ABSTRACT

While tracking is ubiquitous and well-documented in secondary education, limited evidence exists regarding cross-classroom clustering in American elementary schools. In this paper, we investigate the distribution of students across classrooms in North Carolina elementary schools. Consistent with qualitative evidence suggesting that educators seek to create demographically balanced classrooms, we find that students are distributed quite evenly across their schools’ classrooms based on race, ethnicity, and family economic background. However, we find that some schools create classrooms in which students are clustered based on their prior achievement as well as their eligibility for gifted education or special education services. This clustering is most prominent in large schools, schools with highly experienced teachers, and schools in which parents have a high degree of influence. This skills-based classroom clustering is associated within equalities in student access to high-quality teaching.

Emily Rauscher, Professor of Sociology at Brown University
Title: Priceless Benefits: Effects of School Spending onChild Mortality

Abstract:

The benefits of school spending go beyond academic and economic outcomes to improve child health and well-being. We use close school district tax elections (1995-2018), National Vital Statistics mortality data, and a regression discontinuity approach to estimate effects of a quasi-random increase in school spending on county-level child mortality. We find that increased school spending from passing a tax election reduces child mortality. Districts that narrowly passed a proposed tax increase spent an additional $262 per pupil, mostly on instruction and salaries, and had 4% lower child mortality after spending increased, equivalent to -3.6 fewer child deaths per 100,000 children for each $1,000 increase in spending per pupil. We replicate our study using progressive school finance reforms and county-level difference-in-differences analyses and find consistent results. Estimates predicting potential mechanisms suggest that lower child mortality partly reflects increases in the number of teachers and counselors, higher teacher salaries, and improved student engagement.