ABSTRACT

Exploiting quasi-experimental variation in levels of capital funding, we provide new evidence on the asymmetric effects of investments in educational facilities on academic achievement. We merge data from 4 million 3rd–8th graders in Texas with school bond outcomes and school openings. We find meaningful differences in the impact across the top and bottom quintiles of the pre-treatment achievement distribution, a result supported by the peer effects literature and a “reshuffling” of higher performing students into new schools. The mean impact of bond passage on reading and math scores is positive—at roughly 1/10th of a standard deviation. However, the effect on the lowest scoring students is four times as large, while the effect reverses in direction for the highest performing students.

摘要

利用资本资助水平的准实验变化，我们提供了关于教育设施投资对学业成就的不对称影响的新证据。我们将德克萨斯州 400 万三至八年级学生的数据与学校债券结果和学校开学情况合并起来。我们发现治疗前成绩分布的顶部和底部五分位数的影响存在有意义的差异，这一结果得到了同伴效应文献的支持，以及表现较好的学生进入新学校的“重新洗牌”。债券传递对阅读和数学成绩的平均影响是积极的——大约是标准差的 1/10。然而，对得分最低的学生的影响是其四倍，而对表现最高的学生的影响则相反。