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  4. February 2020
  5. The Long-Run Impacts of Specialized Programming for High-Achieving Students

American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy

ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)

The Long-Run Impacts of Specialized Programming for High-Achieving Students

  • Sarah R. Cohodes
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
vol. 12, no. 1, February 2020
(pp. 127–66)
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Abstract

I evaluate long-run academic impacts of specialized programming for high-achieving students by analyzing Advanced Work Class (AWC), an accelerated curriculum delivered in dedicated classrooms for fourth through sixth graders in Boston Public Schools. Fuzzy regression discontinuity estimates show that AWC has positive yet imprecise impacts on test scores and improves longer-term outcomes, increasing high school graduation and college enrollment. These gains are driven by black and Latino students. An analysis of mechanisms highlights the importance of staying "on track" throughout high school, with little evidence that AWC gains result from peer effects.

Citation

Cohodes, Sarah R. 2020. "The Long-Run Impacts of Specialized Programming for High-Achieving Students." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 12 (1): 127–66. DOI: 10.1257/pol.20180315

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
  • I21 Analysis of Education
  • I28 Education: Government Policy
  • J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
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