Dear all,
Please join us for the Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009) this
Wednesday, March 7 from 12.00 - 1.30 pm in CGIS Knafel Room 354. Joshua
Goodman <http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/jgoodma1/>, Assistant Professor of
Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, will give a presentation
entitled "Flaking Out: Snowfall, Disruptions of Instructional Time, and
Student Achievement". As always, a light lunch will be provided.
Abstract:
Recent research on charter schools, summer learning
loss, and
international achievement suggests that instructional time is a critical
input to the education production function. Using student and school-grade
fixed effects models with data from Massachusetts, I find no relation
between school closures and achievement but a strong relation between
student absences and achievement. I then confirm these results using
temporal and spatial variation in snowfall to provide better
identification. Extreme snowfall induces school closures but does not
affect achievement. Moderate snowfall induces student absences and does
reduce achievement. Instrumental variables estimates suggest that each
absence induced by bad weather reduces math achievement by 0.05 standard
deviations. These results are consistent with a model of instruction in
which coordination of students is the central challenge. Teachers deal well
with coordinated disruptions of instructional time like school closures,
but deal poorly with absences that affect different students and different
times. These estimates suggest that absences are responsible for up to 20%
of the achievement gap between poor and nonpoor students. They also suggest
that policies designed solely to increase instructional time may not be
effective.
An up-to-date schedule for the workshop is available at
http://www.iq.harvard.edu/events/node/1208.
Best,
Konstantin
--
Konstantin Kashin
Ph.D. Student in Government
Harvard University
Mobile: 978-844-0538
E-mail: kkashin(a)fas.harvard.edu
Site:
http://www.konstantinkashin.com/<http://people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ekkashi…