Financial Incentives and Student Achievement from Randomized Trials in 250+ Urban Schools

A series of school-based randomized trials in over 250 urban schools tests the impact of financial incentives on student achievement. The data, described by Roland G. Fryer, suggests incentives for educational inputs increase achievement, while output-based incentives are not effective. The study compares the cost-effectiveness of these incentive-based reforms against other popular education interventions.

Use Cases

• Causal inference analysis based on randomized trial design
• Cost-effectiveness modeling of education reforms based on incentive structures
• Behavioral economics research on student responses to input versus output incentives

Strengths

• Data originates from a series of randomized controlled trials, a gold standard for causal inference
• Study scale includes over 250 urban schools
• Analysis includes qualitative data to explain experimental results

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• License is closed, restricting reuse and redistribution

Provenance

Source

Roland G. Fryer

Collection Method

School-based randomized trials

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified

Geography

Urban schools (location unspecified)