Promise and Paradox: Measuring Students’ Non-Cognitive Skills and the Impact of Schooling
Open accessAbstract
We used self-report surveys to gather information on a broad set of non-cognitive skills from 1,368 eighth graders. At the student level, scales measuring conscientiousness, self-control, grit, and growth mindset are positively correlated with attendance, behavior, and test-score gains between fourth grade and eighth grade. Conscientiousness, self-control, and grit are unrelated to test-score gains at the school level, however, and students attending over-subscribed charter schools score lower on these scales than do students attending district schools. Exploiting admissions lotteries, we find positive impacts of charter school attendance on achievement and attendance but negative impacts on these non-cognitive skills. We provide suggestive evidence that these paradoxical results are driven by reference bias or the tendency for survey responses to be influenced by social context.
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Using school fixed effects minimizes the possibility of reference bias in self-reported measures.
“Another important benefit of using school fixed effects is that this approach minimizes the possibility of reference bias in our self-reported measures (West et al., 2016; Duckworth & Yeager, 2015).”
From Teacher and Teaching Effects on Students’ Attitudes and Behaviors (2017) · cites this paper as West et al., 2016
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References 60 · Cited by 351
- Authors
- West, M. R., Kraft, M. A., Finn, A. S., Martin, R. E., Duckworth, A. L., Gabrieli, C. F. O., & Gabrieli, J. D. E.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Brown University (US)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Venue
- Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis
- Published
- 2016-03
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 148-170
- ISSN
- 0162-3737 (ISSN-L)
- 1935-1062
- OpenAlex
- W1816201314
- Cited by
- 351
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 54 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 42.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Grit, Self-Efficacy, and Motivation
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
- Keywords
- non-cognitive skills, conscientiousness, self-control, grit, growth mindset, charter schools, school choice, academic performance, school attendance, student behavior, reference bias, eighth grade students
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