Should schools be smaller? The size-performance relationship for Welsh schools

Foreman‐Peck, James; Foreman‐Peck, Lorraine

doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2005.01.004

Cited by 27 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In alternative estimations not shown here, we have estimated the models included in Table 5 Thus, based on the results in Table 5 we cannot document that larger schools in Denmark are harmful to student long-term outcomes. 13 If anything, the tendency is the opposite, i.e. students in larger schools tend to have more success in the educational system 6 years after attending grade 9 and in the labor market at the age of 30.…”

Section: Robustness Of Estimatorsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Long-term effects of school size on students’ outcomes

Humlum

Smith

2015

Economics of Education Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We estimate the e¤ect of school size on students'long-term outcomes such as high school completion, being out of the labor market, and earnings at the age of 30. We use rich register data on the entire population of Danish children attending grade 9 in the period 1986-2004. This allows us to compare the results of di¤erent …xed e¤ect and instrumental variables estimators. We use the natural population variation in the residential catchment areas and school openings and closures to instrument for actual school size. We …nd a robust positive but numerically fairly small relationship between school size and alternative measures of long-term success in the educational system and the labor market. The positive impact of school size seems mainly to be driven by boys and students from families with a low educational level.JEL classi…cation: I21; I28; J24

show abstract

Section: Robustness Of Estimatorsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Long-term effects of school size on students’ outcomes

Humlum

Smith

2015

Economics of Education Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Table 2.14 shows the summary of the vote counts for studies in which attendance or truancy were the dependent variable. One study (Durán-Narucki, 2008) (less attendance or absenteeism in larger schools) (Eccles et al, 1991;Foreman-Peck & Foreman-Peck, 2006;Gardner et al, 2000;Haller, 1992;Heck, 1993;Jones et al, 2008). Mixed effects were reported in three studies , Kuziemko, 2006Lee et al, 2011) and non-significant relationships in two studies as well (Bos et al, 1990;Chen & Weikart, 2008).…”

Section: Student Absence and Dropoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…achievement went up as school size increased) were conducted in secondary education (Bradley & Taylor, 1998;Foreman-Peck & Foreman-Peck, 2006;Lubienski, Lubienski & Crane, 2008;Sun, Bradley & Akers, 2012). The only study conducted in primary education that indicated a positive effect as well was the study by Borland & Howsen (2003).…”

Section: School Size Measured As a Continuous Variablementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Almost all studies (and samples) were conducted in secondary schools, with one study reporting evidence from primary schools (Durán-Narucki, 2008) and two studies employed in samples of both primary and secondary students (Eccles et al, 1991;Heck, 1993). With the exception of the study by Bos, Ruijters & Visscher (1990), conducted in the Netherlands and the study by Foreman-Peck and Foreman-Peck (2006) conducted in Wales (United Kingdom), all studies were conducted in the United States. Two studies (Gardner et al, 2000; investigated the effect of size on both absenteeism and dropout.…”

Section: Student Absence and Dropoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Curvilinear Relationships (School Size as a Quadratic Function) Besides Borland & Howsen, seven samples (3 studies) reported non-linear relationships as well (Bradley & Taylor, 1998;Foreman-Peck & Foreman-Peck, 2006;Sawkins, 2002). These studies are all conducted in secondary education in the United Kingdom, and all focused on the upper end of the exam results distribution.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The influence of school size, leadership, evaluation, and time on student outcomes

Hendriks¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Estimating scale economies and the optimal size of school districts: A flexible form approach

Schiltz

Witte

2017

British Educational Res J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper investigates estimation methods to model the relationship between school district size, costs per student and the organisation of school districts. We show that the assumptions on the functional form strongly affect the estimated scale economies and offer two possible solutions to allow for more flexibility in the estimation method. First, we introduce a model by adding higher‐degree district size polynomials, allowing for multiple optima. Second, we develop a Fourier cost function, innovative in the literature on scale economies in education. We then compare both models to classical approaches in the literature. We illustrate how a minor change in the estimation method can alter policy conclusions significantly using Flemish school district data. In doing so, we find sizeable potential cost savings from the consolidation of school districts, especially at the lower tail of the district–size distribution. The organisational transition from small to large school districts is characterised by an interval between two optima. Beyond an apparent slowdown in cost savings in medium‐sized school districts, cost savings from school district consolidation increase again, up to the optimal size of around 6,500 students. Beyond this optimum, school districts incur diseconomies of scale. The commonly used quadratic form (‘U’‐shaped cost function) overestimates scale economies, and fails to identify the interval between both optima.

show abstract

Should schools be smaller? The size-performance relationship for Welsh schools

Cited by 27 publications

References 13 publications

Long-term effects of school size on students’ outcomes

Long-term effects of school size on students’ outcomes

The influence of school size, leadership, evaluation, and time on student outcomes

Estimating scale economies and the optimal size of school districts: A flexible form approach

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About