The Effects of Accelerated Mathematics on Self-Efficacy and Growth Mindset

Student’s educational investment decisions are influenced by their beliefs about the returns to study effort and their chances of academic success. This highlights the importance of studying the effects of school policies on students’ beliefs about their ability to learn and achieve. To this end, we examine the effects of accelerated math on students’ self-efficacy and growth mindset, using survey measures of these beliefs. We argue, based on economic theory, that effects on growth mindset should be considered as more important relative to those on self-efficacy. We examine the effects of accelerated math empirically using a difference-in-differences design and find negative effects on both belief measures. However, the effects on growth mindset are much smaller, and in some analyses indistinguishable from zero, although these effects are larger in magnitude for female students. In exploring potential mechanisms, we find accelerated math leads to a precipitous drop in math course grades, with no similar drop in math test performance. Our findings suggest that there may be negative effects of acceleration on important student beliefs, but these effects appear modest. Our work motivates further study of the information environment surrounding these students at the time of acceleration