Comparing Means Can Be Mean: Quantifying the Performance of Universidad Javeriana's Business Administration Students at the ECAES Exit Exam

46 Pages Posted: 30 Nov 2012

Date Written: May 12, 2012

Abstract

As part of an initiative to improve quality and accountability in Colombian higher education, the National Education Ministry introduced a college field-specific exit exam known as ECAES in 2003. The paper examines the problems that might come up in attempting to analyze the results of this exam as a measure of educational quality. The purpose of this paper is to use an alternative approach to the rankings currently available, which are based on arithmetic mean comparisons, in order to quantify and analyze the performance of students in the ECAES exam. The specific case of the students enrolled at Universidad Javeriana’s Business Administration Program is addressed using Propensity Score Matching. However, the methodology can be easily applied to other programs and universities. The empirical results show a strong treatment effect of attending Universidad Javeriana on the performance in the ECAES exam. The average treatment effect on the treated varies from 5.863 to 9.051 points. This outcome is consistent amongst the different approaches considered. In contrast to what previous studies have shown using rankings derived from simple comparisons of mean test scores, students from Universidad Javeriana are performing better than comparable students, showing that the construction and interpretation of those rankings might be flawed. However, it is important to highlight that the purpose of this paper is not to set a new ranking system.

Keywords: higher education, exit exams, economics of education, impact evaluation

JEL Classification: I23, I25

Suggested Citation

Gómez Soler, Silvia C., Comparing Means Can Be Mean: Quantifying the Performance of Universidad Javeriana's Business Administration Students at the ECAES Exit Exam (May 12, 2012). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2182757 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2182757

Silvia C. Gómez Soler (Contact Author)

Universidad de la Sabana ( email )

Campus Universitario del Puente del Común, Km. 7
Chia, Cundinamarca A.A.140122
Colombia

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