Measuring value-added in higher education: Possibilities and limitations in the use of administrative data

By J. Cunha, Trey Miller. 2014

116 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper develops a general methodology for measuring the value added of institutions of higher education using commonly available administrative data. Our approach recognizes the data limitations and selection problems inherent in higher education, and highlights the challenges these issues pose for education policy. Combining information from different administrative sources in the state of Texas, we follow the universe of Texas college applicants from the time of application (pre-enrollment) through public college and into the labor market. In specifications that do not control for selection, we find large, significant differences across colleges in terms of persistence, graduation, and earnings; however, these differences decrease substantially when we control for selection. In light of the growing interest in using value-added measures in higher education for both funding and incentivizing purposes, our methodology offers unique evidence and lessons for policy makers.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Education

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e55158826ba6013d42c98e239ecb76a00ad480f0

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

1. M. Goos
2. A. Salomons
3. David H. Autor
4. Thiemo Fetzer
5. Guy Michaels

In Education

1. M. Goos
2. A. Salomons

Citations in the corpus

• Measuring teaching quality in higher education: assessing selection bias in course evaluations (2017, background): “See Cunha and Miller (2014) for an in-depth exploration of the possibilities and limitations of value-added measures in higher education.”