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Evidence From Project STAR","","Project STAR randomly assigned 11,571 Tennessee students and teachers to different classroom assignments within schools from kindergarten through third grade. Using linked administrative records, the study estimates long-run effects on multiple adult outcomes. Kindergarten test scores strongly predict earnings at age 27, college attendance, home ownership, and retirement savings. Small classes raise college and several outcomes. Teacher experience and kindergarten class quality increase earnings and other measures, while effects on later test scores fade.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/how-does-your-kindergarten-classroom-affect-your-earnings-evidence-from-project-star-269004/269004/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/how-does-your-kindergarten-classroom-affect-your-earnings-evidence-from-project-star-269004/269004.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Riley West","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-09-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How were students assigned in Project STAR?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Students and teachers were randomly assigned to different classroom assignments within schools from kindergarten to third grade. Assignments included small and large classes and reflected variations in teacher experience and peers.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What long-term outcomes does the paper analyze?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The study tracks outcomes including earnings at age 27, college attendance, college ranking, home ownership, retirement savings, and other non-cognitive measures.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Do kindergarten effects persist into later grades?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Effects of kindergarten class quality fade out for later test scores, but gains in non-cognitive measures persist.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},269004,1789440578,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},1099523885074,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES  \nHOW DOES YOUR KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOM AFFECT YOUR EARNINGS?  \nEVIDENCE FROM PROJECT STAR  \nRaj Chetty  \nJohn N. Friedman  \nNathaniel Hilger  \nEmmanuel Saez  \nDiane Whitmore Schanzenbach  \nDanny Yagan  \nWorking Paper 16381  \n[http://www.nber.org/papers/w16381](http://www.nber.org/papers/w16381)  \nNATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH  \n1050 Massachusetts Avenue  \nCambridge, MA 02138  \nSeptember 2010  \nWe thank Lisa Barrow, David Card, Elizabeth Cascio, Janet Currie, Jeremy Finn, Edward Glaeser, Bryan Graham, James Heckman, Caroline Hoxby, Thomas Kane, Lawrence Katz, Alan Krueger, Derek Neal, Jonah Rockoff, Douglas Staiger, and numerous seminar participants for helpful discussions and comments. We thank Helen Bain and Jayne Zaharias at HEROS for access to the Project STAR data. The tax data were accessed through contract TIRNO-09-R-00007 with the Statistics of Income (SOI) Division at the US Internal Revenue Service. We thank the SOI staff, and in particular Nicholas Greenia, for their invaluable help and guidance in this process. Gregory Bruich, Jane Choi, Jessica Laird, Keli Liu, Laszlo Sandor, and Patrick Turley provided outstanding research assistance. Financial support from the Lab for Economic Applications and Policy at Harvard, the Center for Equitable Growth at UC Berkeley, and the National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.  \n© 2010 by Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Nathaniel Hilger, Emmanuel Saez, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, and Danny Yagan. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source.  \nHow Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence From Project STAR Raj Chetty, John N. Friedman, Nathaniel Hilger, Emmanuel Saez, Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, and Danny Yagan  \nNBER Working Paper No. 16381 September 2010, Revised October 2010 JEL No. H0,J0  \nABSTRACT  \nIn Project STAR, 11,571 students in Tennessee and their teachers were randomly assigned to different classrooms within their schools from kindergarten to third grade. This paper evaluates the long-term impacts of STAR using administrative records. We obtain five results. First, kindergarten test scores are highly correlated with outcomes such as earnings at age 27, college attendance, home ownership, and retirement savings. Second, students in small classes are significantly more likely to attend college, attend a higher-ranked college, and perform better on a variety of other outcomes. Class size does not have a significant effect on earnings at age 27, but this effect is imprecisely estimated. Third, students who had a more experienced teacher in kindergarten have higher earnings. Fourth, an analysis of variance reveals significant kindergarten class effects on earnings. Higher kindergarten class quality—as measured by classmates' end-of-class test scores—increases earnings, college attendance rates, and other outcomes. Finally, the effects of kindergarten class quality fade out on test scores in later grades but gains in non-cognitive measures persist. We conclude that early childhood education has substantial long-term impacts, potentially through non-cognitive channels. Our analysis suggests that improving the quality of schools in disadvantaged areas may reduce poverty and raise earnings and tax revenue in the long run.  \nRaj Chetty  \nDepartment of Economics Harvard University 1805 Cambridge St. Cambridge, MA 02138 and NBER [chetty@fas.harvard.edu](chetty@fas.harvard.edu)  \nJohn N. Friedman Harvard Kennedy School Taubman 356  \n79 JFK St.  \nCambridge, MA 02138 and NBER [jfriedman@post.harvard.edu](jfriedman@post.harvard.edu)  \nNathaniel Hilger Department of Economics Harvard University 1805 Cambridge St. Cambridge, MA 02138 [nhilger@f","cbCaicVPvWNZU7ih","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicVPvWNZU7ih","pdf",594891,83,"English","# Introduction\n## Data and linkage\n## Long-term impacts on outcomes\n## Findings: test scores, class size, teachers, and class quality\n## Interpretation and policy implications","[{\"question\":\"How were students assigned in Project STAR?\",\"answer\":\"Students and teachers were randomly assigned to different classroom assignments within schools from kindergarten to third grade. Assignments included small and large classes and reflected variations in teacher experience and peers.\"},{\"question\":\"What long-term outcomes does the paper analyze?\",\"answer\":\"The study tracks outcomes including earnings at age 27, college attendance, college ranking, home ownership, retirement savings, and other non-cognitive measures.\"},{\"question\":\"Do kindergarten effects persist into later grades?\",\"answer\":\"Effects of kindergarten class quality fade out for later test scores, but gains in non-cognitive measures persist.\"}]","How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence From Project STAR | PDF",209]