Events at CERGE-EI

Prof. Laura Giuliano

University of California, Santa Cruz, United States

Authors: David Card and Laura Giuliano

Abstract: We study an accelerated 3-year math curriculum offered in the middle schools of a large urban district that enables students to finish Algebra I and Geometry before high school. Entry to the program is based on 5th-grade math test scores, with a cutoff at the 80th percentile. Continuing eligibility requires at least a B grade in the previous year; successful completion of all three years is highly correlated with an index of non-cognitive skills. Following students for 6 years after high school graduation, we find that the impacts of admission vary widely by non-cognitive skill and gender. Marginally eligible boys with high non-cognitive skills have a 33 percentage point (ppt.) increase in the probability of completing calculus by 11th grade and a 12 ppt. increase in the probability of completing a major in STEM or business within 6 years; boys with lower non-cognitive skills take more advanced math classes in high school but have no significant effects on their college outcomes. Like their male peers, marginally eligible girls with high non-cognitive skills are more likely to complete calculus by 11th grade (+17 ppt.). Their rate of graduating with a STEM or business major is unaffected, but they switch from social sciences to the core STEM majors (science, engineering and math). Girls in the two lower terciles of non-cognitive skill are also strongly affected by entry to the program, with higher participation in advanced math classes in high school, higher rates of entry to selective 4-year colleges, and higher rates of completing a STEM or business major (+12 ppt).