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Trading the Television for a Textbook?: High School Exit Exams and Student Behavior

Trading the Television for a Textbook?: High School Exit Exams and Student Behavior Abstract Approximately half of the states in the United States have some form of high school exit exam. One purpose of the exit exams is to create a clear bar which students must pass in order to graduate. Effective exit exams may encourage marginal students to spend additional time on schooling in order to pass the exam. This study exploits state-level variations in timing of implementation to understand how students have responded to the state exit exams. This study uses the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). The ATUS captures, in detail, how individuals spend their day. We find that exit exams are associated with an increase in the amount of time that students spend on educational activities by almost 20 minutes per day in the months in which exams are typically given. The increase comes mainly from an increase in time spent in school and not time spent outside of school on education-related activities. The additional time for education appears to be a trade-off with time spent watching television, which shows a significant drop in exam months for students facing exams. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy de Gruyter

Trading the Television for a Textbook?: High School Exit Exams and Student Behavior

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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the
ISSN
2194-6108
eISSN
1935-1682
DOI
10.1515/bejeap-2012-0052
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract Approximately half of the states in the United States have some form of high school exit exam. One purpose of the exit exams is to create a clear bar which students must pass in order to graduate. Effective exit exams may encourage marginal students to spend additional time on schooling in order to pass the exam. This study exploits state-level variations in timing of implementation to understand how students have responded to the state exit exams. This study uses the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). The ATUS captures, in detail, how individuals spend their day. We find that exit exams are associated with an increase in the amount of time that students spend on educational activities by almost 20 minutes per day in the months in which exams are typically given. The increase comes mainly from an increase in time spent in school and not time spent outside of school on education-related activities. The additional time for education appears to be a trade-off with time spent watching television, which shows a significant drop in exam months for students facing exams.

Journal

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy – de Gruyter

Published: Jul 1, 2014

References

  • To Leave or Not to Leave? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of the Impact of Failing the High School Exit Exam
    Ou
  • Effects of Failing a High School Exit Exam on Course Taking, Achievement, Persistence, and Graduation
    Reardon
  • To Leave or Not to Leave? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of the Impact of Failing the High School Exit Exam
    Ou