CInSt Research Seminar "Leave them kids alone! The positive effect of abolishing grade retention on pupils’ dropout rates: Evidence from a policy change": Francisco Cabrera (HSE University)
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Francisco Cabrera will present his research "Leave them kids alone! The positive effect of abolishing grade retention on pupils’ dropout rates: Evidence from a policy change" on CInSt research seminar on December 12th.
Abstract
Repeating a grade during the first years of education may reduce children’s and parent’s motiva- tion, increase family and school costs and pupil’s dropout likelihood. While most of the research con- clude no gains from grade retention the debate is still open, moreover in mid-income countries where the evidence is scarce. This paper evaluates the impacts of an exogenous policy change in Mexico which eliminates retention in-grade for all first to third grade students. This reform helped schools to reduce repetition rates from varying higher levels to almost zero in one academic year. We use a panel of schools to exploit such variation in a short-span of time. Estimations coming from two-way fixed effects models show an average reduction in dropout rates after reform implementation, specifically in richer schools and for children with pre-school education. Further findings suggest that eliminating the ”threat” of grade repetition did not affect pupil’s performance in standardized tests. The results are robust to different specifications, a secondary methodology and falsification tests.
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Date: December 12th, 2019, 18:10-19:30.
Location: K416, 11 Pokrovsky Boulevard, Moscow.
Working language: English.
All welcome. If you don't have an HSE ID, please register before 2:00 PM on December 12th: cinst.hse.ru/register.
Date
12 December
18:10
Address
K416, 11 Pokrovsky Boulevard, Moscow.