Are School Counselors a Cost-Effective Education Input?

20 Pages Posted: 25 Jun 2010 Last revised: 30 Jan 2011

See all articles by Scott E. Carrell

Scott E. Carrell

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics

Mark Hoekstra

University of Pittsburgh - Department of Economics

Date Written: January 28, 2011

Abstract

While much is known about the effects of class size and teacher quality on achievement, there is little evidence on whether policymakers can improve education by utilizing non-instructional resources. We exploit plausibly exogenous within-school variation in counselors and find that one additional counselor increases boys’ reading and math achievement by over one percentile point, and reduces misbehavior of both boys and girls. Estimates imply the marginal counselor has the same impact on overall achievement as increasing the quality of every teacher in the school by nearly one-third of a standard deviation, and is twice as effective as reducing class size by hiring an additional teacher.

Keywords: Education Production

JEL Classification: I21

Suggested Citation

Carrell, Scott E. and Hoekstra, Mark, Are School Counselors a Cost-Effective Education Input? (January 28, 2011). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1629868 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1629868

Scott E. Carrell

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics ( email )

One Shields Drive
Davis, CA 95616-8578
United States

Mark Hoekstra (Contact Author)

University of Pittsburgh - Department of Economics ( email )

4714 Posvar Hall
230 S. Bouquet Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.econ.pitt.edu/facpage.php?uid=108

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