Is Gifted Education a Bright Idea? Assessing the Impact of Gifted and Talented Programs on Achievement / Sa A. Bui, Steven G. Craig, Scott A. Imberman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bui, Sa A.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Craig, Steven G.

Imberman, Scott A.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w17089.

NBER working paper series no. w17089

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2011.

Summary:

In this paper we determine how the receipt of gifted and talented (GT) services affects student outcomes. We identify the causal relationship by exploiting a discontinuity in eligibility requirements and find that for students on the margin there is no discernable impact on achievement even though peers improve substantially. We then use randomized lotteries to examine the impact of attending a GT magnet program relative to GT programs in other schools and find that, despite being exposed to higher quality teachers and peers that are one standard deviation higher achieving, only science achievement improves. We argue that these results are consistent with an invidious comparison model of peer effects offsetting other benefits. Evidence of large reductions in course grades and rank relative to peers in both regression discontinuity and lottery models are consistent with this explanation.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2011.