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To What Extent Does Relative Maturity Affect Test Scores Between Tracked and Untracked Education Systems? Evidence From TIMSS 2019
by Qi Xuan Khoo
Abstract
Most education systems enforce a cutoff birth date for school entry, and some group students based on their perceived ability—a practice known as tracking. While the former policy leads to maturity gaps among early learners, the concomitant performance gaps may or may not be exacerbated by the latter. Analyzing the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 dataset to study how relative maturity affects test scores with tracking, this paper finds that older students outperform their younger peers. This relative maturity test score premium is accentuated by tracking, and these effects are found to be more significant in mathematics than in science.
Robert Garlick, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: I2, I24, I28
