Black and poor students are suspended from U.S. schools at higher rates than white and non-poor students. While the existence of these disparities has been clear, the causes of the disparities have not. We use a novel dataset to examine how and where discipline disparities arise. By comparing the punishments given to black and white (or poor and non-poor) students who fight one another, we address a selection challenge that has kept prior studies from identifying discrimination in student discipline. We find that black and poor students are, in fact, punished more harshly than the students with whom they fight.

The Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) offers publicly funded vouchers to students in low-performing schools with family income no greater than 250% of the poverty line, allowing them to enroll in participating private schools. Initially established in 2008 as a pilot program in New Orleans, the LSP was expanded statewide in 2012. This article examines the experimental effects of using an LSP scholarship to enroll in one’s first-choice private school on student achievement in the first 2 years following the program’s expansion. Our results indicate that the use of an LSP scholarship has negatively affected both English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics achievement. We observe less negative effect estimates in the second year of the program, with the impacts on ELA only on the margin of statistical significance.

While charter schools differ widely in philosophy and pedagogical views, the United States's most famous urban charter schools typically use the No Excuses approach. Enrolling mainly poor and minority students, these schools feature high academic standards, strict disciplinary codes, extended instructional time, and targeted supports for low-performing students. The strenuous and regimented style is controversial amongst some scholars, but others contend that the No Excuses approach is needed to rapidly close the achievement gap. We conduct the first meta-analysis of the achievement impacts of No Excuses charter schools. Focusing on experimental studies, we find that No Excuses charter schools significantly improve math scores and reading scores. We estimate gains of 0.25 and 0.16 standard deviations on math and literacy achievement, respectively, as the effect of attending a No Excuses charter school for one year. Though the effect is large and meaningful, we offer some caveats to this finding and discuss policy implications for the United States as well as other countries.

Pendahuluan Pendidikan merupakan hak azasi setiap manusia. Pasal 31 (1) Undang-Undang Dasar Negara Indonesia menyatakan bahwa setiap warga negara berhak mendapatkan pendidikan. Upaya pemerintah untuk membuka kesetaraan pendidikan bagi seluruh warga negara ditandai dengan ditingkatkannya anggaran dalam bidang pendidikan di APBN 2013 hingga mencapai 336,8 triliun. Salah satu alokasi anggaran dalam bidang pendidikan adalah untuk menyediakan beasiswa untuksiswa dan mahasiswa miskin bagi sekitar 9,4 juta siswa/mahasiswa (Departemen Keuangan, 2013). Hasil penelitian Utomo dan Sudji (2010) menunjukkan bahwa beasiswa Peningkatan Prestasi Akademik (PPA) belum mampu meningkatkan prestasi akademik mahasiswa penerima beasiswa. Beasiswa PPA memberikan bantuan uang tunai sebesar Rp 350.000 per bulan. Jika beasiswa PPA yang memberikan bantuan tunai tidak berpengaruh ter-hadap peningkatan prestasi penerima beasiswa, bagaimana dengan beasiswa yang memberikan pembinaan (pendidikan) kepada penerima beasiswa. Beasiswa yang akan diteliti adalah beasiswa Beastudi Etos. Pemilihan Beastudi Etos didasarkan pada alasan bahwa Beastudi Etos telah sepuluh tahun menjalankan pembinaan kepada penerima beasiswa. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk: (1) menganalisis program beasiswa berdasarkan konsep pemberdayaan, dan (2) mengukur faktor-faktor yang berpengaruh terhadap prestasi mahasiswa penerima beasiswa. Ife (1995) menyatakan bahwa pemberdayaan bertujuan untuk meningkatkan kekuasaan orang-orang yang lemah dan tidak beruntung. Tujuan beasiswa untuk membantu mahasiswa miskin dalam meraih pendidikan selaras dengan tujuan pemberdayaan.. Tiga kelompok lemah yang perlu mendapat program pemberdayaan yaitu kelompok lemah struktural, kelompok lemah khusus, dan juga kelompok lemah Abstract For achieve educational equity, government, private and non government organization provide scholarships. Scholarships are awarded as an effort to empower the recipients. Therefore this study aims to (1) analyze the scholarship program based on the concept of empowerment, (2) measure the factors that influence academic achievement of grantees. This research was conducted to 41 grantees Beastudi Etos at Jabodetabek during November-December 2013. The results showed that the scholarship is effective to be an empowerment program. Because it increase achievement motivation of grantees, and create positif environment to support learning process. Abstrak Sebagai upaya untuk pemerataan pendidikan, pihak pemerintah, swasta dan lembaga swadaya masyarakat pemerintah memberikan bantuan beasiswa.Beasiswa diberikan sebagai upaya untuk meningkatkan keberdayaan penerima beasiswa. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk : (1) menganalisis pengelolaan program beasiswa berdasarkan konsep pemberdayaan, dan (2) mengukur faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi prestasi mahasiswa. Penelitian dilakukan kepada 41 mahasiswa penerima beasiswa Beastudi Etos selama bulan November-Desember 2013.Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa beasiswa efektif untuk menjadi program pemberdayaan, karena mampu meningkatkan motivasi d...

A range of proposals aim to reform teacher compensation, recruitment, and retention. Teachers have generally not embraced these policies. One potential explanation for their objections is that teachers are relatively risk averse. We examine this hypothesis using a risk-elicitation task common to experimental economics. By comparing preferences of new teachers with those entering other professions, we find that individuals choosing to teach are significantly more risk averse. This suggests that the teaching profession may attract individuals who are less amenable to certain reforms. Policy-makers should take into account teacher risk characteristics when considering reforms that may clash with preferences.

With an abundance of datasets of standardized test score data, researchers and education policymakers run the risk of focusing exclusively on the measurement of cognitive outcomes in key academic subjects such as math and reading at the expense of important non-cognitive outcomes. We use behavioral measures of conscientiousness, perseverance, and delay of gratification as well as a self-reported measure of student grit – defined as student perseverance and passion for long-term goals – to assess the non-cognitive skills of 174 16- to 18-year-old students attending a residential public high school in Arkansas, United States. Analysis shows that 11th grade students (16- to 17-year-olds) rate themselves lower on self-reported grit but outperform their 12th grade counterparts (17- to 18-year-olds) on behavioral measures of persistence, delay of gratification, and conscientiousness. These findings point to the strengths and limitations of existing tools for measuring non-cognitive skills and the need for more measures to be developed and tested with diverse populations.

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The question of how school choice programs affect the racial stratification of schools is highly salient in the field of education policy. We use a student-level panel data set to analyze the impacts of the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) on racial stratification in public and private schools. This targeted school voucher program provides funding for low-income, mostly minority students in the lowest-graded public schools to enroll in participating private schools. Our analysis indicates that the vast majority (82%) of LSP transfers have reduced racial stratification in the voucher students' former public schools. LSP transfers have marginally increased stratification in the participating private schools, however, where just 45% of transfers reduce racial stratification. In those school districts under federal desegregation orders, voucher transfers result in a large reduction in traditional public schools' racial stratification levels and have no discernible impact on private schools. The results of this analysis provide reliable empirical evidence on whether or not parental choice harms desegregation efforts in Louisiana.