School Resources and Subgroup Performance Gains: What Works for Whom?

Using a fixed effects model, a balanced panel data set of 6,922 schools in California from 2004 to 2011 was analyzed to see whether changes in resources would affect subgroup performance at intraschool level. Seven school resources variables previously demonstrated influential to school or subgroup achievement at interschool level were tested for their effects on Academic Performance Index (API) gains of eight subgroups. Teachers’ in-district experience had the strongest positive impacts on API gains for all subgroups, ranging from 3.367 to 8.958 points, and teachers’ total experience had the largest negative impacts on subgroup API, varying between −1.120 and −5.495 points. Increases in teachers’ in-district experience, shares of highly educated and full-time equivalent teachers all offered promising outcomes for improving APIs of disadvantaged subgroups.

A hierarchical estimation of school quality capitalisation in house prices in Orange County, California

Bidding for proximity to a good school can lead to a pattern of spatial distribution in which households with similar socio-economic status and willingness-to-pay for school quality cluster together. In this paper, we adopt a three-level hierarchical framework using residential house prices in Orange County, California, in 2001 and 2011, to estimate how much homebuyers pay for school quality. Our data show that, during this period, the Academic Performance Index (API) scores of elementary schools in Orange County increased by 16.4% yet converged while the house prices rose by 50.3%. The variation in house prices attributed to school district boundaries was at the same level in both years, but the variation in the API scores shrank. Using a hierarchical random effects model, our estimation results show that, on average, a 10% increase in the API raised the house prices by 1.9% in 2001 and by 3.4% in 2011. Ten years apart, a one standard deviation increase in school quality in the sample increased house prices by a surprisingly similar percentage: 2.7% in 2001, and 2.6% in 2011, respectively. Our findings also reveal that, in both years, there was a significant spatial heterogeneity of school premiums in house prices across school districts. This research provides a spatial understanding of the education capitalisation effects and sheds light on the effectiveness of urban education policy.

Abstract P102: Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables is Inversely Associated with Academic Performance Index Scores at a Large Urban School District

More than 26% and 22% of 5 th and 7 th graders, respectively, in Los Angeles County are obese. Recent efforts to address this public health problem have focused on system-level changes in the food environment, especially in school settings. Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the second largest district in the nation, serves well over 650,000 meals a day, 80% of which go to students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches (FRPL). Because the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) meals are often the primary source of nutrition for students from low-income families, this setting represents a natural opportunity to examine the effects of offering more healthful foods on student health and academic achievements. Effective in the 2011-12 school year, new standards for the NSLP included increased offerings of fruits and vegetables. Food production records from LAUSD were validated using data from plate waste studies at four randomly selected middle schools. Correlations between food production records and visually monitored plate waste varied by school size (r=0.194 and r=0.722 for large and small schools, respectively). Using school-level data (N=74), race/ethnicity was associated with Academic Performance Index (API) scores; the ethnic composition of each school was associated with the percent of students eligible for FRPL. Simple linear regression (SLR) analyses revealed an inverse association between consumption of fruits and vegetables and API scores (β FV =-1.44, p<0.001). The SLR also revealed an inverse association between percent of English learners and API score (β E =-5.81, p<0.001) as well as an inverse association between percent of students eligible for FRPL and API scores (β L =-3.13, p<0.001). The inverse relationship between healthful food consumption and standardized test scores may be a result of the high correlations between percent of English learners (E), percent of students eligible for FRPL (L) and weight of fruits and vegetables consumed per student (FV) (r E-L =0.80, p<0.001; r E-FV =0.52, p<0.001; r L-FV =0.68, p<0.001). These findings suggest that healthful eating may help optimize physical and cognitive development. Due to their significant contribution to the diets of school children, changes in school meal program offerings could broadly help improve nutrition for children in low-income areas.