classroom peer effect and student achievement

1. CLASSROOM PEER EFFECT
AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
By michelle shepard
SOE 115 Psychology of teaching 02/15/2018

2. OVERVIEW OF THE STRATEGY
THE POTENTIAL FOR PEERS TO AFFECT INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IS
CENTRAL TO MANY IMPORTANT POLICY ISSUES IN ELEMENTARY AND
SECONDARY EDUCATION, INCLUDING THE IMPACTS OF SCHOOL CHOICE
PROGRAMS, ABILITY TRACKING WITHIN SCHOOLS “MAINTAINING” OF
SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENT, AND RACIAL AND ECONOMIC
DESEGREGATION

3. CREDIBLE SOURCE 1
PEER EFFECTS IN GENERAL ARE HARD TO MEASURE FOR SEVERAL
REASONS FIRST, IN ORDER TO PROPERLY SPECIFY A MODEL OF PEERS
AFFECTS IT IS NECESSARY TO IDENTIFY POTENTIAL PEER INFLUENCES
AND THE MECHANISMS BY WHICH PEERS AFFECT INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR.
SECOND, ONE MUST DETERMINE THE RELEVANT PEER GROUP AND
ACCURATELY MEASURE IT SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS. THIRD
ENDOGENOUS SELECTION OF PEERS AND CORRELATED GROUP EFFECTS
MUST BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT IN ORDER TO AVOID SPURIOUS
INFLUENCES. FOURTH, ONE MUST AVOID BIASES OWING TO THE
SIMULTANEITY OF INDIVIDUAL AND PEER OUTCOMES. FIFTH, IN MANY
SPECIFICATIONS, IT IS DIFFICULT TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE
INFLUENCE OF ENDOGENOUS PEER OUTCOMES AND EXOGENOUS PEER
CHARACTERISTICS. IN THE EDUCATION CONTEXT ONE MUST ALSO
CONSIDER THE ESTIMATION ISSUES THAT DERIVE FROM THE CUMULATIVE
NATURE OF EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTION, AS DISCUSSED EXTENSIVELY IN

4. CREDIBLE SOURCE 2
THE LEVEL OF AGGREGATION AT WHICH PEER EFFECTS OPERATE
DEPEND ON THE PRESUMED TRANSMISSION MECHANISM. IF PEER
INFLUENCES OCCUR THROUGH KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS AND
DISRUPTION EFFECT, PEER EFFECT SHOULD BE STRONGEST AT
THE CLASSROOM LEVEL, IN WHICH CASE CLASS PARTITIONS
COULD HAVE IMPORTANT CONSEQUENCES FOR INDIVIDUAL AND
AGGREGATE ACHIEVEMENT. IN CONTRAST, IF A STUDENT’S
PERFORMANCE DEPENDS MORE ON WHICH CROWD HE HANGS
OUT WITH, EXPERIENCE IN THE CLASSROOM MAY BE LES
INFLUENTIAL THAN THE STUDENT’S CHOICE OF SOCIAL GROUP, A
CHOICE WHICH IS LESS SUSCEPTIBLE TO POLICY MANIPULATION
(ALERL OF AND KRANTON 2002)

5. CREDIBLE SOURCE 3
RESTRICT STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT TO STUDENTS WHO RECEIVE
INSTRUCTION IN THE RELEVANT SUBJECT AREA MATH, READING IN
ONLY ONE CLASSROOM. IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LEVEL ONLY
STUDENTS IN “SELF CONTAINED” CLASSROOM ARE INCLUDE.
ELEMENTARY STUDENTS SPENDING LESS THAN ONE HOUR PER
DAY IN CLASS. WHERE AS SPECIAL EDUCATION STUDENTS SPEND
NEARLY ALL DAY IN A SEPARATE SPECIAL-EDUCATION CLASSROOM
ARE NOT CONSIDERED MEMBERS OF THE CLASSROOM PEER
GROUP

6. ANALYZE
UNLIKE MANY PREVIOUS DATA SETS USED TO STUDY PEER EFFECTS IN
EDUCATION, OUR DATA ALLOW US TO IDENTIFY EACH MEMBER OF A GIVEN
STUDENT’S CLASSROOM PEER GROUP IN ELEMENTARY, MIDDLE AND HIGH
SCHOOL AS WELL AS THE CLASSROOM TEACHER RESPONSIBLE FOR
INSTRUCTION AS A RESULT, WE CAN CONTROL FOR INDIVIDUAL STUDENT
FIXED EFFECTS SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH INDIVIDUAL TEACHER FIXED
EFFECTS, THEREBY ALLEVIATING BIASES DUE TO ENDOGENOUS
ASSIGNMENT OF BOTH PEERS AND TEACHER, INCLUDING SOME DYNAMIC
ASPECTS OF SUCH ASSIGNMENTS.

7. CONNECTION
DESPITE THE IMPORTANCE OF THESE ISSUE FOR AMERICAN EDUCATION
POLICY, THERE ARE RELATIVELY FEW EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF THE
MAGNITUDE AND STRUCTURE OF PEER EFFECTS ON ACADEMIC
ACHIEVEMENT IN US PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOL.

8. CONCLUSION
THIS LIST OF STUDIES WAS USED TO MATCH DATA INDIRECT TESTS
FOR PEER EFFECTS AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN
EARLIER STUDIES THE DATA FACILITATE THE IDENTIFICATION OF
DIFFERENT PEER INFLUENCE BY USING THE NUMBER CONTROL
FOR ENDOGENOUS VARIATION IN PEER GROUPS IN OTHER
EARLIER STUDIES THEY WERE UNABLE TO PLACE STUDENTS IN
CLASSROOM GROUP WITH A SPECIFIC TEACHER, AS THEY
OBSERVE EACH TEACHER WHO HAD MORE THAN ON CLASSROOM
GROUP

9. REFENCE
AKERLOF,GEORGE A. AND RACHEL E KRANTON (2002). INDENTITY
AND SCHOOLING: SOME LESSONS FOR THE ECONOMICS OF
EDUCATION,”19JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC LITERATURE 1167-1201
TODD, PETRA E. AND KENNTH I WOLPIN (2003) “ON THE
SPECIFICATION AND ESTIMATION OF THE PRODUCTION FUNCTION
ECONOMIC JOURNAL F3-F33ION FOR COGNITIVE ACHIEVEMENT”,
113 E
ARGYS,LAURA M. AND DANIEL I. REES (2004). “SEARCHING FOR
PEER GROUP EFFECTS: A TEST OF THE CONTAGION HYPOTHESIS,”
UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT.