We analyze the effects of several class compositional dimensions on individual student achievement. We make use of a rich dataset that allows tackling major endogeneity concerns stemming from non-random allocation of students between and within schools. We find that increasing the percentage of...

PISA uses a complex sampling procedure based on stratification variables chosen by the participating countries’ authorities. In this paper we analyse the representativeness of the samples used in terms of the distribution of students per grade and track of studies for Portugal. For the three...

Previous research has identified a gender gap in the difference between teacher grading andscores on national exams at the end of secondary school. We go a step further and look at howteacher characteristics may influence this gender gap. We find that exams are relatively morefavorable for boys,...

Being the youngest in a cohort entails many penalties. Using administrativedata of every public-school student in Portugal, we show that although performancegains from being 1-year older fade quickly from primary education to high school,age-related penalties persist through a combination of...