Math Test Scores Research Articles

Digital infrastructure and cognitive ability of children

Digital technologies have become an integral part of most children’s lives, significantly influencing their development. This study takes the Broadband China Pilot Policy as a quasi-experiment, using the data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to analyze the effects of digital infrastructure on children’s cognitive ability. The extended two-way fixed effects estimator was employed to conduct the Staggered Difference-in-Differences estimation. The findings indicate that the average treatment effect of treatment group of “Broadband China” is significantly positive on children’s cognitive ability. Additionally, heterogeneities of gender and urban-rural were found: (1) The Broadband China policy had a significant positive impact on boys only; (2) The policy had a greater and more significant impact on the word test scores results of urban children; (3) The policy had a negative impact on the math test scores of urban children, while showing a positive impact on the math test scores of rural children. Finally, the paper makes the following recommendations: (1) Digital infrastructure development should be emphasized; (2) More emphasis should be placed on rural areas when building digital infrastructure; (3) Gender differences should be considered when formulating policies to help girls benefit from digital technologies.

Evaluating the Impact of an Educational Intervention Using Project-Based Learning on Postpandemic Recovery in Rural Colombia

This study evaluates the impact of a Project-Based Learning (PBL) intervention on postpandemic educational recovery in rural Colombia, focusing on student competencies in mathematics, language, science, and 21st-century skills. Conducted in rural schools, the intervention aimed to address significant learning gaps exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic by providing teacher training and direct student support. A pretest–posttest single-group design was used to assess the effectiveness of the intervention, with standardized tests measuring academic competencies and an analytical rubric evaluating 21st-century skills. The results indicate significant improvements in math, language, and science test scores, with notable gains in problem-solving, collaborative work, communication, and critical thinking. However, a decline in creativity scores highlights the need for a stronger emphasis on fostering creativity within the PBL framework. Gender differences were observed, with female students generally outperforming males, suggesting the need for tailored instructional approaches. This study’s limitations, including the absence of a control group, nonrandom sampling, and the use of subjective assessment methods, are acknowledged, with recommendations for future research to address these issues. Despite these limitations, the findings underscore the potential of PBL to enhance student learning outcomes in rural settings, offering valuable insights for educators and policymakers aiming to support educational recovery and development in similar contexts. Further research is recommended to explore the long-term effects of PBL and to refine the intervention for broader implementation.

On the Family Origins of Human Capital Formation: Evidence from Donor Children

Abstract We introduce a novel strategy to study the intergenerational transmission of human capital skills, net of genetic skill transfers. For this purpose, we use unique Danish data on children conceived through sperm and egg donation in in vitro fertilization treatments to estimate the relationship between child test scores and parental years of schooling. Because the assignment of donors is not selective, these parental schooling estimates allow for a causal nurture interpretation. Once we take account of genes, we find that only the education of mothers matters: the association between father’s education and child test scores (in reading and math) is insignificant and practically zero, whereas the association between mother’s education and child test scores (in reading, not in math) is significant and large, and as large as the association we estimate for mothers of non-donor children.

A053: The Immediate Effects of Cognitively Engaged Physical Activity on Academic Performance of Children

Background/Purpose: In order to change the status quo of children's low levels of physical activity due to excessive academic pressure, a large number of studies have explored the improvement of children's academic performance through physical activity interventions without increasing the burden of learning. With the depth of the studies, the focus has been shifted from the quantitative (exercise time, intensity, and frequency) to the qualitative (e.g., type of exercise), and the cognitive stimulation hypothesis has proposed that the cognitive engagement during exercise has a better facilitating effect on children's academic performance, but there is no consistent definition of cognitive engagement in physical activity. Investigating the effects of different types of cognitive engagement on academic performance not only enriches the body of results in the field of research, but also provides a new avenue of physical activity for students in compulsory schooling. Method: 198 third grade students (M/F=132/110, age=9.42) were recruited and randomized into physical activity intervention conditions of 2 different intensities (high and low intensity) and 3 different types of cognitive engagement (math engagement, skill engagement, and math + skill engagement) on a class-by-class basis. Academic performance in math was tested using a modular math test. Results: Physical activity affected children's math test performance as indicated by significantly higher math test scores post-intervention than pre-intervention (F=63.99, p < 0.01), a significant interaction of test time with intervention intensity (F=8.43, p < 0.01), a non-significant interaction effect of test time with intervention type and test time, but a three-way interaction between intervention intensity and intervention type (F=3.13, p < 0.05). Conclusion/Discussion: Physical activity with cognitive engagement improved children's math test performance, with high-intensity. Mathematically-engaged physical activity had a better promotion effect on math test performance. The present study found that acute physical activity improved children's math test performance, that physical activity with cognitive engagement in subject learning has a better facilitation effect on subsequence subject learning. Considering this finding, it is recommended that physical activity that integrates motor learning with academic learning be organized to further integrate physical education with intellectual education to achieve a win-win situation for both physical and academic excellence in schools by promoting children's academic performance.

