Class Composition and Student Achievement: Evidence from Portugal

Abstract

We analyze the effects of several class compositional dimensions on individual student achievement. We make use of a rich dataset that allows tackling major endogeneity concerns stemming from non-random allocation of students between and within schools. We find that increasing the percentage of high achievers in a 6 th grade class has a negative effect on student performance, while in a 9 th grade class the effect is in general non-significant. Students with no past retentions do better with an increasing proportion of this same type of classmate. Larger shares of low-income classmates hurt performance in general. Apart from the past retention dimension in which there is evidence supporting students' tracking, along all other compositional dimensions each class should reflect the respective school-grade population heterogeneity. Class composition rearrangements are estimated to provide a larger increment to performance than comparable reductions of class size.

Student Segregation Across and Within Schools - The Case of the Portuguese Public School System

“…Looking at the Portuguese case, Firmino, Nunes, Reis, & Seabra (2018), find preliminary evidence that for Portuguese students (grades 5 through 9), too, there seem to exist important classroom peer effects, namely a negative impact from sharing the classroom with low-income students. In line with this, Seabra, Carvalho, & Ávila (2019) also document a negative effect from exposure to larger concentrations of low SES students in Portugal (4 th graders), at the school-grade level, especially for African descendent students.…”

Relation entre la composition de la classe, le rendement scolaire et le concept de soi chez les élèves de quatrième année primaire.

“…À la suite du rapport Coleman (Coleman et al, 1966), plusieurs travaux ont étudié les effets de composition en privilégiant le niveau intellectuel, le statut socio-économique, l’appartenance ethnique et le genre (Boonen et al, 2014; Firmino et al, 2018). La plupart des études qui ont analysé la relation entre la composition intellectuelle et le rendement scolaire ont débouché sur un résultat positif.…”