TY - JOUR
T1 - State Exit Exams and Graduation Rates: A Hierarchical SLX Modelling Approach
T2 - A hierarchical slx modelling approach
AU - Lacombe, Donald
AU - Hall, Joshua
AU - Pokharel, ShreeBaba
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Southern Regional Science Association 2020.
PY - 2020/4
Y1 - 2020/4
N2 - The literature on high school exit exams has found both positive and negative effects of these high stake exams on high school graduation rates. To this point, the literature has not taken into account the embedded nature of school districts within state education systems. We employ a Bayesian Hierarchical SLX model to account for the hierarchical nature of education data in the United States. Our approach also allows us to account for spatial spillovers that influence graduation rates across districts and states. Using school district and state-level data for 45 states and 8194 school districts in the U.S. in 2015, we generally find no statistically significant effect of state exit exams on high school graduation rates. Random effect coefficients, however, point towards high school exit exams being negatively associated with graduation rates in a handful of states.
AB - The literature on high school exit exams has found both positive and negative effects of these high stake exams on high school graduation rates. To this point, the literature has not taken into account the embedded nature of school districts within state education systems. We employ a Bayesian Hierarchical SLX model to account for the hierarchical nature of education data in the United States. Our approach also allows us to account for spatial spillovers that influence graduation rates across districts and states. Using school district and state-level data for 45 states and 8194 school districts in the U.S. in 2015, we generally find no statistically significant effect of state exit exams on high school graduation rates. Random effect coefficients, however, point towards high school exit exams being negatively associated with graduation rates in a handful of states.
KW - Bayesian statistics
KW - Hierarchical modelling
KW - Spatial dependence
KW - State exit exams
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089376418&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
SN - 0048-749X
VL - 50
SP - 189
EP - 206
JO - Review of Regional Studies
JF - Review of Regional Studies
IS - 2
ER -