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

Wang, Liang Choon

关键词: ABILITY GROUPING;    ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT;    AGE DIFFERENCES;    AGE GROUPS;    ATTENTION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5527
RP-ID  :  WPS5527

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Large classroom variance of student ageis prevalent in developing countries, where achievementtends to be low. This paper investigates whether increasedclassroom age variance adversely affects mathematics andscience achievement. Using exogenous variation in thevariance of student age in ability-mixing schools, theauthor finds robust negative effects of classroom agevariance on fourth graders' achievement in developingcountries. A simulation demonstrates that re-groupingstudents by age in the sample can improve math and sciencetest scores by roughly 0.1 standard deviations. According topast estimates for the United States, this effect size issimilar to that of raising expenditures per student by 26 percent.