This brief was developed using Microsoft Copilot and edited by Charlotte Sutcliffe, Duke undergraduate research assistant; for full text and references see
Jain, A. (2025). Essays on the economics of education and inequality (Order No. 32038788). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (3201911059). Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.duke.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/essays-on-economics-education-inequality/docview/3201911059/se-2
Essay 1: Health-Based Heterogeneity in School Effectiveness
The first essay introduces a new approach to measuring school effectiveness by incorporating student health into value-added models. A value-added model will measure the factor of student health on student achievement over time. Using linked Medicaid claims and K-12 public school records from Wisconsin, the authors construct a health index via a a series of decision trees used to predict health-related absences. They find that school effectiveness varies significantly by student health: dispersion in value-added is up to 31% greater among unhealthy students, indicating that schools play a more pivotal role in shaping outcomes for this group. Policies such as employing homebound teachers - who provide instruction to severely ill students - significantly improve test scores and reduce achievement gaps, while school nurses increase absences without affecting academic performance.
Essay 2: High School Curricula and Achievement Gaps
The second essay investigates how high school curricula, particularly advanced course offerings, influence school quality and academic disparities. Using student-level data from North Carolina, the study finds that student body composition - especially prior academic achievement - is the strongest predictor of school quality. While the availability of advanced courses has little direct effect on ACT scores or achievement gaps, participation in these courses yields substantial benefits, especially for students from high-resource households. The findings suggest that students who are already advantaged are more likely to enroll in and benefit from advanced coursework, reinforcing existing inequalities.
Essay 3: One-to-One Technology Initiatives and Equity
The third essay evaluates the impact of one-to-one technology initiatives—programs that provide each student with a computer—on student achievement and equity. The analysis combines student-level data with computer distribution plans from ten large Wisconsin school districts. The study finds that these initiatives widen English Language Arts (ELA) achievement gaps by 0.03–0.04 standard deviations, primarily due to negative effects on students from low-income households. Math scores decline slightly across all groups, resulting in no significant change in Math achievement gaps. The findings suggest that unequal access to at-home resources exacerbates disparities, though there is some evidence that early implementation helped mitigate learning losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Takeaways:
Across all three essays, the study emphasizes the importance of accounting for student heterogeneity—particularly health and socioeconomic status—in evaluating school effectiveness and designing education policy. It demonstrates that targeted interventions, such as homebound instruction and equitable access to advanced coursework and technology, can meaningfully reduce achievement gaps. However, without careful implementation, well-intentioned policies may inadvertently reinforce existing inequalities.