The Effects of Remedial Exams on Student Achievement: Evidence From Upper Secondary Schools in Italy

• In Event: The Effectiveness of Italian Educational Policies Toward Reaching the ET2020 (Education and Training 2020) European Objectives in Education and Training

Abstract

1. Objectives

A wide empirical literature has addressed the determinants of student achievement over the last three decades. The bulk of the evidence has focussed on the effects of school resources, class size and class composition, peer effects, incentives to teachers, financial incentives to students and institutional differences between educational systems. There are only a few studies in which the effects of remedial education programmes for teenage students are investigated and selection bias issues are properly taken into consideration. The aim of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of a remedial education reform recently introduced in the upper secondary school system in Italy. Prior to its implementation, low-performing students used to be given an ‘educational debt’ in one or more subjects. Such debt had to be recovered with no clear deadline or assessment during the student educational career.


2. Theoretical framework

In response to increasing concerns about the low performance of Italian adolescent students, in 2007 the Italian Ministry of Education decided to re-introduce a remedial exam procedure already in place before school year 1993/94. This paper assesses whether a crucial feature of the reform, which is the threat of grade retention, has had any effect on student proficiency.


3. Methods

We exploit the quasi experimental variation that results from geographical discontinuities in the implementation of the reform. Unlike the rest of the country, schools located in a well defined area in Northern Italy, which enjoys some degree of autonomy regarding education policies, opted out of the new progression system. We use this geographical variation to examine the effect of being at risk of grade retention on short-run achievement gains. The co-presence of a “treatment” group (students subject to new progression rules) and a quasi experimental “control” group (students undergoing the old rules) allows us to assess the causal effect of the reform, and to shed light on whether, and to what extent, it has worked as a tool to enhance student achievement.


4. Data sources

Student outcomes are measured through an assessment test constructed ad-hoc for this study and largely based on the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test.


5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view

We present evidence that remedial programmes have mixed effect on student achievement. We find positive effects for students in academic-oriented tracks and negative effects for students on technical/vocational tracks, thus suggesting a pattern of differential returns depending on the socio-economic background. Specifically, the threat of punishment appears to be effective in decreasing undesired behaviour only among students who presumably possess more positive attitudes towards school learning.


6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study

We claim that remedial programmes may emphasize, at least in the short run, preexisting inequalities in achievement among students from different school tracks.

Authors

• Erich Battistin, The Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies

• Ilaria Covizzi, The Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies

• Antonio Schizzerotto, The Research Institute for the Evaluation of Public Policies