Full-time education: Assessment of the impact on learning of the Brazilian program Novo Mais Educação

Although there is no consensus on the effectiveness of full-time education in learning, several countries in Latin America have developed programs to extend school hours aiming at a higher level of student performance. In Brazil, the federal government implemented two policies for increasing school hours: Mais Educação Program (PME), from 2008 to 2017, and Novo Mais Educação Program (PNME), in 2018 and 2019. Therefore, this paper assesses the impact of PNME on students’ learning and discusses the effectiveness of the PNME’s design compared to the previous policy PME. Official data from the Brazilian government were used and the methodology combined Difference-in-Differences with propensity score matching for evaluating math and language students test scores. For the initial years of Elementary School, the results show a positive impact on learning, but for the final years the results were ambiguous: a null effect on language students test scores and a negative impact on math tests scores. Yet these results proved to be more promising than those of its predecessor, the PME, which can be assigned to PNME’s design more focused on expanding language and math learning hours.

Estimating Social Effects with Randomized and Observational Network Data

Abstract This paper introduces an innovative approach to identifying and estimating the parameters of interest in the widely recognized linear-in-means regression model under conditions where the initial randomization of peers determines the observed network. We assert that peers who are initially randomized do not produce social effects. However, after randomization, agents can endogenously develop significant connections that potentially generate peer influences. We present a moment condition that compiles local heterogeneous identifying information for all agents within the population. Under the assumption of ψ-dependence in the endogenous network space, we propose a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator, which is proven to be consistent, asymptotically normally distributed, and straightforward to implement using commonly available statistical software due to its closed-form expression. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate the GMM estimator’s strong small-sample performance. An empirical analysis utilizing data from Hong Kong high school students reveals substantial positive spillover effects on math test scores among study partners in our sample, provided that their seatmates were exogenously assigned by their teachers.

Parents' rearing styles and adolescents' math achievement: the multiple mediating effect of self-control and math anxiety.

This cross-sectional study examined the mechanisms underlying adolescent math achievement by investigating the relationship between parents' rearing styles (including different dimensions of rearing style) and adolescent self-control, math anxiety, and math achievement based on the ecological systems theory. A total of 584 junior high school students (M age = 12.52) completed the Parenting Style Questionnaire, Self-control Scale, and Math Anxiety Rating Scale and provided their math test scores. The rearing styles of both fathers and mothers directly predicted adolescents' math achievement. Maternal rearing style indirectly predicted adolescents' math achievement through their self-control and math anxiety; however, the indirect effect of paternal rearing style on adolescents' math achievement was not significant. After distinguishing the three dimensions of rearing styles, we found that paternal emotional warmth can increase adolescents' self-control, while maternal emotional warmth can reduce adolescents' self-control. Further, paternal overprotectiveness can directly and positively predict adolescents' math achievement, while maternal rejection and overprotectiveness can positively predict adolescents' math achievement. None of the three dimensions of rearing styles can predict math achievement through adolescents' self-control; however, they can predict math achievement indirectly through adolescents' math anxiety and the chain-mediation of adolescents' self-control and math anxiety. Our results suggest both commonalities and differences in how paternal and maternal rearing styles, along with their three dimensions (emotional warmth, rejection, overprotection), predict adolescent math achievement. These findings highlight the importance of paternal and maternal rearing styles on adolescents' math achievement and underscore the need to examine them separately to better understand their impact.

