Central exit examinations increase performance... but take the fun out of mathematics
AbstractIn response to PISA, all German federal states but one have adopted central exit examinations (CEEs) at the end of all secondary school tracks. Theoretically, the advantages of CEEs are fairly undisputed. CEEs make teaching and learning output observable and comparable across schools, and provide incentives for teachers and students to increase their effort. In line with earlier research, we confirm that CEEs have a positive causal effect on student performance. We also investigate what actually drives this effect. We find that the teachers' main reaction to CEEs is to increase the amount of homework, and to check and discuss homework more often. Students report increased learning pressure, which has sizeable negative effects on student attitudes towards learning. Students who take central exit exams in mathematics like mathematics less, think it is less easy and they are more likely to find it boring.
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Bibliographic InfoPaper provided by Universitätsbibliothek Wuppertal, University Library in its series Schumpeter Discussion Papers with number sdp08001.
Length: 26 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2008
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Web page: http://elpub.bib.uni-wuppertal.de
High-stakes testing; student achievement; teacher quality;
Other versions of this item:
- Hendrik Jürges & Kerstin Schneider, 2010. "Central exit examinations increase performance... but take the fun out of mathematics," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 497-517, March.
- I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
- H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
- D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, and Operations
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2008-11-25 (All new papers)
- NEP-EDU-2008-11-25 (Education)
- NEP-URE-2008-11-25 (Urban & Real Estate Economics)
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