Essays on the economics of education

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three essays in the economics of education. The first chapter uses Boston charter school admissions lotteries to estimate the effects of charter enrollment on special needs students' classification and achievement. Charter schools remove special needs classifications and move special education students into more inclusive classrooms at a rate over two times higher than traditional public schools. Despite this reduction in special needs services, charters increase special needs students' test scores, likelihood of meeting a high school graduation requirement, and likelihood of earning a state merit scholarship. Charters benefit even the most disadvantaged special needs students: those with the lowest test scores and those who receive the most services at the time of lottery. Non-experimental evidence suggests that the classification removal explains at most 26 percent of the achievement gains for special needs students and has no detrimental effect. The results show that special needs students can achieve gains without the traditional set of special needs services in the charter environment. The second chapter, coauthored with Sarah Cohodes and Chris Walters, studies whether schools that boost student outcomes can replicate their success at new campuses. We analyze a policy reform that allowed effective charter schools in Boston to replicate their school models at new locations. Estimates based on randomized admission lotteries show that replicate charter schools generate large achievement gains on par with those produced by their parent campuses. The average effectiveness of Boston's charter middle school sector increased after the reform despite a doubling of charter market share. The third chapter uses experimental evidence in two Boston charter schools to estimate the effect of a math and English Language Arts tablet educational program. I find that the personalized learning technology can substantially increase test scores, narrowing the math black-white achievement gap by up to 22% if implemented well. Correct implementation of technology matters: one study site had low technology usage and had noisy, null results. Students of varying ability experience similar effects suggesting that the targeting of student's learning gaps promotes gains. This paper demonstrates the ability of technology to enhance student learning if students spend enough time with the educational technology. More work is needed to identify optimal amount of time for learning programs and the relative effectiveness of different education technology.