Academic Peer Effects with Different Group Assignment Policies : Residential Tracking versus Random Assignment

This paper studies the relative academic performance of students tracked or randomly assigned to South African university dormitories. Tracked or streamed assignment creates dormitories where all students obtained similar scores on high school graduation examinations. Random assignment creates dormitories that are approximately representative of the population of students. Tracking lowers students' mean grades in their first year of university and increases the variance or inequality of grades. This result is driven by a large negative effect of tracking on low-scoring students' grades and a near-zero effect on high-scoring students' grades. Low-scoring students are more sensitive to changes in their peer group composition and their grades suffer if they live only with low-scoring peers. In this setting, residential tracking has undesirable efficiency (lower mean) and equity (higher variance) effects. The result isolates a pure peer effect of tracking, whereas classroom tracking studies identify a combination of peer effects and differences in teacher behavior across tracked and untracked classrooms. The negative pure peer effect of residential tracking suggests that classroom tracking may also have negative effects unless teachers are more effective in homogeneous classrooms. Random variation in peer group composition under random dormitory assignment also generates peer effects. Living with higher-scoring peers increases students' grades and the effect is larger for low-scoring students. This is consistent with the aggregate effects of tracking relative to random assignment. However, using peer effects estimated in randomly assigned groups to predict outcomes in tracked groups yields unreliable predictions. This illustrates a more general risk that peer effects estimated under one peer group assignment policy provide limited information about how peer effects might work with a different peer group assignment policy.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Garlick, Robert
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2014-02
Subjects:	ACADEMIC OUTCOMES, ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE, ACADEMIC YEAR, ADJUSTMENT, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, ATTENTION, AVERAGE SCORE, AVERAGE TEST SCORES, AVERAGE TREATMENT EFFECT, BLACK STUDENTS, BOARDING, BOARDING SCHOOLS, BUSINESS SCHOOL, CLASS SIZE, CLASSROOM, CLASSROOMS, COLLEGE ADMISSIONS, COMPETENCE, COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION, CONDITIONING, DATA ON STUDENTS, DEMONSTRATION, DISSERTATION, ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION, EDUCATION OUTCOMES, EDUCATION SYSTEMS, EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT, ENROLLMENT, ENTRANCE EXAMINATION, EXAM, FACULTIES, FINAL EXAM, FINAL EXAMS, FIRST GRADE, FUTURE RESEARCH, GENDER, GRADING, GRADUATE STUDIES, GRADUATION RATES, HEALTH SCIENCES, HIGH SCHOOL, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, HIGH SCHOOLS, HIGHER EDUCATION, HOME LANGUAGE, HOMEWORK, HUMAN CAPITAL, HUMAN CAPITAL INVESTMENT, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, INCOMING STUDENTS, INFERENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INSTRUCTION, INSTRUCTORS, INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS, INTERVENTIONS, LEARNING, LITERATURE, LOW-INCOME STUDENTS, MATHEMATICS, MOTIVATION, OPEN ACCESS, PAPERS, PEER GROUP, PEER GROUPS, PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS, PRIMARY SCHOOL, PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, PROFICIENCY, RESEARCH UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL LOCATION, SCHOOL MANAGEMENT, SCHOOLS, SCIENCE CLASSES, SHOW HOW, SOCIAL GROUPS, SOCIAL SCIENCES, STREAMING, STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, STUDENT BODY, STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS, STUDENT DATA, STUDENT HOUSING, STUDENT OUTCOMES, STUDENT PERFORMANCE, STUDENT POPULATION, STUDENT SELECTION, STUDENT WELFARE, STUDY SKILLS, SUBJECTS, TEACHER, TEACHER BEHAVIOR, TEACHERS, TEST SCORES, TUITION, TYPES OF STUDENTS, UNIVERSITIES, UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS, UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, VOUCHERS,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/02/19135855/academic-peer-effects-different-group-assignment-policies-residential-tracking-versus-random-sssignment https://hdl.handle.net/10986/17331
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