Options
Jepsen, Christopher
Preferred name
Jepsen, Christopher
Official Name
Jepsen, Christopher
Research Output
Now showing 1 - 10 of 22
- PublicationBilingual Education and English ProficiencyIn 2001, California instituted a statewide test measuring English proficiency for English learners, students who are not proficient in English. In 2003 and 2004, nearly 500,000 English learners in grades 1–5 took this test each year. The relationship between bilingual education receipt and English proficiency is estimated using value-added regression models for each section of the test—listening and speaking, reading, and writing. In these regression models, students in bilingual education have substantially lower English proficiency of 0.3 standard deviations or more compared with other English learners in first and second grades. In contrast, the difference between bilingual education and other programs is usually less than 0.1 standard deviations for students in grades 3–5. These results hold for ordinary least squares, school fixed effects, and propensity score models.
339 - PublicationEstimating the social value of higher education: willingness to pay for community and technical colleges(Cambridge University Press, 2014-01)
; ; ; Much is known about private financial returns to education in the form of higher earnings. Less is known about how much social value exceeds this private value. Associations between education and socially-desirable outcomes are strong, but disentangling the effect of education from other causal factors is challenging. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the social value of one form of higher education. We elicit willingness to pay for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) directly and compare our estimate of total social value to our estimates of private value in the form of increased earnings. Our earnings estimates are based on two distinct data sets, one administrative and one from the U.S. Census. The difference between the total social value and the increase in earnings is our measure of the education externality and the private, non-market value combined. Our work differs from previous research by focusing on education at the community college level and by eliciting values directly through a stated-preferences survey in a way that yields a total value including any external benefits. Our preferred estimates indicate the social value of expanding the system exceeds private financial value by at least 25% with a best point estimate of nearly 90% and exceeds total private value by at least 15% with a best point estimate of nearly 60%.484 - PublicationPositive outcomes from poor starts: Predictors of dropping back inA vast body of research finds an association between missteps taken during the teen years (such as motherhood or dropping out of high school) and poor economic and educational outcomes. However, youth who take major missteps as teens often have subsequent success in school or the labor market. This paper attempts to draw lessons from youth who appear headed for a poor start in life, yet manage to have a positive economic or educational outcome by their early 20 s. Using National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS), we provide one of the first longitudinal analyses of well-being for teen mothers and high school dropouts that includes a nationally-representative population of Hispanic and Asian youth. In general, the predictors of positive outcomes are similar for those with high probabilities of poor starts as for the general population. A few high-school-age behaviors and community measures have additional associations with positive outcomes for likely poor starters. However, these correlates do not appear for all groups of likely poor starters, and they are not always in the expected direction.
346Scopus© Citations 9 - PublicationAre catholic primary schools more effective than public primary schools?This paper assesses the causal effects of Catholic primary schooling on student outcomes such as test scores, grade retention, and behavior. Catholic school students have substantially better average outcomes than do public school students throughout the primary years, but we present evidence that selection bias is entirely responsible for these advantages. Estimates based on several empirical strategies, including an approach developed by Altonji et al. (2005a) to use selection on observables to assessthe bias arising from selection on unobservables, imply that Catholic schools do not appreciably boost test scores. All of the empirical strategies point to sizeable negative effects of Catholic schooling on mathematics achievement. Similarly, we find very little evidence that Catholic schooling improves behavioral and other non-cognitive outcomes once we account for selection on unobservables.
1185Scopus© Citations 44 - PublicationTeacher characteristics and student achievement: evidence from teacher surveysTeachers and peers are believed to have a strong influence on student achievement, but the specific characteristics that affect student achievement are hard to identify. This paper utilizes teacher survey data to investigate teacher characteristics that are not usually available in administrative data, as well as more readily available attributes such as experience and education. Classroom fixed effects explain a large portion of within-student variation in test score growth, suggesting a potentially important role for teachers and peers. Teacher characteristics are generally insignificant predictors of student achievement, especially for the lower grades.
1259Scopus© Citations 35 - PublicationThe Effect of Sharing a Mother Tongue with Peers: Evidence from North Carolina Middle SchoolsThis paper provides the first analysis of the relationship between the language mix of Limited English Proficient (LEP) peers and student achievement, using detailed panel data from 2006 to 2012. Percent LEP has a negative association with mathematics and reading test scores, more so for non-LEP students than for LEP students. The overall language mix of LEP students has little if any discernable relationship with achievement. For LEP students, having more LEP peers speak their mother tongue is positively associated with reading achievement and negatively associated with mathematics achievement.
371Scopus© Citations 6 - PublicationThe role of aggregation in estimating the effects of private school competition on student achievementThis paper investigates possible reasons for the disparity in results in the private school competition literature. In particular, the focus is on the data set, the grade range, and level of aggregation of the competition variable, and on the choice of OLS or IV estimation strategies. The results show that the size and significance of the competition variable depends on each of these attributes, although the grade range of the competition variable has a slightly smaller impact than the others. Private school competition does not have a consistently positive, significant effect on student achievement.
467Scopus© Citations 20 - PublicationThe labor-market returns to community college degrees, diplomas, and certificatesThis paper provides among the first rigorous estimates of the labor-market returns to community college certificates and diplomas, as well as estimating the returns to the more commonly studied associate’s degrees. Using administrative data from Kentucky , we estimate panel data models that control for differences among students in pre-college earnings and educational aspirations. Associate’s degrees and diplomas have quarterly earnings returns of nearly $2,400 for women and $1,500 for men, compared with much smaller returns for certificates. There is substantial heterogeneity in returns across fields of study. Degrees, diplomas, and for women certificates correspond with higher levels of employment.
499Scopus© Citations 114 - PublicationThe Labor-Market Returns to Community College Degrees, Diplomas, and Certificates(University College Dublin. School of Economics, 2012-09)
; ; This paper provides among the first rigorous estimates of the labor-market returns to community college certificates and diplomas, as well as estimating the returns to the more commonly-studied associate’s degrees. Using administrative data from Kentucky, we estimate panel-data models that control for differences among students in pre-college earnings and educational aspirations. Associate’s degrees and diplomas have quarterly earnings returns of nearly $2,400 for women and $1,500 for men, compared with much smaller returns for certificates. There is substantial heterogeneity in returns across fields of study. Degrees, diplomas, and – for women – certificates correspond with higher levels of employment.716 - PublicationMiles to go before I learn: The effect of travel distance on the mature person's choice of a community collegeThe substantial literature on access to higher education has a narrow focus: the effect of tuition on the enrollment decisions of 18-year-olds seeking bachelors degrees. But for non-traditional (i.e. older) students who tend to prefer community college, access is more about a school's location than about its tuition and fees. Using data on over 150,000 mature workers (aged 25 to 49) in the Greater Baltimore area, we analyze the impact of travel distance on community college enrollment decisions. We find that distance is a highly statistically significant factor in deciding whether to enroll in community college, and in which school to choose. Simulations of the model suggest that if the typical resident had to travel three additional miles from home to the nearest college, enrollment could drop by as much as 14%.
677Scopus© Citations 35