Making the Grade: The Sensitivity of Education Program Effectiveness to Input Choices and Outcome Measures
Abstract
This paper demonstrates the acute sensitivity of education program effectiveness to the choices of inputs and outcome measures, using a randomized evaluation of a mother-tongue literacy program. The program raises reading scores by 0.64SDs and writing scores by 0.45SDs. A reduced-cost version instead yields statistically-insignificant reading gains and some large negative effects (-0.33SDs) on advanced writing. We combine a conceptual model of education production with detailed classroom observations to examine the mechanisms driving the results; we show they could be driven by the program initially lowering productivity before raising it, and potentially by missing complementary inputs in the reduced-cost version.
Citation
Jason T. Kerwin and Rebecca L. Thornton, Making the Grade: The Sensitivity of Education Program Effectiveness to Input Choices and Outcome Measures, The Review of Economics and Statistics 0 0:ja, 1-45DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00911More details
http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_00911Rights holder
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- Education [103]