IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v3y1968i1p3-24.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Determinants of Scholastic Achievement-An Appraisal of Some Recent Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Bowles
  • Henry M. Levin

Abstract

This study assesses some of the more highly publicized and controversial conclusions of Equality of Educational Opportunity by James S. Coleman et al. The Coleman Report, published by the U.S. Office of Education in 1966, concluded that per-pupil expenditures and school facilities show very little relation to student achievement levels, and the effect of a student's peers on his achievement level is more important than any other school influence. The present paper scrutinizes the data and the statistical analysis on which these findings are based. It is suggested that because of poor measurement of school resources, inadequate control for social background, and inappropriate statistical techniques used in the presence of interdependence among the independent variables, many of the findings of the Report are not supported.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Bowles & Henry M. Levin, 1968. "The Determinants of Scholastic Achievement-An Appraisal of Some Recent Evidence," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 3(1), pages 3-24.
  • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:3:y:1968:i:1:p:3-24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/144645
    Download Restriction: A subscripton is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Trillo & Nuria Alonso, 2010. "¿Rankings educativos: indicadores de resultados o de diferencias socioeconómicas?," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 5, in: María Jesús Mancebón-Torrubia & Domingo P. Ximénez-de-Embún & José María Gómez-Sancho & Gregorio Gim (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 5, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 52, pages 1033-1042, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    2. Drummond, H. Evan, 1973. "Discussion: The Distribution Of The Costs And Benefits Of Public Schooling," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 5(1), pages 1-3, July.
    3. Eric A. Hanushek & Babs Jacobs & Guido Schwerdt & Rolf van der Velden & Stan Vermeulen & Simon Wiederhold, 2021. "Where Do STEM Graduates Stem From? The Intergenerational Transmission of Comparative Skill Advantages," CESifo Working Paper Series 9388, CESifo.
    4. Eric A. Hanushek & Babs Jacobs & Guido Schwerdt & Rolf van der Velden & Stan Vermeulen & Simon Wiederhold, 2021. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Cognitive Skills: An Investigation of the Causal Impact of Families on Student Outcomes," NBER Working Papers 29450, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Akerhielm, Karen, 1995. "Does class size matter?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 229-241, September.
    6. Ehrenberg, Ronald G. & Brewer, Dominic J., 1995. "Did teachers' verbal ability and race matter in the 1960s? Coleman revisited," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 1-21, March.
    7. Belfield, Clive, 2010. "Festschrift in Honor of Henry M. Levin," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 169-170, April.
    8. Rumberger, Russell W., 2010. "Education and the reproduction of economic inequality in the United States: An empirical investigation," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 246-254, April.
    9. Eric A. Hanushek & Steven G. Rivkin, 2009. "Harming the best: How schools affect the black-white achievement gap," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 366-393.
    10. Konstantopoulos, Spyros, 2007. "Do Small Classes Reduce the Achievement Gap between Low and High Achievers? Evidence from Project STAR," IZA Discussion Papers 2904, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Ronald Ehrenberg & Dominic Brewer, 1993. "Did Teachers' Race and Verbal Ability Matter in the 1960's? Coleman Revisited," NBER Working Papers 4293, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Peter H. Rossi & Sonia R. Wright, 1977. "Evaluation Research," Evaluation Review, , vol. 1(1), pages 5-52, February.
    13. Frederick D. Sebold & William Dato, 1981. "School Funding and Student Achievement: an Empirical Analysis," Public Finance Review, , vol. 9(1), pages 91-105, January.
    14. Dean T. Jamison & J. Dexter Fletcher & Patrick Suppes, 1976. "Cost and Performance of Computer-Assisted Instruction for Education of Disadvantaged Children," NBER Chapters, in: Education as an Industry, pages 199-248, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Maria De Paola & Michela Ponzo & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2013. "Class size effects on student achievement: heterogeneity across abilities and fields," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 135-153, March.
    16. Nonoyama-Tarumi, Yuko & Willms, J. Douglas, 2010. "The relative and absolute risks of disadvantaged family background and low levels of school resources on student literacy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 214-224, April.
    17. West, Jerry G. & Osburn, Donald D., 1972. "Quality Of Schooling In Rural Areas," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 4(1), pages 1-3, July.
    18. Steven Miller, 1976. "Societal inequality and social mobility: A simple multivariate analysis of Boudon's model," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, March.
    19. Debertin, David L., 1976. "Estimating Education Production Functions in Rural and Urban Areas," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 31-35, December.
    20. Zambrano Jurado Juan Carlos, 2016. "Un estudio multinivel del rendimiento escolar en matemáticas para tercer grado de educación básica primaria en América Latina," Revista Sociedad y Economía, Universidad del Valle, CIDSE, vol. 0(30), pages 11-404, January.
    21. Eric A. Hanushek, "undated". "The Evidence on Class Size," Wallis Working Papers WP10, University of Rochester - Wallis Institute of Political Economy.
    22. Varughese, Aswathy Rachel & Bairagya, Indrajit, 2021. "Interstate variation in household spending on education in India: Does it influence educational status?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 405-415.
    23. D. Byrne, 1975. "Rejoinder to Dougal Hutchison's “Areas of difference: A critique of the work of Byrne and Williamson on regional inequalities in educational attainment”," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 185-189, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:3:y:1968:i:1:p:3-24. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.