Time And School Performance

Two new NBER working papers emphasize--in very different ways--the importance of spending time "on the job" as an input in school performance. The first, by Todd and Ralph Stinebrickner, is entitled "The Causal Effect of Studying on Academic Performance." Here is the paper's basic result:

...An increase in study-effort of one hour per day (an increase of approximately .67 of a standard deviation in our sample) is estimated to have the same effect on grades as a 5.21 point increase in ACT scores...In addition, the reduced form effect of being assigned a roommate with a video game is estimated to have the same effect on grades as a 3.88 point decrease in ACT scores...

Note to self: remind my three teenage children that every hour of homework has a sizable economic value AND to stay away from friends who own a Wii, an Xbox 360, or a PS3. (Ooops, I think we have at least one of those things in our living room; must dispose of it immediately.)

The other paper, by Raegen Miller, Richard Murnane, and John Willett, is entitled "Do Teacher Absences Impact Student Achievement? Longitudinal Evidence from One Urban School District." Here is the abstract:

Rates of employee absences and the effects of absences on productivity are topics of conversation in many organizations in many countries. One reason is that high rates of employee absence may signal weak management and poor labor-management relations. A second reason is that reducing rates of employee absence may be an effective way to improve productivity. This paper reports the results of a study of employee absences in education, a large, labor-intensive industry. Policymakers' concern with teacher absence rests on three premises: (1) that a significant portion of teachers' absences is discretionary, (2) that teachers' absences have a nontrivial impact on productivity, and (3) that feasible policy changes could reduce rates of absence among teachers...We employ a methodology that accounts for time-invariant differences among teachers in skill and motivation. We find large variation in adjusted teacher absence rates among schools. We estimate that each 10 days of teacher absences reduce students' mathematics achievement by 3.3 percent of a standard deviation.

My wife, who is an elementary school teacher, tells me that some of the absences are easily predictable. The teachers' union contract often allows teachers to "bank" sick and personal days, and some teachers begin to repeatedly use these saved days as retirement approaches. A good question: would it be cost-effective for school districts to let the teachers cash out  their sick and personal days?

Comments

[Robert Olson]

Astonishing. An extra two hours a day of studyng would have push even a mediocore student to the highest academic performance levels.

Classes should begin with that statement every single day from Kindergarten through 12th grade.

I wonder, though...where do we begin to run into diminshing returns? And, more importantly, when would it be better to, say, get a part-time job or join a club as opposed to studying more? Booksmarts only get you so far, especially when you don't have the high IQ and improvistational techniques to mold all that information into something useful in a short period of time.

[Blissex]

«Booksmarts only get you so far, especially when you don't have the high IQ and improvistational techniques» Perhaps, but perhaps instead at all levels of schooling what is rewarded is the passing of mind numbing, rote-learning based exams, not being ''clever'', so working harder on test preparation (because that's in effect what the papers above discuss) can make a difference to career prospects.

[Allun Hamblett]

I just read Miller's study regarding the impact of teacher absences. Our school district has struggled with the issue of high absenteeism (approximately 3,000 teachers). I find your question interesting (Would it be cost-effective for school districts to let the teachers cash out their sick and personal days?) because teachers can cash out their sick and personal days in our county. Not only does it provide them with a nice nest egg, but it is also used in their average final compensation calculation for retirement. Unfortunately, many teachers use the maximum number of days (12 days) each year and even dip into a sick leave pool bank.