The unintended consequences of academic leniency

A. Brooks Bowden, Viviana Rodriguez and Zach Weingarten:

Education is widely recognized as the primary driver of human capital accumulation. However, policies designed to promote educational attainment often overlook students’ endogenous responses. This paper provides empirical evidence of the causal impact of relaxed academic standards on student effort and achievement. We find that academic leniency results in mechanical GPA increases, but significant reductions in effort among lower ability students based on lower attendance and lower numerical grades. These heterogeneous effects compound and exacerbate gaps in engagement and achievement throughout high school, ultimately worsening deficits in human capital accumulation as measured by ACT scores.

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