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Hope and commitment. Lessons from a randomize control trial in a shanty town

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  • Marianne Bernatzky
  • Alejandro Cid

Abstract

This paper documents the impact of an after-school program called Apoyo Escolar, sited in the most vulnerable neighborhood of a developing country. The outcomes of interest are academic achievement, behavior in the classroom and grade repetition. We designed a field experiment exploiting the existence of oversubscription to the program. We found a novel result that should guide policy design for vulnerable children: increasing time spent in safe, supervised settings does not guarantee academic success. The after-school program is effective in improving academic performance when children have committed parents. This finding is crucial for policy because it is not be enough to merely take children off of the streets, parents’ commitment is needed. Interestingly, results show that students’ performance at school is highly correlated with parents’ educational expectations. This correlation fosters future research that may be designed specifically to explore the causal impact of expectations on educational attainment among disadvantaged children.

Suggested Citation

  • Marianne Bernatzky & Alejandro Cid, 2014. "Hope and commitment. Lessons from a randomize control trial in a shanty town," Documentos de Trabajo/Working Papers 1404, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economia. Universidad de Montevideo..
    • Handle: RePEc:mnt:wpaper:1404
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    File URL: https://www2.um.edu.uy/fcee_papers/2014/working_paper_um_cee_2014_04.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Cid, Alejandro, 2017. "Interventions Using Regular Activities to Engage High-Risk School-Age Youth: a Review of After-School Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean," MPRA Paper 84888, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    Keywords

    After-school program; Poverty; Education; Impact evaluation; Family;
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