College effects on learning outcomes in Spain and the US: Evidence from the TEDS-M survey

Abstract: School effects are a well-known explanation in the explanation of the intergeneration transmission of inequality in the sociological literature. Research has focus almost exclusively in their impact in early stages of the school careers including primary and lower secondary education. Little is known about the importance of the college attended in tertiary education. For almost the first time, evidence from the TEDS-M survey allows studying the impact of the clustering of future teachers still enrolled in university programs in their knowledge of mathematics. Using a multilevel modeling strategy we study ‘school effects’ for the outcomes of students in Spain and the US attending concurrent programs. Both countries have important similarities that ease the comparison and differ in essential aspects that help to expect softer school effects in the first of these two countries (diversification of tertiary education institutions in the US and a weak certification of the quality of the future teacher education programs in Spain). Our results confirm that while in Spain the college attended can determine up to only a 2% of the knowledge in mathematics, in the US schools matter far more (21%).