Associations Between Leisure Physical Activity and Mathematics Interest: A Longitudinal Analysis

Previous studies have indicated a positive association between physical activity (PA) and mathematics achievement. The present study explored the association of PA outside school with math interest using longitudinal data from Kaifeng, a medium-sized city in Central China. A two-tier multilevel logistic model was conducted using 2,132 students’ math test scores, self-reported PA frequency, and math learning-related experience in December 2019 and January 2021. Socioeconomic status, school location, and sex were all controlled. The results showed that physical exercise frequency and physical exercise per class outside school had a significant positive impact on mathematics interest ([Formula: see text];[Formula: see text]), as did previous mathematics interest ([Formula: see text]) and self-educational expectation ([Formula: see text];[Formula: see text]). It indicated that regular physical exercise outside of school can lead to increased mathematics interest.

Intergenerational effects of a casino-funded family transfer program on educational outcomes in an American Indian community

Cash transfer policies have been widely discussed as mechanisms to curb intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic disadvantage. In this paper, we take advantage of a large casino-funded family transfer program introduced in a Southeastern American Indian Tribe to generate difference-in-difference estimates of the link between children’s cash transfer exposure and third grade math and reading test scores of their offspring. Here we show greater math (0.25 standard deviation [SD], p =.0148, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 0.05, 0.45) and reading (0.28 SD, p = .0066, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.49) scores among American Indian students whose mother was exposed ten years longer than other American Indian students to the cash transfer during her childhood (or relative to the non-American Indian student referent group). Exploratory analyses find that a mother’s decision to pursue higher education and delay fertility appears to explain some, but not all, of the relation between cash transfers and children’s test scores. In this rural population, large cash transfers have the potential to reduce intergenerational cycles of poverty-related educational outcomes.

Developing Hidden Talent: An Exploratory Study of Advanced Math Curriculum Implementation and Its Effects on Young Mathematically Promising English Learners

In this qualitative case study, we investigated the role of an advanced math curriculum with language scaffolding on the development of geometric and visual-spatial reasoning skills in young mathematically promising English learners (MPELs). Specifically, we examined the effects of providing MPELs with challenging and supportive math curriculum to facilitate the development of mathematical potential through a geometry unit. Twenty-one MPELs were randomly assigned to either an intervention or a comparison class. The data sources included audio recordings of class sessions, documents of math tasks, field notes, and test scores. Findings revealed that in the intervention class, tasks required more cognitive demands, and students were encouraged to contribute to classroom discourse more than in the comparison class. MPELs in the intervention class demonstrated greater gains in geometric reasoning compared to their peers in the comparison class. These findings underscore the point that challenging and supportive curricula can effectively nurture the mathematical potential of underrepresented gifted students.

Allow Me to Explain: Benefits of Explaining Extend to Distal Academic Performance.

How does the act of explaining influence learning? Prior work has studied effects of explaining through a predominantly proximal lens, measuring short-term outcomes or manipulations within lab settings. Here, we ask whether the benefits of explaining extend to academic performance over time. Specifically, does the quality and frequency of student explanations predict students' later performance on standardized tests of math and English? In Study 1 (N = 127 5th-6th graders), participants completed a causal learning activity during which their explanation quality was evaluated. Controlling for prior test scores, explanation quality directly predicted both math and English standardized test scores the following year. In Study 2 (N = 20,384 10th graders), participants reported aspects of teachers' explanations and their own. Controlling for prior test scores, students' own explanations predicted both math and English state standardized test scores, and teacher explanations were linked to test performance through students' own explanations. Taken together, these findings suggest that benefits of explaining may result in part from the development of a metacognitive explanatory skill that transfers across domains and over time. Implications for cognitive science, pedagogy, and education are discussed.

Cognitive heterogeneity in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Implications for maths.

