Educational equity and teacher discretion effects in high stake exams

Ilja Cornelisz; Martijn Meeter; Chris van Klaveren

doi:10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.07.002

Educational equity and teacher discretion effects in high stake exams

Ilja Cornelisz, Martijn Meeter, Chris van Klaveren^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

This study examines teacher discretion effects in Dutch secondary education for the period 2007-2012. Stark discontinuities are observed in the exam grade distribution for high-stakes retaking students and are located at important graduation thresholds. This phenomenon is systematically related to the level of discretion when grading the exam, with results suggesting that approximately 11% of all graduating retakers did so because of teacher discretion. This yields unequal graduation opportunities that are the result of school- and subject choice patterns, since teacher discretion is structurally and selectively exerted at the school-level with the objective to let students on the margin graduate.

Original language	English
Article number	101908
Number of pages	13
Journal	Economics of Education Review
Volume	73
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.07.002
Publication status	Published - Dec 2019
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Teacher discretion
Grading
Equity

Access to Document

10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.07.002

Cite this

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title = "Educational equity and teacher discretion effects in high stake exams",

abstract = "This study examines teacher discretion effects in Dutch secondary education for the period 2007-2012. Stark discontinuities are observed in the exam grade distribution for high-stakes retaking students and are located at important graduation thresholds. This phenomenon is systematically related to the level of discretion when grading the exam, with results suggesting that approximately 11% of all graduating retakers did so because of teacher discretion. This yields unequal graduation opportunities that are the result of school- and subject choice patterns, since teacher discretion is structurally and selectively exerted at the school-level with the objective to let students on the margin graduate.",

keywords = "Teacher discretion, Grading, Equity",

author = "Ilja Cornelisz and Martijn Meeter and {van Klaveren}, Chris",

note = "Funding Information: This authors gratefully acknowledge funding by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OC&W). We would like to thank Hedvig Horvath, Hessel Oosterbeek for helpful comments. Also, we would like to thank Lianne de Vries for excellent research assistance. All remaining errors are our own. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Elsevier Ltd",

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doi = "10.1016/j.econedurev.2019.07.002",

language = "English",

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AU - Meeter, Martijn

AU - van Klaveren, Chris

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N2 - This study examines teacher discretion effects in Dutch secondary education for the period 2007-2012. Stark discontinuities are observed in the exam grade distribution for high-stakes retaking students and are located at important graduation thresholds. This phenomenon is systematically related to the level of discretion when grading the exam, with results suggesting that approximately 11% of all graduating retakers did so because of teacher discretion. This yields unequal graduation opportunities that are the result of school- and subject choice patterns, since teacher discretion is structurally and selectively exerted at the school-level with the objective to let students on the margin graduate.

AB - This study examines teacher discretion effects in Dutch secondary education for the period 2007-2012. Stark discontinuities are observed in the exam grade distribution for high-stakes retaking students and are located at important graduation thresholds. This phenomenon is systematically related to the level of discretion when grading the exam, with results suggesting that approximately 11% of all graduating retakers did so because of teacher discretion. This yields unequal graduation opportunities that are the result of school- and subject choice patterns, since teacher discretion is structurally and selectively exerted at the school-level with the objective to let students on the margin graduate.

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