Peer effects in private and public schools across countries

Abstract

Many argue that the composition of a school or classroom‐that is, the characteristics of the students themselves‐affect the educational attainment of an individual student. This influence of the students in a classroom is often referred to as a peer effect. There have been few systematic studies that empirically examine the peer effect in the educational process. In this research, we examine the peer effect with a unique data set that includes individual student achievement scores and comprehensive characteristics of the students' families, teachers, other school characteristics, and peers for five countries. The data allow an examination of peer effects in both private and public schools in all countries. Our analysis indicates that peer effects are a significant determinant of educational achievement; the effects of peers appear to be greater for low‐ability students than for high‐ability students. The finding is robust across countries but not robust across school type. © 2000 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

The role of real‐life mathematics instruction on mathematics outcomes in kindergarten

“…Controlling for other factors, boys tend to have higher spring mathematics achievement scores than do girls in the sample, and the results are differentiated by minority status with White students performing higher than Black or Hispanic kindergarteners—this provides motivation to examine research question 2 in the results to follow. The classroom compositional effects are consistent with prior research, suggest that more boys in this classroom is related to lower achievement (Gottfried, ), that having classmates with disabilities reduces achievement (Fletcher, ), and that having lower ability classmates reduces individual outcomes (Zimmer & Toma, ). Generally speaking, teacher characteristics are generally not statistically significant in any model (baseline or fixed effects), which would be supported by much of the empirical research (e.g.…”

Schooling effects on degree performance: A comparison of the predictive validity of aptitude testing and secondary school grades at Oxford University

“…Sociological research in the UK and elsewhere, however, has tended play down the importance of teaching or school type effects, from the landmark Coleman Report onwards (Coleman et al , 1966; Jencks et al , 1972; Halsey et al , 1980), suggesting that quality of teaching or school resources makes little difference to the grades of students. Moreover, where they are found, such effects are generally attributed to peer effects—the ability mix of the children in a school—rather than the influence of teaching per se (Zimmer & Toma, 2000; Sullivan & Heath, forthcoming). Recent sociological research making use of cohort studies in Britain has, however, begun to identify the presence of teaching effects (Blundell et al , 1997; Sullivan & Heath, 2003, forthcoming).…”

Equality and quality in education. A comparative study of 19 countries

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