Does Looping Enhance Student Achievement?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the pros and cons of looping, while discovering its social and academic effects on student achievement. This was done by analyzing the standardized test scores in reading, language arts and math of a control group that did not loop and an experimental group that looped for one year. Results showed there was no significant difference in academic achievement between the group of students that looped and the students that did not loop in grades 4-5. There was statistical significance in the improvement of reading test scores from the students that looped. Although statistical significance was found in these scores, the effect size was very small; therefore generalizations regarding the benefits of looping are inappropriate

Inside the Music Classroom: Deaf Students

Many students in the music classroom have normal hearing, but we do see some classrooms that have students who are deaf either sing or perform. Many deaf students use cochlear implants for their daily lives, but some do not use cochlear implants and still do well in the music classroom. There are many students who think that family involvement is important to those with cochlear implants. The parents should be aware of that the sound quality from a student who uses CI is not the same as a student who has normal hearing. Single-Sided deafness is one of the types of deafness that many students can experience using cochlear implants, which can affect a student who wants to appreciate music. There are ways to help students who are deaf and use cochlear implants, the first one is rhythmic training, which helps students improve on speech and music behavior. Another way to help students who use cochlear implants, is to use a singing proficiency to help the central auditory system by music training

An empirical analysis of the effects of climate variables on national level economic growth

The influence of climate on economic growth is a topic of growing interest. Few studies have investigated the potential role that climate hazards and their cumulative effects have on the growth prospects for a country. Due to the relatively stationary spatial patterns of global climate, some regions and countries are more prone to climate hazards and climate variability than others. This study uses a precipitation index that preserves the spatial and temporal variability of precipitation and differentiates between precipitation maximums (such as floods) and minimums (such as droughts). The authors develop a year and country fixed effects regression model to test the influence of climate variables on measures of economic growth and activity. The results indicate that precipitation extremes (floods and droughts) are the dominant climate influence on economic growth and that the effects are significant and negative. The drought index is associated with a highly significant negative influence on growth of growth domestic product, while the flood index is associated with a negative influence on growth of gross domestic product and lagged effects on growth. Temperature has little significant effect. These results have important implications for economic projections of climate change impacts. In addition, adaptation strategies should give new consideration to the importance of water resources given the identification of precipitation extremes as the key climate influence on historical growth of gross domestic product.Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Science of Climate Change,Global Environment Facility,Climate Change Economics,Climate Change Impacts

Hydroclimatic risk to economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

In order to plan strategies for adaptation to climate change, the current effects of climate on economic growth needs to be understood. This study reviews evidence of climate effects on economic growth and presents original analysis of the effect in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Case studies from the literature demonstrate that historically, climate has had significant and negative effects on household income, agricultural productivity and economic growth in SSA. This study focuses on the effects hydroclimatic variability on economic growth in the countries of SSA. We utilize a new national level precipitation statistic that incorporates spatial and temporal variability within each country. Country level economic growth statistics are analyzed with cross-country and panel regressions. Persistent negative precipitation anomalies (drought) are found to be the most significant climate influence on economic growth. This result is consistent across all model specifications and across several measures of welfare and economic activity. Temperature and precipitation variability show significant effects in some cases. Results imply the consideration of hydroclimatic risks, namely drought, may be the priority concern for adaptation to a changing climate for Sub-Saharan Africa. This conclusion is contrary to the focus of many climate change impact assessments that focus on temperature increases as the primary concern

Exploring the effect of hydroclimate variability on economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: A water security index

Recent econometric studies provide evidence that climate variability in general, and rainfall variability in particular, has a negative effect on economic growth in the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, we explore the factors that may explain why some countries are more resilient to climate variability than others. We use a range of data that is representative of the possible sources of resilience that are commonly hypothesized in the literature, including the state of water resources and water use, the inventory of infrastructure and the quality of institutions. Two analyses are undertaken. In the first, cross country regressions are used to explore aggregate associations of climate and resilience variables with economic growth. In the second, panel regressions for individual countries are performed with drought and flood indices. The results of these regressions are used to specify a water security index. The water security index is then analyzed through the prism of the resilience variables to draw inferences in regard to the sources of resilience that contribute to more water security. The results of these analyses are informative. Cross country regressions confirm the negative association between rainfall variability and economic growth within Sub-Saharan Africa. They also revealed strong associations between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and infrastructure inventory and economic growth. An index that accounts for climate variability and water storage (Seasonal Storage Index) is also strongly associated with both FDI and economic growth. The analysis of the Water Security Index revealed that more internal renewable water resources and irrigated agriculture as a percent of agricultural area were associated with more resilience to hydroclimate variability. Water storage was not a strong indicator of resilience, although when controlling for hydrologic variability with the SSI, it does become more important. There were no strong associations with institutions and weak positive associations with road density and phones