This study investigated whether cognitive function better predicted maths test performance than a clinical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Forty-four drug naïve children (Mage = 101.34 months, SD = 19.39; 30% girls) were recruited from clinical ADHD referral waiting lists. Children underwent assessment of Executive Functions (EF), lower-level cognitive processes, and maths performance. Children were grouped using a categorical approach comprising (1) children with a clinical ADHD diagnosis and (2) children without a diagnosis (i.e., subthreshold ADHD). Secondly, hierarchical cluster analysis generated subgroups of children using EF scores. Children were compared on cognition, maths, and parent-rated symptoms of ADHD and co-occurring difficulties. Children's diagnostic outcomes did not differentiate maths performance. By contrast, EF subgroups generated meaningful cognitive clusters which differentiated maths test scores. This suggests that cognitive patterns of performance, rather than children's diagnostic outcomes, are more informative for identifying meaningful groups with variable maths performance which has implications for remedial support.

The long‐run educational benefits of high‐achieving classrooms

AbstractThis paper examines how placement in high‐achieving classrooms within high school impacts students’ short‐ and longer‐term academic outcomes. Our setting is a large and selective Chinese high school, where first‐year students are separated into high‐achieving and regular classrooms based on their performance on a standardized exam. Classrooms differ in terms of peer ability, teacher quality, and class size, as well as level and pace of instruction. Using newly collected administrative data and a regression discontinuity design, we show that high‐achieving classrooms improve math test scores by 23% of a standard deviation, with effects persisting throughout the 3 years of high school. Impacts on performance in Chinese and English language subjects are more muted. Importantly, we find that high‐achieving classrooms raise enrollment in elite universities by 17 percentage points, as they substantially increase scores on the national college entrance exam—the sole determinant of university admission in China. We provide suggestive evidence that the most likely mechanism driving our results is exposure to higher‐quality teachers.

The Impact of Community Eligibility Provision on Multilingual Learner Outcomes

Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) allows schools that meet certain criteria to provide free meals to all students. I provide new evidence on the impact of CEP with a focus on a particular group of students: those who are Multilingual Learners (MLL). These students may have been less likely to enroll to receive free meals before CEP even when income-eligible and were potentially less likely to take-up free meals when enrolled during the pre-CEP period due to heightened stigma. Using a student-level panel from North Carolina, I estimate the impact of CEP on MLL student math and reading achievement and school suspensions. I estimate student fixed effects models that suggest CEP positively impacts MLL students, whose math and reading test scores improve .032 and .082 of a standard deviation, respectively, on average when they attend schools enrolled in CEP. These students also see a reduction in the chance of being suspended in a given year of ∼2.3%, a 20% reduction of the mean, though this finding is more sensitive to how school-level poverty is measured.

Gender Differences in Math Tests: the Role of Time Pressure

Abstract We investigate the role of time pressure in generating gender gaps in math tests. In a randomised experiment, college students took a twenty-question math test under high, low or no time pressure. Reducing or eliminating time pressure decreases the math gender gap by up to 40%. Larger gaps under time pressure are mostly due to increased anxiety rather than to students modifying their test-taking strategies. The correlation between math test scores and university performance is equally high under the different scenarios. Hence, less time pressure may increase gender equality in math subjects with no effect on the selection process.

Poor air quality at school and educational inequality by family socioeconomic status in Italy

This paper investigates social stratification in the context of poor air quality's impact on educational achievement in Italy, a country characterized by high levels of air pollution and significant geographical diversity. We address two primary questions: firstly, whether students from different socio-economic backgrounds vary in their exposure to high levels of particulate matter (PM2.5) at school, and secondly, if the effect of exposure to poor air quality on academic performance differs between children from high and low socio-economic status families. Utilizing a novel dataset comprising test scores in math and reading for 456,508 8th-grade students, collected nationally in Italy in 2019, we geocode the locations of 6882 schools based on their addresses and link the level of air pollution in the surrounding areas using PM2.5 data from the Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group. To address potential confounding factors, we estimate municipality and province fixed effects and control for indicators of school neighborhood characteristics and school quality. Our analysis yields three key findings. Firstly, students from higher socio-economic backgrounds tend to attend schools with higher PM2.5 levels. However, the positive association between SES and exposure to PM2.5 disappears when adding province and municipality fixed effects, suggesting that the positive association can be explained by selection into provinces and municipalities by SES. Secondly, we identify a small yet consistent negative effect of PM2.5 on math and reading test scores. Thirdly, this adverse impact is primarily observed among students from low socio-economic backgrounds. We conclude that the relationship between environmental risks and disparities in educational achievement based on social background in Italy is nuanced and critically influenced by the country's specific context.

