The High Stakes of Bad Exams

POLICY BRIEF The Impact of High-Stakes Exams on Students and Teachers

Introducing Computer-Based Testing in High-Stakes Exams in Higher Education: Results of a Field Experiment.

The introduction of computer-based testing in high-stakes examining in higher education is developing rather slowly due to institutional barriers (the need of extra facilities, ensuring test security) and teacher and student acceptance. From the existing literature it is unclear whether computer-based exams will result in similar results as paper-based exams and whether student acceptance can c...

You sneeze, you lose:: The impact of pollen exposure on cognitive performance during high-stakes high school exams.

Pollen is known to cause allergic reactions and affect cognitive performance in around 20% of the population. Although pollen season peaks when students take high-stakes exams, the effect of pollen allergies on school performance has received nearly no attention from economists. Using a student fixed effects model and administrative Norwegian data, this paper finds that increasing the ambient p...

Hot Temperature and High Stakes Exams: Evidence from New York City Public Schools

Understanding the link between temperature and educational outcomes is important in assessing the efficiency and equity implications of various schooling interventions and the potential welfare impacts of climate change. Using student-level administrative data for the largest public school district in the United States, I estimate the causal impact of hot temperature on high-stakes exam perform...

Hot Temperature, High Stakes Exams, and Avoidance Behavior: Evidence from New York City Public Schools

Understanding the link between temperature and educational outcomes is important in assessing the returns to various schooling interventions and the potential welfare impacts of climate change. Using student-level administrative data for the largest public school district in the United States, I estimate the causal impact of hot temperature on high-stakes exams and subsequent educational attain...