Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/17821 
Year of Publication: 
2003
Series/Report no.: 
Kiel Working Paper No. 1145
Publisher: 
Kiel Institute for World Economics (IfW), Kiel
Abstract: 
We examine whether the sorting of differently achieving students into differently sized classes results in a regressive or compensatory pattern of class sizes for a sample of national school systems. Sorting effects are identified by subtracting the causal effect of class size on performance from their total correlation. Our empirical results indicate substantial compensatory sorting within and especially between schools in many countries. Only the United States, a country with decentralized education finance and considerable residential mobility, exhibits regressive between-school sorting. Between-school sorting is more compensatory in systems with ability tracking. Within-school sorting is more compensatory when administrators rather than teachers assign students to classrooms.
Subjects: 
Student sorting
class size
educational achievement
JEL: 
H52
I28
D73
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
233.76 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.