Late-childhood foundational cognitive skills predict educational outcomes through adolescence and into young adulthood: Evidence from Ethiopia and Peru

We estimate associations between foundational cognitive skills (inhibitory control, working memory, long-term memory, and implicit learning) measured at age 12 and educational outcomes measured at ages 15 and 19–20 in Ethiopia and Peru, using the Young Lives data. The estimates adjust for rich sets of controls and include measurements of children's baseline abilities. For a subset of the outcomes, we exploit within-household variation. Working memory and long-term memory are consistently and positively associated with subsequent domain-specific cognitive achievement tests (measuring specifically numeracy, vocabulary and literacy achievement) in both countries, university enrolment in Peru (long-term memory) and lower secondary-school completion in Ethiopia (working memory). Inhibitory control predicts subsequent math-test scores in both countries, grade attainment (Ethiopia), and university enrolment (Peru). Value-added estimates show that these skills play roles during adolescence, with the memory-related skills predicting higher domain-specific test scores (Peru and Ethiopia) and grade attainment (Ethiopia), while inhibitory control has associations with math (both countries). These results provide additional evidence to justify the importance of promoting investments in cognitive skills throughout childhood and adolescence, and elucidate how such investments impact educational achievements.

Teacher value-added and gender gaps in educational outcomes

This paper uses rich administrative data from Chile to estimate teacher value added (TVA) on test scores and on an educational attainment index. We allow each teacher to have a different TVA for male and female students and show that differences in TVA explain an important part of the gender gaps we observe in test scores and postsecondary education trajectories. The gaps in gender-specific teaching effectiveness are especially pronounced in mathematics. Indeed, eliminating within-teacher differences in math test score VA would reduce the gender gap in math performance by 67%. We explore what could be behind these gaps in gender-specific TVA and find no significant differences in what makes teachers effective for male and female students. We do find, however, significant associations between teacher characteristics—e.g., gender and performance in the college admission exam—and practices—e.g., paying attention to low-performing students, congratulating students who improve, and having a good relationship with students—with teacher effectiveness. Finally, we also show that math teachers tend to be biased in favor of male students and that teachers with smaller gender biases are more effective for both, male and female students.

Extreme temperatures and school performance of the poor: Evidence from Mexico

As the risks associated with climate change intensify, understanding its impacts on human capital development is crucial. In this paper, we analyze the causal effects of temperature on the academic performance of students in Mexico, a middle-income country facing significant climate risks and socioeconomic challenges. Using panel data on over 5.5 million students, our results show that a 1 °C increase in annual average temperature leads to a 0.07 and 0.08 standard deviation decrease in Spanish and math test scores, respectively. Moreover, a one standard deviation (0.93 °C) increase in the long-term municipal temperature average is associated with 0.04 and 0.03 standard deviation declines in those scores. The effects are context-dependent - students in historically colder municipalities actually benefit from hotter temperatures, likely due to improved learning conditions in under-insulated schools and homes. However, the detrimental impacts appear consistent across urban, rural, and socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, underscoring the vulnerability of marginalized populations to the academic consequences of climate change. Overall, our findings highlight the urgency of addressing the educational dimensions of the global climate crisis through targeted interventions and adaptive policies, particularly in low-and middle-income countries.

Stress and Cognitive Performance: Evidence from a South Korean Earthquake

Abstract Studies have identified negative effects of cortisol, a stress hormone, on academic performance. Because natural disasters induce community-wide stress, students who experience natural disasters may subsequently perform worse academically. Our study is the first to examine the immediate effects of close exposure to a natural disaster on academic performance. We examine the impact of the 2017 Pohang earthquake in South Korea on college entrance exam scores. The 5.4 magnitude quake occurred one day before the scheduled nationwide college entrance exam date, necessitating its postponement for one week. Several aftershocks occurred during that postponement period. We find that the earthquake decreased the reading test scores of students in the Pohang area by 0.05 standard deviation but had no effect on math test scores. The reading test was administered earlier in the day than the math test, so these findings suggest that students taking exams in post-traumatic situations might be able to perform better after a warm-up testing period. Finally, male students suffered the largest adverse impacts on their reading test scores, with serious implications given the high-stakes nature of the exams.