Giving Kids a Head Start: The Impact and Mechanisms of Early Commitment of Financial Aid on Poor Students in Rural China

Yi, Hongmei; Song, Yao; Liu, Chengfang; Huang, Xiaoting; Zhang, Linxiu; Bai, Yunli; Bao-ping, Ren; Shi, Yaojiang; Loyalka, Prashant; Chu, James; Rozelle, Scott

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2937681

Cited by 13 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…In Shaanxi, China a tuition relief program for low-income junior high school students in rural areas increased enrollment in senior high schools by 9.7 percentage points). Yet, this type of program has not always improved student achievement(Chen et al 2013;Yi et al 2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

Improving Educational Outcomes in Developing Countries: Lessons from Rigorous Impact Evaluations

Ganimian¹,

Murnane²

2014

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This paper reviews and interprets the evidence from 223 rigorous impact evaluations of educational initiatives conducted in 56 low-and middle-income countries. We consider for inclusion in our review all studies in recent syntheses, which have reached seemingly conflicting conclusions about which interventions improve educational outcomes. We group interventions based on their theory of action. We derive four lessons from the studies we review. First, reducing the costs of going to school and expanding schooling options increase attendance and attainment, but do not consistently increase student achievement. Second, providing information about school quality, developmentally appropriate parenting practices, and the economic returns to schooling affects the actions of parents and the achievement of children and adolescents. Third, more or better resources improve student achievement only if they result in changes in children's daily experiences at school. Finally, well-designed incentives increase teacher effort and student achievement from very low levels, but low-skilled teachers need specific guidance to reach minimally acceptable levels of instruction. Interventions.We include studies of educational interventions, such as offering computer-assisted learning or altering incentives for teachers. We also include studies of health interventions, such as providing deworming drugs and iron supplements, that include at least one of the educational outcomes mentioned above. Methods.We only include studies that take advantage of exogenous variation in the receipt of the intervention, either by randomly assigning individuals to a treatment or by exploiting quasi-random variation in treatment assignment from natural experiments. Included studies based on natural experiments use differences-in-differences, regression discontinuities, and/or instrumental variables to estimate the causal impacts of interventions. We do not consider studies that attempt to estimate counterfactual outcomes either by employing matching methods or fixed effects for individuals in pre-post comparisons. Literature SearchWe searched for studies in English in peer-reviewed journals, working paper series, and academic conferences. We conducted the final search that we describe below from January to September 2015. Figure 1 offers an overview of the search and review process. 3 Citation tracking. We consulted eight reviews of impact evaluations of educational interventions in developing countries and tracked the citations. These included meta-analyses, narrative, and vote-counting reviews. 4 This search produced 253 studies, of which 119 met our inclusion criteria.

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Improving Educational Outcomes in Developing Countries: Lessons from Rigorous Impact Evaluations

Ganimian¹,

Murnane²

2014

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“…VET is thus perceived, both by policymakers and the public, as a second-best option for individuals that wish to consider their studies after nine years of compulsory schooling (primary and junior high school). Previous research in rural China (e.g., Yi et al, 2015) also demonstrates that at the beginning of junior high school, only 14 percent of students planned to attend vocational high school, while 46 percent planned to attend academic high school (the rest stated that they either had no plans or had plans to enter the labor market).…”

Section: Background On Vet In Chinamentioning

confidence: 95%

Assessing the Quality of Upper-Secondary Vocational Education and Training: Evidence from China

Yi¹,

Li²,

Li³

et al. 2018

Comparative Education Review

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An increasing number of policymakers in developing countries have made the mass expansion of upper-secondary vocational education and training (VET) a top priority. The goal of this study is to examine whether VET fulfills the objectove of building skills and abilities along multiple dimensions and further identify which school-level factors help vocational students build these skills and abilities. To fulfill this goal, we analyzed representative, longitudinal data that we collected on more than 12,000 students from 118 schools in once province of central China. First, descriptive analysis shows approximately 90% of VET students do not make any gains in vocational or general skills. In addition, negative behaviors (misbehavior in the classroom, antisocial behavior, and other risky behaviors) are highly prevalent among VET students. A nontrivial proportion of student internships also fail to meet minimum government requirements for student safety and well-being. Perhaps as a result of these outcomes, more than 60% of students express dissatisfaction with their VET programs, as evidenced by eitehr self-reports or dropping out. Finally, using a multi-level model, we find that school inputs (such as school size, teacher qualifications, and per pupil expenditure) are not correlated with vocational and general skill at the end of the school year, or student dropout in the academic year.

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“…First, Yi et al. () studied a Chinese programme that gave grade 7 and 9 students an early commitment for financial aid for the next level of schooling (grades 10–12). The programme increased the percentage of grade 9 students who matriculated to high school by 7.9 percentage points, but there were no impacts for grade 7 students.…”

Section: Analysis Of Interventions That Increase Time In Schoolmentioning

confidence: 99%

What education policies and programmes affect learning and time in school in developing countries? A review of evaluations from 1990 to 2014

Damon

Glewwe

Wisniewski³

et al. 2018

Review of Education

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In this paper we provide a rigorous review of evaluations of education programmes in developing countries. This review is organised to provide guidance to policy-makers by identifying education interventions that are effective, sometimes effective, and not effective and by presenting some information on the cost effectiveness of different types of interventions. We distinguish between interventions' impacts on two types of outcomes: time in schools and learning as measured by test scores. Regarding children's time in school, we find that there are two effective, but admittedly relatively expensive, ways to increase enrolment and attendance: (1) Providing cash transfers conditional on attendance; and (2) Building new schools in communities where schools either do not exist or are far away. We have identified four interventions that have been shown to be effective at increasing test scores: (1) Merit-based student scholarships; (2) Teaching at the right level;(3) Decreasing pupil-teacher ratios; and (4) Building new schools.

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Giving Kids a Head Start: The Impact and Mechanisms of Early Commitment of Financial Aid on Poor Students in Rural China

Cited by 13 publications

References 25 publications

Improving Educational Outcomes in Developing Countries: Lessons from Rigorous Impact Evaluations

Improving Educational Outcomes in Developing Countries: Lessons from Rigorous Impact Evaluations

Assessing the Quality of Upper-Secondary Vocational Education and Training: Evidence from China

What education policies and programmes affect learning and time in school in developing countries? A review of evaluations from 1990 to 2014

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