References

Improving Early‐grade Literacy in East Africa: Experimental Evidence From Kenya and Uganda

“…School libraries in India and the Philippines, even when accompanied by some staff training, led to no or small (0.13) effect sizes on language test scores, respectively (Abeberese, Kumler, & Linden, in press;Borkum, He, & Linden, 2012). Monetary grants to schools, unaccompanied by other interventions, had statistically insignificant effect sizes on achievement in Gambia and Indonesia, and less than 0.1 in India (Blimpo & Evans, 2011;Das et al, 2013;Pradhan et al, 2011). Large reductions in early-grade class size-from 82 to 44, on average-had no effect on test scores, unless classes were taught by contract employees rather than civilservant teachers (Duflo, Dupas, & Kremer, 2012).…”

“…A first generation of school-based experiments, mostly in Kenya, found that delivering textbooks and instructional materials to classrooms produced no achievement gains (Glewwe et al, 2004;Glewwe, Kremer, & Moulin, 2009;Kremer, Moulin, & Namunyu, 2003). Other experiments found zero or negligible effects of monetary grants (Blimpo & Evans, 2011;Das et al, 2013;Pradhan et al, 2011). Yet, a growing body of studies suggests that deliberate efforts to improve the quality of instructionusually by combining materials and teacher training-can yield larger effect sizes of at least 20 percent of a standard deviation (Banerjee et al, 2007;Chay, McEwan, & Urquiola, 2005;Friedman, Gerard, & Ralaingita, 2010;He, Linden, & MacLeod, 2008, 2009Jamison et al, 1981;Piper & Korda, 2011).…”

Promoting Parental Involvement in Schools: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments

“…Despite the widespread adoption of SBM, the effectiveness of these programs in raising educational outcomes have been mixed. Experiments in India (Banerjee et al, 2010), the Gambia (Blimpo, Evans, & Lahire, 2011), and Niger (Beasley & Huillery, 2017) show no improvement on student learning outcomes. In contrast, experimental evidence from Indonesia (Pradhan et al, 2014) and Kenya (Duflo, Dupas, & Kremer, 2015) finds significant, positive effects on student test scores.…”

Improving Middle School Quality in Poor Countries

“…Early experiments in the first category showed that simply delivering textbooks and flipcharts did not improve government exam scores in Kenya (Glewwe, Kremer, & Moulin, 2009;Glewwe, Kremer, Moulin, & Zitzewitz, 2004). Block grants to primary schools, unaccompanied by other interventions, had no effects on achievement in Gambia and Indonesia, and less than 0.1 standard deviations in India (Blimpo & Evans, 2011;Das et al, 2013;Pradhan et al, 2011).…”