Parental Human Capital and Effective School Management: Evidence from the Gambia

Blimpo, Moussa P.; Evans, David K.; Lahire, Nathalie

doi:10.1596/1813-9450-7238

Cited by 34 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We test and confirm that there was no difference in grade retention across the treatment groups (Table A.11) do not see any impacts of the grant on test scores even in the first year, when the net increase in discretionary spending per student in Grant schools was three times greater than in the second year (Table 3, Column 5). Overall, our results are consistent with and add to a large body of research that finds that merely increasing school resources rarely improves student learning outcomes in developing countries (including Glewwe et al (2009) in Kenya, Blimpo et al (2015) in Gambia, Das et al (2013) in India, Pradhan et al (2014) in Indonesia, and Sabarwal et al (2014) in Sierra Leone).…”

Section: Did Grants Improve Learning?supporting

confidence: 88%

“…6 7 Second, our results suggest that a likely reason for the poor performance of inputbased education policies in developing countries is the absence of adequate teacher incentives for using resources effectively. Several randomized evaluations have found that augmenting school resources has little impact on learning outcomes in developing countries (see for example Glewwe, Kremer, and Moulin (2009) ;Blimpo, Evans, and Lahire (2015); Das et al (2013); Pradhan et al (2014); Sabarwal, Evans, and Marshak (2014); de Ree, Muralidharan, Pradhan, and Rogers (2018)). Our results replicate the results on the non-impact of providing additional school inputs, but also show that the inputs can improve learning when combined with teacher incentives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Inputs, Incentives, and Complementarities in Education: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

Mbiti

Muralidharan

Romero

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present results from a large-scale randomized experiment across 350 schools in Tanzania that studied the impact of providing schools with (a) unconditional grants, (b) teacher incentives based on student performance, and (c) both of the above. After two years, we find (a) no impact on student test scores from providing school grants, (b) some evidence of positive effects from teacher incentives, and (c) significant positive effects from providing both programs. Most importantly, we find strong evidence of complementarities between the two programs, with the effect of joint provision being significantly greater than the sum of the individual effects. Our results suggest that combining spending on school inputs (which is the default policy) with improved teacher incentives could substantially increase the cost-effectiveness of public spending on education.A randomized controlled trials registry entry is available at https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/291 1 Some of these include poor student health and nutrition, low student attendance, mismatch between curriculum/pedagogy and student learning levels, and low levels of teacher effort and accountability. Each of these challenges has been extensively documented in multiple developing country settings. See Glewwe and Muralidharan (2016) and Mbiti (2016) for reviews and references to primary sources. 2 The Government's capitation grant policy aimed to provide schools with TZS 10,000/student. The program we study provided another TZS 10,000/student over and above this grant, effectively doubling the school grant. Since teacher salaries were paid directly by the government and did not pass through the schools, these grants (from the government and the program) were the main source of discretionary funding available to schools. Schools were not permitted to use grant funds to augment teacher salaries or hire new teachers (consistent with government rules for capitation grant expenditure). 1We conducted the experiment in a large nationally-representative sample of 350 public schools (and over 120,000 students) across 10 districts in mainland Tanzania. We randomly allocated schools to four groups (stratified by district): 70 received unconditional school grants, 70 received the teacher performance pay program, 70 received both programs, and 140 were assigned to a control group. The study was powered adequately to test for complementarities, and we gave the same importance to testing for complementarities as testing for the main effects of the two programs. 3 All programs were implemented by Twaweza, a leading Tanzanian non-profit organization.We report four sets of results. First, the school grant program significantly increased per-student discretionary expenditure in treated schools. We find evidence of reduction in school and household spending in the Grant schools. Even after this reduction, there was a significant increase in net discretionary school-level spending per student in treated schools (excluding teacher salaries). However, this increase in spend...

show abstract

Section: Did Grants Improve Learning?supporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inputs, Incentives, and Complementarities in Education: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

Mbiti

Muralidharan

Romero

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, in contexts with a significant lack of resources, school-based management programmes may not have been sufficient to address the constraints to better education outcomes. For example, in the case of the programme in the Gambia, binding contextual constraints such as low teacher quality and widespread double-shift schools may have reduced the effectiveness of the WSD programme (Blimpo, Evans and Lahire 2015). In Mexico, the authors of the evaluation of Programa Escuelas de Calidad suggest the lack of improvement in student outcomes in some states may be because the departments of education in these states lack capacity to provide support to schools (Murnane, Willet & Cardenas 2006).…”

