Cognitive Skills, Student Achievement Tests, and Schools

Citation:

Fin A, Kraft MA, West MR, Leonard JA, Bisch CE, Martin RE, Sheridan MA, Gabrieli CF, Gabrieli JD. Cognitive Skills, Student Achievement Tests, and Schools. Psychological Science. 2014;25 (3) :736-744.

Abstract:

Cognitive skills predict academic performance, so schools that improve academic performance might also improve cognitive skills. To investigate the impact schools have on both academic performance and cognitive skills, we related standardized achievement test scores to measures of cognitive skills in a large sample (N=1,367) of 8th-grade students attending traditional, exam, and charter public schools. Test scores and gains in test scores over time correlated with measures of cognitive skills. Despite wide variation in test scores across schools, differences in cognitive skills across schools were negligible after controlling for 4th-grade test scores. Random offers of enrollment to over-subscribed charter schools resulted in positive impacts of such school attendance on math achievement, but had no impact on cognitive skills. These findings suggest that schools that improve standardized achievement tests do so primarily through channels other than cognitive skills.