R: Massachusetts Test Score Data

MASchools {AER} | R Documentation

## Massachusetts Test Score Data

### Description

The dataset contains data on test performance, school characteristics and student demographic backgrounds for school districts in Massachusetts.

### Usage

    data("MASchools")

### Format

A data frame containing 220 observations on 16 variables.

district

  character. District code.

municipality

  character. Municipality name.

expreg

  Expenditures per pupil, regular.

expspecial

  Expenditures per pupil, special needs.

expbil

  Expenditures per pupil, bilingual.

expocc

  Expenditures per pupil, occupational.

exptot

  Expenditures per pupil, total.

scratio

  Students per computer.

special

  Special education students (per cent).

lunch

  Percent qualifying for reduced-price lunch.

stratio

  Student-teacher ratio.

income

  Per capita income.

score4

  4th grade score (math + English + science).

score8

  8th grade score (math + English + science).

salary

  Average teacher salary.

english

  Percent of English learners.

### Details

The Massachusetts data are district-wide averages for public elementary school districts in 1998. The test score is taken from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test, administered to all fourth graders in Massachusetts public schools in the spring of 1998. The test is sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Education and is mandatory for all public schools. The data analyzed here are the overall total score, which is the sum of the scores on the English, Math, and Science portions of the test. Data on the student-teacher ratio, the percent of students receiving a subsidized lunch and on the percent of students still learning english are averages for each elementary school district for the 1997–1998 school year and were obtained from the Massachusetts department of education. Data on average district income are from the 1990 US Census.

### Source

Online complements to Stock and Watson (2007).

### References

Stock, J. H. and Watson, M. W. (2007). Introduction to Econometrics, 2nd ed. Boston: Addison Wesley.

### See Also

`StockWatson2007`, `CASchools`

### Examples

    ## Massachusetts
    data("MASchools")

    ## compare with California
    data("CASchools")
    CASchools$stratio <- with(CASchools, students/teachers)
    CASchools$score4 <- with(CASchools, (math + read)/2)

    ## Stock and Watson, parts of Table 9.1, p. 330
    vars <- c("score4", "stratio", "english", "lunch", "income")
    cbind(
      CA_mean = sapply(CASchools[, vars], mean),
      CA_sd   = sapply(CASchools[, vars], sd),
      MA_mean = sapply(MASchools[, vars], mean),
      MA_sd   = sapply(MASchools[, vars], sd))

    ## Stock and Watson, Table 9.2, p. 332, col. (1)
    fm1 <- lm(score4 ~ stratio, data = MASchools)
    coeftest(fm1, vcov = vcovHC(fm1, type = "HC1"))

    ## More examples, notably the entire Table 9.2, can be found in:
    ## help("StockWatson2007")

[Package AER version 1.2-5 Index]