Gifted and Talented Deserts: Measuring the Effects of Gifted and Talented Availability Using Synthetic Controls

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Innovation in Statistical Methods (Table 31)

Abstract

This study explores the effect of Gifted and Talented (G&T) classroom availability on district level Math and English Language Arts (ELA) proficiency in New York City public schools. The New York City school district is comprised of 32 individual sub-districts. G&T classrooms are heavily congregated in a handful of districts, while other districts have few G&T classrooms. As a result, estimating a causal impact of low G&T availability for the latter districts is challenging because a valid comparison group must be identified. The Synthetic Control Method (SCM) creates a pseudo-control district to reproduce characteristics of the treated district from a weighted combination of features from control districts. Estimates under SCM and a propensity score match are compared with simulation.

Author

• Katherine Wilson, University of Pennsylvania