This paper establishes a new fact about educational production: ordinal academic rank during primary school has lasting … estimate the impact of class rank. We find large effects on test scores, confidence, and subject choice during secondary school …

's ordinal rank in elementary school? Using administrative data from all public school students in Texas, we show that students … with a higher third grade academic rank, conditional on ability and classroom effects, have higher subsequent test scores … later. Given these findings, the paper concludes by exploring the tradeoff between higher quality schools and higher rank. …