Using Admission Lotteries to Estimate Heterogeneous Effects of Elite Schools

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of enrollment in an elite school on students' achievement. We use that elite schools in Amsterdam are often oversubscribed and admission is based on lotteries. Our results show that elite schools have negative effects on achievement of students who just qualify for the highest academic track and positive effects on achievement of students from the top of the baseline ability distribution. These results reconcile contrasting findings from previous studies that use regression discontinuity designs. We also find that value-added estimates of the effects of elite schools are severely biased. JEL-codes: I21, I24, C26.

Sorting or mixing? Multi‐track and single‐track schools and social inequalities in a differentiated educational system

“…Even for students who enter secondary education with a recommendation for the pre-university track, and with similar standardised test scores, those who go to single-track elite pre-university schools are likely to finish the pre-university diploma on time. This result contradicts a study on elite single-track school enrolment in Amsterdam, where negative effects were found for students in the lower part of the ability distribution, and positive effects for students in the upper part of the ability distribution (within the target group of high achievers) (Oosterbeek et al, 2020). That study used lotteries for oversubscribed elite single-track schools in Amsterdam, while the current study identifies the causal effect for students in the whole country of enrolling in a school type (partly) because of geographical proximity.…”

“…It was found that mixed-ability schools particularly benefitted high-ability children and children from more advantaged backgrounds (van Elk et al, 2011). A recent study found, furthermore, that enrolment into elite schools in Amsterdam decreased academic performance for students at the lower end of the ability distribution, while girls at the higher end of the distribution benefitted from it (Oosterbeek et al, 2020).…”

Tracking and specialization of high schools: Heterogeneous effects of school choice

“…First, we contribute to the literature on elite schools. Similar to our study, Clark and Del Bono (2016), Dustmann et al (2017), Guyon et al (2012) and Oosterbeek et al (2020) analyze the effects of attending a school that specializes in academic programs. Pop‐Eleches and Urquiola (2013) and Abdulkadiroğlu et al (2014) also study the effects of elite schools but define them by the quality of peers.…”

“…Oosterbeek et al (2020) study observed heterogeneity in the treatment effect based on test scores before…”

“…Although there are almost no admission standards for higher education in Flanders, the tracks students follow in high school are important predictors of success at these institutions(Declercq and Verboven, 2015).3 Some other countries also have multi-track schools. See for example the "kooperative Gesamtschulen"in Germany(Mühlenweg and Puhani, 2010), or comprehensive schools in the Netherlands(Oosterbeek et al, 2020).…”