Switching from High-stakes to Low-stakes Evaluation: Evidence from a University-level Reform

Education systems universally employ exams as one of the main evaluation tools. This paper examines the consequences of eliminating exams as the standard evaluation tool throughout a whole educational stage and replaces them by group projects. We delve into the different mechanisms that materialize an effect on labor market outcomes and the differential impact by gender, family income, and the student’s academic rank in the standard exam environment. This complements but yet switches the focus of attention from US universities deciding on the elimination of admission exams. In the field, I held several rounds of discussions with the local universities to finalize a data agreement to access student academic and graduation information and I also met with co-authors at the Central Bank about the processing of the labor administrative data for the project. Funding objectives are achieved as data has been secured and analysis is in progress.