Section: Access Outcomes Learning Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In some cases, school-based management may have placed a too heavy administrative burden on teachers and principals, taking away time spent on pedagogical responsibilities (Murnane, Willet & Cardenas 2006;Khattri, Ling & Jha 2012;Blimpo and Evans 2015). If teachers need to reallocate a significant amount of time to the implementation of different schoolbased management components, they have less time for pedagogical responsibilities and teaching, which might adversely affect student learning.…”

Section: Access Outcomes Learning Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of education programmes on learning and school participation in low- and middle-income countries

Snilstveit¹,

Stevenson²,

Menon³

et al. 2016

101

105

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

About 3ieThe International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) is an international grant-making NGO promoting evidence-informed development policies and programmes. We are the global leader in funding, producing and synthesising high-quality evidence of what works, for whom, why and at what cost. We believe that high-quality, policy-relevant evidence will help make development more effective and improve people's lives. 3ie in-house systematic reviews 3ie in-house systematic reviews appraise and synthesise the available high-quality evidence on the effectiveness of social and economic development interventions in low-and middle-income countries. 3ie's specialists follow scientifically recognised methods in conducting these reviews. They are quality assured according to internationally accepted standards. They are peer reviewed by members of an expert advisory group and three anonymous external reviewers. 3ie is providing leadership in demonstrating rigorous and innovative review methodologies, such as using theory-based approaches suited to informing policy and programming in the dynamic and challenging contexts of low-and middle-income countries.About this systematic review summary report 3ie systematic review summary reports distil key analyses and present the findings and recommendations of a full systematic review for policymakers and programme managers. The impact of education programmes on learning and school participation in low-and middle-income countries is based on a full review, Interventions for improving learning outcomes and access to education in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review, which is available on the 3ie website. The summary report was peer-reviewed internally and by members of the expert advisory group convened for the full review.

show abstract

“…The school readiness intervention also contributes to research on how community participation can affect educational outcomes. In education research, community participation is typically studied from the perspective of school-based management and accountability (as in Barrera-Osorio et al 2009;Pradhan et al 2014;Blimpo, Evans & Lahire 2015). However, in the theory behind playgroups' effect on outcomes, community participation relates less to accountability and more to participatory or peer learning, analogous to how community prenatal and maternal women's groups affect nutrition and health outcomes (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intervening at Home and Then at School: A Randomized Evaluation of Two Approaches to Improve Early Educational Outcomes in Tonga

Macdonald

Brinkman²,

Jarvie

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper evaluates and compares two randomized interventions in Tonga, one targeting the home environment of children up to age 5 and one targeting the school environment for first and second grade students. The first intervention supports communities to set up and run playgroups that aim to improve caregiver-child interaction at home and ultimately improve children's readiness for school. Among children of mothers without high school education, being in a treatment community positively affects the school readiness literacy domains and overall score by 0.19 and 0.2 standard deviation, respectively, for girls and the literacy domains for boys by 0.17 standard deviation. The second intervention provides teachers with training, materials, and coaching to improve reading instruction practices and students' reading ability. It increased average early grade reading scores by approximately 0.18 standard deviation per year of exposure. Two cohorts of children were potentially exposed to both interventions, providing an opportunity to compare, for the same population of children, the effects of an early childhood intervention with a school-based intervention using a common measure of learning achievement. The school readiness intervention is found to have positive effects on early grade reading scores only among children in the reading intervention's control group; effect sizes of approximately 0.29 standard deviation were found at the end of second grade for children exposed to one year of the school readiness intervention and at the end of first grade for girls exposed to two years of the intervention. This paper is a product of the Education Global Practice. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://www.worldbank.org/research. The authors may be contacted at tvu@worldbank.org.

show abstract

Parental Human Capital and Effective School Management: Evidence from the Gambia

Cited by 34 publications

References 13 publications

Inputs, Incentives, and Complementarities in Education: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

Inputs, Incentives, and Complementarities in Education: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

The impact of education programmes on learning and school participation in low- and middle-income countries

Intervening at Home and Then at School: A Randomized Evaluation of Two Approaches to Improve Early Educational Outcomes in Tonga

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About