Let Them Eat Lunch: The Impact of Universal Free Meals on Student Performance

This paper investigates the impact of extending free school lunch to all students, regardless of income, on academic performance in New York City middle schools. Using a difference-in-differences design and unique longitudinal, student-level data, we derive credibly causal estimates of the impacts of “Universal Free Meals” (UFM) on test scores in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics, and participation in school lunch. We find UFM increases academic performance by as much as 0.083 standard deviations in math and 0.059 in ELA for non-poor students, with smaller, statistically significant effects of 0.032 and 0.027 standard deviations in math and ELA for poor students. Further, UFM increases participation in school lunch by roughly 11.0 percentage points for non-poor students and 5.4 percentage points for poor students. We then investigate the academic effects of school lunch participation per se, using UFM as an instrumental variable. Results indicate that increases in school lunch participation improve academic performance for both poor and non-poor students; an additional lunch every two weeks increases test scores by roughly 0.08 standard deviations in math and 0.07 standard deviations in ELA. Finally, we explore potential unintended consequences for student weight outcomes, finding no evidence that UFM increases the probability that students are obese or overweight. We also find no evidence of increases in average body mass index (BMI). Instead, we find some evidence that participation in school lunch improves weight outcomes for non-poor students. Results are robust to an array of alternative specifications and assumptions about the sample.     

A simple way of estimating interest group ideology

Political scientists have developed accepted numerical estimates of political ideology for legislators, candidates, parties and even nations, but interest groups lack such scores. This absence puts interest group research at a disadvantage compared to other subfields. I generate ideology scores for 72 groups across 10 years by combining groups’ evaluations of Members of Congress with Poole and Rosenthal’s estimates of Members’ ideologies. Alternative methods are explored, and the validity of the scores is demonstrated. Examinations of the scores focus on the relative distribution of groups and Members of Congress and the link between a group’s ideology and its campaign contributions.     

Conflict, Fusion, or Coexistence? The Complexity of Contemporary American Conservatism

This paper draws on an original survey and on the 2004 NES to explore the complexity of contemporary American conservatism. In both datasets, we find evidence that economic and cultural conservatism stand as distinct strands of conservative attitudes. The original survey also allows us to further explore the role of beliefs about the market in economic conservatism. In the end, we find little support for either liberal hopes of fundamental ideological conflict among conservatives or conservative hopes of ideological fusion. Instead, our data suggests that a particular type of ideological coexistence among economic and cultural conservatives is the norm.

Commentary: Innovation Policy for a New Era

This commentary offers a response to the Sonderholm, Bird, and Flynn et al. articles, and argues that the current innovation crisis requires more ambitious approaches, as well as a serious consideration of alternative mechanisms for R&D such as prizes.     

Disentangling the racial test score gap: Probing the evidence in a large urban school district

We examine the size and distribution of the gap in test scores across races within New York City public schools and the factors that explain these gaps. While gaps are partially explained by differences in student characteristics, such as poverty, differences in schools attended are also important. At the same time, substantial within‐school gaps remain and are only partly explained by differences in academic preparation across students from different race groups. Controlling for differences in classrooms attended explains little of the remaining gap, suggesting little role for within‐school inequities in resources. There is some evidence that school characteristics matter. Race gaps are negatively correlated with school size—implying small schools may be helpful. In addition, the trade‐off between the size and experience of the teaching staff in urban schools may carry unintended consequences for within‐school race gaps. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

The Personal Fable and Risk-Taking in Early Adolescence

Elkind’s (1967) theory of adolescent egocentrism proposes two distinct, but related, constructs – the imaginary audience and the personal fable. A corollary to the imaginary audience, the personal fable (PF) yields a sense of invulnerability and speciality commonly associated with behavioral risk-taking. When regarded as a developmental phenomenon, risk-taking is thought to be the result of cognitive immaturity. However, few adolescent health programs address the egocentric dimension of decision making. We believe that a valid and reliable measure of PF would aid assessment of risk-taking potential and inform preventive interventions. The present paper reports the results of a newly constructed measure of PF and its relation to risk-taking behavior. The following three hypotheses were tested using data from an availability sample of 119 middle school students: 1. PF scores will increase with age; 2. males will score higher than females on the invulnerability dimension of PF; and 3. PF and risk-taking will be positively correlated. As predicted, PF scores increased significantly across the age range studied. Of the two PF dimensions, only invulnerability significantly varied across grades. Males reported significantly higher invulnerability scores than females, and PF and risk-taking were positively correlated. Suggestions for the implementation of this new and, arguably, reliable and valid scale are presented. Amy Alberts, M. A., is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Applied Child Development at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University. Ms. Alberts’ research interests include psychosocial adjustment during the pubertal transition and adolescent-parent relationships. David Elkind, Ph.D. is Professor of Child Development at Tufts University. His research has been in the areas of social and cognitive development, building upon the research and theory of Jean Piaget. His latest book, The Power of Play will be Published by DaCapo Press in 2007. I have served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence for almost two decades. Although Dan and I have not always agreed on adolescent issues it has always been a responsible, mutually respecting disagreement. As an editor, Dan has always been sensitive, thoughtful and supportive, a pleasure to work with and for. Stephen Ginsberg is a senior at Tufts University and is currently applying to graduate programs in clinical psychology.