Studer Community Institute

Economist recognized for ground-breaking work in education

April 27, 2015
/ Rick Harper
/ economy

The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association the best economist working in America who is under age 40. There have been 37 winners since it was initiated in 1947. Paul Samuelson won the first medal, and Milton Friedman won it in 1951. Harvard professor Roland Fryer won the 37th award this year. While he is perhaps not yet a household name, it is notable that he is African-American and that his major field of specialization is the economics of education. The bio presented on the AEA website proclaims him “the leading economist working on the economics of race and education.” Working with “Freakonomics” co-author Steve Levitt, Fryer demonstrates that the standardized test score gap for black and white children is “quite small” in the first year of life. Fryer finds that the racial test score gap is much more highly related to differences in economic circumstances than to anything else. Black kids do just as well as white kids, after statistically controlling for different economic circumstances. This effect changes as children go through their school years. The achievement gap widens, and it becomes more strongly associated specifically with race than it was for children in their early years. Evidently there is something going on that puts obstacles in the path of learning for black children. Further, there are not reliable ways to close the gap. Using significant grant funding, Fryer’s team designed, implemented and measured outcomes for experiments designed to test different educational intervention strategies. Students were paid either for reading books (the Dallas experiment), or for good performance on standardized tests (in New York City), or for getting good grades in class (Chicago). From those experiments, his team found that financial incentives for kids are largely ineffective; children evidently did not have the tools that would help them do better. Fryer is a co-author of an article that I have long found fascinating. Again with Levitt, Fryer put in place different financial incentives to reward kids’ performance, this time for teachers. The promise of an end-of-term bonus (the “gain” treatment) for a teacher didn’t seem to matter. However, payment up front, with a contract specifying that the upfront bonus would have to repaid if the kids didn’t meet performance targets (the “loss” treatment), was effective. Thus, the body of his work has found was that the timing and structure of incentives is important in changing performance, and that the classroom teacher is one of only a few effective ways to get the desired improvement in kids’ outcomes. It is academic attainment and performance – rather than the school attended or the numbers of years of schooling – that then makes a difference in wages in the labor market. While Fryer’s work finds that relatively few interventions make a difference once children reach school, one of the programs that does has been the Harlem Children’s Zone program. The HCZ holistic approach helps erase the racial achievement gap, particularly in math. Fryer and Will Dobbie find that the HCZ Promise Academies and other affiliated charter schools are associated with substantial improvements. They provide a list of recommendations for helping schools make a difference. Many John Bates Clark winners go on to win the Nobel Prize later in life. Fryer’s contributions, in an era when educational attainment is of increasing importance, seem likely to put him on that list as well. Dr. Rick Harper serves as director of the Studer Community Institute, a Pensacola, Florida-based organization that seeks citizen-powered solutions to challenges the community faces. He also directs the University of West Florida’s Office of Economic Development and Engagement in Pensacola.

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Economist recognized for ground-breaking work in education

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