A value‐added estimate of higher education quality of US states

Abstract

States differ substantially in higher education policies. Little is known about the effects of state policies on the performance of public colleges and universities, largely because no clear measures of college quality exist. In this paper, I estimate the average quality of public colleges of US states based on the value-added to individuals' early career earnings. I explicitly deal with the problem of self-selection in both where to go to college and where to work. I find considerable variation in the quality of states' public college systems. Using this quality measure, I then explore how various aspects of state higher education policy are associated with college outcomes. I find that states with better faculty quality and with more diversity among public colleges tend to have higher value-added to student earnings.

O valor adicionado dos cursos de ciências contábeis: um estudo na região Sudeste do Brasil

“…Governos, administradores e formuladores de políticas públicas têm sido grandes adeptos e usuários dessa ferramenta (Taylor & Nguyen, 2006, Meyer & Dokumaci, 2009). Em forma de feedback, as informações são utilizadas para apresentação ao público e transparência do investimento público no ensino (Zhang, 2009). Além de servirem de base para intervenção no processo de ensino para melhorar a eficiência institucional, com financiamento público, fixação de metas e recompensas e aplicações de penalidades (Cunha & Miller, 2014).…”

“…A necessidade crescente e iminente de se conhecer a qualidade do ensino que tem sido ofertado e que tipo de profissional tem sido formado é preocupação também de outros países (Zhang, 2009;Yunker, 2005;Saavedra & Saavedra, 2011;Byrne & Flood, 2008).…”

A Value-Added Model To Measure Higher Education Returns On Government Investment

“…This paper presents an alternative to self-developed outcomes by proposing colleges measure their value by using a financial type return on investment model. Current models' frames of reference are from the individual student perspective (Zhang, 2009). The proposed model's frame of reference is based on the perspective of the government getting a return on its aggregated educational investment in higher education.…”

Assessing Quality in Higher Education: Some Caveats

“…Consequently, referring in abstract to the 'quality of universities' without considering the quality of their students is methodologically inappropriate [Zhang, 2009], especially in the presence of high variability in the quality of secondary schools and the limited mobility of students. National and international surveys on the quality of primary-level learning (PISA, INVALSI] not only confirm the important role played by the socio-economic context but also depict a highly diversified pattern in Italy -both geographically and by type of school [Montanaro 2008].…”

“…There is a large body of literature, mainly of English-speaking origin, testifying to the importance given to the measurement of value added in countries where the assessment of education processes and its use in the allocation of resources is most advanced [Todd & Wolpin 2003, Lochwood et al 2009, Zhang, 2009Rothestein, 2009 and2010]. With regard to tertiary education in particular, Kreutzer and Wood [2007] from -10% to +40%.…”