When the cat is near, the mice won't play:the effect of external examiners in Italian schools

Bertoni, Marco and Brunello, Giorgio and Rocco, Lorenzo (2013) When the cat is near, the mice won't play:the effect of external examiners in Italian schools. Journal of Public Economics, 104. pp. 65-77. ISSN 0047-2727

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Abstract

We use a natural experiment to show that the presence of an external examiner has both a direct and an indirect negative effect on the performance of monitored classes in standardised educational tests. The direct effect is the difference in the test performance between classes of the same school with and without external examiners. The indirect effect is the difference in performance between un-monitored classes in schools with an external examiner and un-monitored classes in schools without external monitoring. We find that the overall effect of having an external examiner in the class is to reduce the proportion of correct answers by 5.5 to 8.5% – depending on the grade and the test – with respect to classes in schools with no external monitor. The direct and indirect effects range between 4.3 and 6.6% and between 1.2 and 1.9% respectively. Using additional supporting evidence, we argue that the negative impact of the presence of an external examiner on measured test scores is due to reduced cheating (by students and/or teachers) rather than to the negative effects of anxiety or distraction from having a stranger in the class.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Public Economics
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2000/2002
Subjects:
?? EDUCATIONTESTING EXTERNAL MONITORING INDIRECT TREATMENT EFFECTSFINANCEECONOMICS AND ECONOMETRICS ??
ID Code:
68705
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
24 Feb 2014 09:12
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
17 Sep 2023 01:30