www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/heep Water Works: The Economic Impact of Water Infrastructure

The Harvard Environmental Economics Program (HEEP) develops innovative answers to today’s complex environmental issues, by providing a venue to bring together faculty and graduate students from across Harvard University engaged in research, teaching, and outreach in environmental and natural resource economics and related public policy. The program sponsors research projects, convenes workshops, and supports graduate education to further understanding of critical issues in environmental, natural resource, and energy economics and policy around the world

Essays on the Economics of Household Water Access in Developing Countries

This dissertation focuses on the economics of household water access in developing countries. The first paper explores whether improvements in water technology enable changes in household time allocation and, thereby, productivity gains. To do so, it exploits differences in timing of shared water tap construction across Kyrgyz villages. Households in villages that received the drinking water infrastructure are more likely to have water close to their homes. This reduced the time intensity of home production activities impacted by water. Village-level incidence of acute intestinal infections fell amongst children. Although adults show no signs of health improvements, they do benefit from reductions in the time spent caring for sick children. Individuals reallocate time savings to additional leisure and market labor, primarily work on the household farm, and the returns to the additional farm labor approximately equal the hourly farm wage. Time intensive water collection can be a source of gender inequality in households lacking water infrastructure. The second paper uses a natural experiment to investigate culture as a source of gender inequality and its role in determining gender roles for activities, such as water collection. Using exogenous variation in district-level cultural composition due to events in Kyrgyzstan during Soviet rule, I estimate the persistence of differences in gender equality between traditional sedentary farming cultures and nomadic herding cultures. Results indicate that Soviet institutions increased educational attainment in both cultures. Other cultural differences - such as gender of household water collector and perceptions of domestic violence - persist. One impediment to the construction of water infrastructure is insecure land tenure or property rights. The third paper explores whether alleviating this impediment through a program providing land titles in rural Peru is associated with improvements in water access. Utilizing the phased in timing, I exploit the differences in project implementation timing between households that held property titles prior to the project and those that did not. Results indicate that land titling is associated with increases in water access. Supporting evidence suggests that either the government or a utility might be responsible for the improvements

Willingness to pay for clean water in less developed countries: systematic review of experimental evidence

Background: Diarrheal diseases kill two million children every year despite the availability of effective and inexpensive technologies to improve water quality and limit the spread of pathogens. There is a growing literature on the effectiveness of such technologies but important gaps remain in understanding the demand for these products and the adoption decision. Methods: This review expands upon and complements several existing summary articles by focusing on willingness to pay for cleaner water. Willingness to pay can be measured by price randomizations that induce people to reveal their valuation in real purchase decisions or by other methods such as contingent valuation exercises in hypothetical situations and discrete choice analysis. The review conducts a systematic search for experimental evidence on willingness to pay for cleaner water. Results: This review finds few studies that have used randomized approaches or even attempted to measure households’ willingness to pay for cleaner water, but a very clear picture emerges from the existing evidence: willingness to pay is often less than the cost of these technologies and demand is very sensitive to price. Existing evidence suggests that positive prices do not effectively target products to those who need them the most and that positive prices are a key barrier to realizing potential gains associated with water treatment. Implications: Given the evidence of low valuation for water quality, despite the impact of water-borne disease on child health, the challenge for research and policy is to identify innovative service delivery models and technological innovations that drive prices down and make public subsidies more feasible. Future willingness to pay studies should be based on real purchases and use. Experimental methods to collect estimates of willingness to pay are easily justified as promotional discounts and could be implemented via coupon programs that make it possible to assemble large datasets quickly and cheaply