| Julian Betts
University of California, San Diego
Incentives and grading standards: New evidence on the determinants of school quality
FINAL REPORT:
Study 1: Do Grading Standard Affect the Incentive to Learn.
The paper extends the literature on education production functions by arguing that incentives partly determine student performance. The paper develops a model in which schools' grading standards influence student effort. The model is tested using the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY). The level of grading standards at each school is a highly significant predictor of gains in student test scores, more so than are standard measures of school resources. Amount of homework performed by students also responds to grading standards. The paper concludes that higher grading standards represent an important tool for improving school quality.
Study 2: The Impact of Educational Standards on the Level and Distribution of Earnings.
The literature on educational standards suggests that an increase in graduation requirements heightens inequality, since achievement rises only for the best students. The paper derives a less pessimistic conclusion based on a model featuring workers with heterogeneous abilities. Higher educational standards, while increasing inequality, can increase the earnings of both the most able and the least able workers. Thus an egalitarian social planner may set higher standards than an income-maximizing social planner. The egalitarian planner may prefer more strict standards because they come closer to creating a pooling equilibrium. The results mitigate the concern that higher standards are necessarily inegalitarian.
Back to Funded Research Grants Page |