evans Hall #3880, Berkeley, CA 94720, and National Bureau of Economic Research, USA
Subjects:	Social Sciences
Divisions:	General
Depositing User:	Mr Daneti Raju
Date Deposited:	27 Aug 2014 05:49
Last Modified:	27 Aug 2014 05:49
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1257/0002828054825529
URI:	http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/13401

Actions (login required)

View Item