TY  - JOUR
AU  - Babcock,Philip
AU  - Betts,Julian R.
TI  - Reduced-Class Distinctions: Effort, Ability, and the Education Production Function
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14777
PY  - 2009
Y2  - March 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14777
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14777.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Philip S. Babcock
Department of Economics
2036 North Hall
University of California, Santa Barbara
Mail Code 9210
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Tel: 805/893-4823
Fax: 805/893-8830
E-Mail: babcock@econ.ucsb.edu

Julian Betts
Department of Economics, 0508
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0508
Tel: 858/534-3369
Fax: 858/534-7040
E-Mail: jbetts@ucsd.edu
AB  - Do smaller classes boost achievement mainly by helping teachers impart specific academic skills to students with low academic achievement? Or do they do so primarily by helping teachers engage poorly behaving students? The analysis uses the grade 3 to 4 transition in San Diego Unified School District as a source of exogenous variation in class size (given a California law funding small classes until grade 3). Grade 1 report cards allow separate identification of low-effort and low-achieving students. Results indicate that elicitation of effort or engagement, rather than the teaching of specific skills, may be the dominant channel by which small classes influence disadvantaged students.
ER  -