Publicizing the results of standardized external tests: does it have an effect on school outcomes?

Anghel, Brindusa; Cabrales, Antonio; Sáinz, Jorge; Sanz, Ismael

doi:10.1186/s40174-014-0029-3

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Anghel et al . () study the effects of conducting and publishing the results of standardized tests in primary schools by exploiting the fact that this policy has only been implemented by one region in Spain (Madrid) since 2005. Therefore, their estimation strategy consists of setting up the treatment group before the treatment (students from Madrid who took the PISA 2000 reading exam and the PISA 2003 mathematics test) and after the treatment (students who took the 2009 PISA reading exam or the 2012 mathematics test), where the control group is composed of students from other Spanish regions where there was no primary school exam before (PISA 2000 or 2003) and after the treatment (PISA 2009 or 2012).…”

Section: Empirical Studies Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal Inference on Education Policies: A Survey of Empirical Studies Using Pisa, Timss and Pirls

Ferrera

Cristóbal

Santín

2017

Journal of Economic Surveys

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The identification of the causal effects of educational policies is the top priority in recent education economics literature. As a result, a shift can be observed in the strategies of empirical studies. They have moved from the use of standard multivariate statistical methods, which identify correlations or associations between variables only, to more complex econometric strategies, which can help to identify causal relationships. However, exogenous variations in databases have to be identified in order to apply causal inference techniques. This is a far from straightforward task. For this reason, this paper provides an extensive and comprehensive overview of the literature using quasiexperimental techniques applied to three well-known international large-scale comparative assessments, such as PISA, PIRLS or TIMSS, over the period 2004-2016. In particular, we review empirical studies employing instrumental variables, regression discontinuity designs, difference in differences and propensity score matching to the above databases. Additionally, we provide a detailed summary of estimation strategies, issues treated and profitability in terms of the quality of publications to encourage further potential evaluations. The paper concludes with some operational recommendations for prospective researchers in the field.

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Section: Empirical Studies Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal Inference on Education Policies: A Survey of Empirical Studies Using Pisa, Timss and Pirls

Ferrera

Cristóbal

Santín

2017

Journal of Economic Surveys

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“…Regarding empirical evaluations in Spain, we find some previous works analysing the causal relationship between different specific education programmes or large public policies and educational outcomes. For example, Anghel et al (2015) find that the publication of the results of standardized external test in the region of Madrid had a significant positive effect in reading by the end of secondary education. Likewise, Anghel et al (2016) evaluated the introduction of bilingual education in a group of public primary schools in the region of Madrid concluding that the programme had a strong negative effect on general knowledge subjects taught in English but not in Mathematics and Reading taught in Spanish.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Show me the money! The impact of a conditional cash transfer on educational achievement

2022

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During the global economic crisis, unemployment rates increased dramatically across Europe, especially among the least educated population groups. The picture in Spain in 2012, with unemployment rates running at over 20% and youth employment close to 45%, was discouraging. In face of this situation, the Spanish autonomous government of Extremadura launched a programme specifically aimed at motivating unemployed individuals without a school degree to return to education and earn the compulsory secondary education diploma. This paper applies a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to evaluate the impact of this conditional cash transfer programme using administrative data. The results show that the programme did not increase the likelihood of earning the lower secondary education diploma. This finding is a caveat emptor for governments considering similar policies, and remarks again the importance of testing innovations before generalization.

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“…This belowaverage achievement provides an opportunity for testing new interventions because a successful intervention, after sufficient instrument development, may be able to be used in this same setting to enhance students' math outcomes before students fall behind on standardized math achievement on international tests. Second, Madrid is the only region in Spain that makes each school's average results on standardized tests available to the public (Anghel et al, 2015); and there is intense governmental and educational interest in boosting math performance in Spain in general and Madrid in particular. Indeed, we received considerable assistance from local policymakers, principals, and teachers in the conduct of this study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Math Is for Me: A Field Intervention to Strengthen Math Self-Concepts in Spanish-Speaking 3rd Grade Children

et al. 2020

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Children’s math self-concepts—their beliefs about themselves and math—are important for teachers, parents, and students, because they are linked to academic motivation, choices, and outcomes. There have been several attempts at improving math achievement based on the training of math skills. Here we took a complementary approach and conducted an intervention study to boost children’s math self-concepts. Our primary objective was to assess the feasibility of whether a novel multicomponent intervention—one that combines explicit and implicit approaches to help children form more positive beliefs linking themselves and math—can be administered in an authentic school setting. The intervention was conducted in Spain, a country in which math achievement is below the average of other OECD countries. We tested third grade students (N = 180; Mage = 8.79 years; 96 girls), using treatment and comparison groups and pre- and posttest assessments. A novelty of this study is that we used both implicit and explicit measures of children’s math self-concepts. For a subsample of students, we also obtained an assessment of year-end math achievement. Math self-concepts in the treatment and comparison groups did not significantly differ at pretest. Students in the treatment group demonstrated a significant increase in math self-concepts from pretest to posttest; students in the comparison group did not. In the treatment group, implicit math self-concepts at posttest were associated with higher year-end math achievement, assessed approximately 3 months after the completion of the intervention. Taken together, the results suggest that math self-concepts are malleable and that social–cognitive interventions can boost children’s beliefs about themselves and math. Based on the favorable results of this feasibility study, it is appropriate to formally test this novel multicomponent approach for improving math self-concepts using randomized controlled trial (RCT) design.

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Publicizing the results of standardized external tests: does it have an effect on school outcomes?

Cited by 7 publications

References 10 publications

Causal Inference on Education Policies: A Survey of Empirical Studies Using Pisa, Timss and Pirls

Causal Inference on Education Policies: A Survey of Empirical Studies Using Pisa, Timss and Pirls

Show me the money! The impact of a conditional cash transfer on educational achievement

Math Is for Me: A Field Intervention to Strengthen Math Self-Concepts in Spanish-Speaking 3rd Grade Children

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