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Experimental Evidence on Alternative Policies to Increase Learning at Scale

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  • Annie Duflo
  • Jessica Kiessel
  • Adrienne Lucas

Abstract

We partnered with the Ghanaian government to test simultaneously four methods of increasing achievement in schools with low and heterogeneous student achievement| assistant led remedial pull-out lessons, assistant led remedial after school lessons, assistant led smaller class sizes, or teacher implemented partial day tracking. Despite implementation issues, the interventions increased student learning by about 0.1SD, about 0.4SD when adjusting for the imperfect implementation, with no effects on attendance, grade repetition, or drop-out. Test score increases were larger for girls and gains persisted after the program ended. Fidelity of implementation decreased over time for the assistants but increased for the teachers.

Suggested Citation

  • Annie Duflo & Jessica Kiessel & Adrienne Lucas, 2020. "Experimental Evidence on Alternative Policies to Increase Learning at Scale," NBER Working Papers 27298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27298
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Anand, Gautam & Atluri, Aishwarya & Crawfurd, Lee & Pugatch, Todd & Sheth, Ketki, 2023. "Improving school management in low and middle income countries: A systematic review," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    2. Hashibul Hassan & Asad Islam & Abu Siddique & Liang Choon Wang, 2021. "Telementoring and homeschooling during school closures: A randomized experiment in rural Bangladesh," Munich Papers in Political Economy 13, Munich School of Politics and Public Policy and the School of Management at the Technical University of Munich.
    3. Abhijeet Singh & Mauricio Romero & Karthik Muralidharan, 2022. "Covid-19 Learning Loss and Recovery: Panel Data Evidence from India," CESifo Working Paper Series 10031, CESifo.
    4. Hanushek, Eric A., 2021. "Addressing cross-national generalizability in educational impact evaluation," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    5. Noam Angrist & Peter Bergman & Moitshepi Matsheng, 2020. "School’s Out: Experimental Evidence on Limiting Learning Loss Using “Low-Tech” in a Pandemic," NBER Working Papers 28205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Schaffner, Julie & Glewwe, Paul & Sharma, Uttam, 2021. "Why Programs Fail: Lessons for Improving Public Service Quality from a Mixed-Methods Evaluation of an Unsuccessful Teacher Training Program in Nepal," Staff Papers 316663, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    7. Johnston, Jamie & Ksoll, Christopher, 2022. "Effectiveness of interactive satellite-transmitted instruction: Experimental evidence from Ghanaian primary schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Raju,Dhushyanth & Younger,Stephen D., 2022. "Benefits and Costs of Public Schooling in Ghana," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10017, The World Bank.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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