Effects of studying abroad during high school - A reanalysis of the LAU study

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Benjamin Nagengast
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions ; General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: from 2016 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 316304274

The proposed project aims to investigate the effects of studying abroad during high school on student achievement. Although there has been a significant increase in educational mobility during the past years (OECD, 2014), there only have been a few studies that focus on individual and contextual predictors and the effects of studying abroad during high school. One of the reasons for the limited amount of research on the effects of studying abroad is that the research designs and data must meet high requirements in order for meaningful inferences to be drawn. Using longitudinal data from the LAU-study (Behörde für Schule und Berufsbildung, 2012; Lehmann, Hunger, Ivanov, Gänsfuß & Hoffmann, 2003; Lehmann, Peek, Gänsfuß & Husfeldt, 2002; Trautwein, Köller, Lehmann & Lüdtke, 2007) will allow us to address these challenges.We propose to address three research questions: (1) What student and school characteristics predict whether students will study abroad during high school? We will focus in particular on students' family background characteristics as well as on their achievement characteristics as measured by standardized achievement tests. The LAU-study includes a rich set of measures assessed prior to going abroad that is ideally suited for this purpose. (2) What are the effects of studying abroad in English-speaking countries during high school on the development of English skills (as measured by standardized achievement tests) and on high school grades in English after controlling for pre-existing differences? The LAU-13 data will allow us to analyze differential developments in various dimensions of English performance (reading/writing/listening). We will also test whether course-choice behavior (e.g., English as an advanced course) mediates the effects of stays abroad on English achievement and whether the duration of a stay abroad systematically influences the effectiveness of such a stay. (3) Does studying abroad during high school also have an effect on performance and grades in other subjects, particularly in mathematics? As students tend to have plenty of flexibility in choosing courses during their time abroad, an impact on other subjects seems likely, but has not been systematically investigated before.In order to fully exploit the strengths of the LAU dataset, it is necessary to first prepare the complex data and implement an adequate strategy for taking missing values into account. In order to identify causal effects of studying abroad during high school, the covariates that guide the selection process have to be identified and accounted for. For this purpose, we will use propensity score methods that allow for flexible specifications of the selection model. We will check the robustness of the estimated effects against unobserved confounders using sensitivity analyses.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Ulrich Trautwein