Shrinking Classroom Age Variance Raises Student Achievement : Evidence from Developing Countries

Large classroom variance of student age is prevalent in developing countries, where achievement tends to be low. This paper investigates whether increased classroom age variance adversely affects mathematics and science achievement. Using exogenous...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Wang, Liang Choon
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	2012
Subjects:	ABILITY GROUPING ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AGE DIFFERENCES AGE GROUPS ATTENTION AVERAGE CLASS SIZE AVERAGE SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT AVERAGE TEST SCORE BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS BOOKS AT HOME CLASS SIZE COGNITIVE SKILLS COMPULSORY SCHOOLING DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH DISSERTATION EARLY CHILDHOOD ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION EDUCATION SYSTEMS EIGHTH-GRADE ENTRANCE AGE EXPENDITURES EXPENDITURES PER STUDENT EXPERIMENTS FORMAL SCHOOLING GENDER GRADE LEVELS HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT HUMAN RESOURCES INSTRUCTION LEARNING LEARNING ENVIRONMENT LEARNING OUTCOMES LITERATURE LOWER ACHIEVEMENT MATH ACHIEVEMENT MATH TEACHER MATHEMATICS OLD STUDENTS OPEN ACCESS PAPERS PEDAGOGIES QUALIFIED TEACHERS READERS RESEARCH WORKING PAPERS RETENTION SCENARIO SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT SCHOOLS SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT SCIENCE CLASSES SCIENCE SCORES SCIENCE TEACHER SCIENCE TEACHING SELF ESTEEM SIMULATION STUDENT ABILITY STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT STUDENT BACKGROUND CHARACTERISTICS STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS STUDENT OUTCOMES STUDENT PERFORMANCE SUBJECTS TEACHER TEACHERS TEACHING TEACHING EXPERIENCE TECHNIQUES TEST SCORES TYPES OF STUDENTS VALIDITY
Online Access:	http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20110110163516 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3300

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Summary:	Large classroom variance of student age is prevalent in developing countries, where achievement tends to be low. This paper investigates whether increased classroom age variance adversely affects mathematics and science achievement. Using exogenous variation in the variance of student age in ability-mixing schools, the author finds robust negative effects of classroom age variance on fourth graders' achievement in developing countries. A simulation demonstrates that re-grouping students by age in the sample can improve math and science test scores by roughly 0.1 standard deviations. According to past estimates for the United States, this effect size is similar to that of raising expenditures per student by 26 percent.

Shrinking Classroom Age Variance Raises Student Achievement : Evidence from Developing Countries

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