Educational Achievement and School Peer Group Composition

Having the wrong friends? Peer effects in adolescent substance use

“…While there exist quite a substantial number of empirical studies in the economic literature considering peer effects in educational attainment (Winkler, 1975;Aaronson, 1998;Betts and Morell, 1999;Ginther et al, 2000;Hoxby, 2000;Rivkin, 2001;Sacerdote, 2001;Angrist and Lang, 2002;Vanderberghe, 2002;Winston and Zimmerman, 2003;Vigdor and Nechyba, 2004), few studies to date have explicitly considered estimation of peer effects in adolescent substance use. However, during the past decade or so, a number of empirical studies have appeared in the literature.…”

Black pioneers—do their moves to the suburbs increase economic opportunity for mothers and children?

“…15 Moreover, studies find that school desegregation does not always have positive effects on black student achievement 16 and that occasionally it has negative effects. 17 Although culture-of-poverty explanations have been used to explain the limited success of job training and educational programs for low-income adults and children, the modest success of these programs may come from the fact that they generally take place in the low-income environments that depress motivation and opportunities. Programs that last 8 hours a day may have difficulty overcoming the effects of the other 16 hours each day that people spend in housing projects.…”

Peer effects on student achievement: evidence from Chile

“…Bryk and Driscoll (1988) find a rather strong effect of mean SES on achievement that is counter-balanced by a negative effect of increasing mean achievement. Finally, Winkler (1975) finds that the percentage of low-SES students tends to lower white achievement, but not that of black students. There is only limited evidence on the effects of school-wide SES and achievement on attainment.…”