Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/55052
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5922
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper exploits discontinuous grade mixing rules in Norwegian junior high schools to estimate how classroom grade composition affects pupil achievement. Pupils in mixed grade classrooms are found to outperform pupils in single grade classrooms on high stake central exit tests and teacher set and graded tests. This effect is driven by pupils benefiting from sharing the classroom with more mature peers from higher grades. The presence of lower grade peers is detrimental for achievement. Pupils can therefore benefit from de-tracking by grade, but the effects depend crucially on how the classroom is balanced in terms of lower and higher grades. These results reconcile the contradictory findings in the literature.
Subjects: 
educational production
combination classes
class size
peer effects
JEL: 
I2
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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