The Asymmetric Effects of School Facilities on Academic Achievement: Evidence from Texas Bond Votes

This study examines the asymmetric effects of investments in school facilities on student achievement. It employs a quasi-experimental approach to exploit variations in levels of capital funding. The authors combine data from 4 million 3rd to 8th graders in Texas with outcomes from school bonds and openings. They find meaningful differences in impact across the top and bottom quintiles of the pre-treatment achievement distribution, a result supported by the peer effects literature and a “reshuffling” of higher-performing students into new schools. The mean impact of bond passage on reading and math scores is positive, at roughly 1/10th of a standard deviation. However, the effect on the lowest-scoring students is four times as large, while it reverses in direction for the highest-performing students.