TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kretschmann, Julia
A1  - Vock, Miriam
A1  - Luedtke, Oliver
T1  - Acceleration in elementary school: using propensity score matching to estimate the effects on academic achievement
JF  - The journal of educational psychology
N2  - Using German data, we examined the effects of one specific type of acceleration-grade skipping-on academic performance. Prior research on the effects of acceleration has suffered from methodological restrictions, especially due to a lack of appropriate comparison groups and a priori measurements. For this reason, propensity score matching was applied in this analysis to minimize selection bias due to observed confounding variables. Various types of matching were attempted, and, in consideration of balancing the covariates, full matching was the final choice. We used data from the Berlin ELEMENT Study, analyzing, after matching, the information of 81 students who had skipped a grade over the course of elementary school and up to 1,668 nonaccelerated students who attended the same grade level as the accelerated students. Measurements took place 3 times between the 4th and 6th grades, including the assessment of reading, spelling, and mathematics performance. After matching, the results of between-group comparisons regarding performance indices showed no significant effects of skipping a grade, other than a small positive effect found on spelling performance. Theoretical implications and methodological limitations are discussed.
KW  - grade skipping
KW  - academic performance
KW  - propensity score matching
KW  - acceleration
KW  - elementary school
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036631
SN  - 0022-0663
SN  - 1939-2176
VL  - 106
IS  - 4
SP  - 1080
EP  - 1095
PB  - American Psychological Association
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Becker, Michael
A1  - Neumann, Marko
A1  - Tetzner, Julia
A1  - Böse, Susanne
A1  - Knoppick, Henrike
A1  - Maaz, Kai
A1  - Baumert, Jürgen
A1  - Lehmann, Rainer
T1  - Development? Effects of the transition into academically selective schools
JF  - The journal of educational psychology
N2  - The present study investigates school context effects on psychosocial characteristics (academic self-concept, peer relations, school satisfaction, and school anxiety) of high-achieving and gifted students. Students who did or did not make an early transition from elementary to secondary schools for high-achieving and gifted students in 5th grade in Berlin, Germany, are compared in their psychosocial development. The sample comprises 155 early-entry students who moved to an academically selective secondary school (Gymnasium) and 3,169 regular students who remained in elementary school until the end of 6th grade. Overall, a complex pattern of psychosocial development emerged for all students, with both positive and negative outcomes being observed. Specifically, the transition into academically selective learning environments seemed to come at some cost for psychosocial development. Propensity score matching analysis isolating the effects of selective school intake and the school context effect itself revealed negative contextual effects of early transition to Gymnasium on academic self-concept and school anxiety; additionally, the positive trend in peer relations observed among regular students was not discernible among early-entry students.
KW  - psychosocial development
KW  - transition
KW  - ability grouping
KW  - longitudinal design
KW  - propensity score matching
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035425
SN  - 0022-0663
SN  - 1939-2176
VL  - 106
IS  - 2
SP  - 555
EP  - 568
PB  - American Psychological Association
CY  - Washington
ER  -