Educator Incentives and Educational Triage in Rural Primary Schools

Daniel Gilligan (), Naureen Karachiwalla, Ibrahim Kasirye, Adrienne Lucas and Derek Neal

No 24911, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In low-income countries, educators often encourage weak primary students to drop out before reaching the end of primary school in order to avoid the negative attention they receive when their students perform poorly on primary leaving exams. We conducted an experiment in rural Uganda that sought to reduce dropout rates in grade six and seven by rewarding teachers for the performance of each of their students. Teachers responded to this Pay for Percentile (PFP) incentive system in ways that raised attendance rates two school years later from .56 to .60. These attendance gains were driven primarily by outcomes in treatment schools that provide textbooks for grade six math students, where two-year attendance rates rose from .57 to .64. In these same schools, students whose initial skills levels prepared them to use grade six math texts enjoyed significant gains in math achievement. We find little evidence that PFP improved attendance or achievement in schools without books even though PFP had the same impact on reported teacher effort in schools with and without books. We document several results that are consistent with the hypothesis that teacher effort and books are complements in education production.

JEL-codes: I0 J3 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Published as Daniel O. Gilligan & Naureen Karachiwalla & Ibrahim Kasirye & Adrienne M. Lucas & Derek Neal, 2022. "Educator Incentives and Educational Triage in Rural Primary Schools," Journal of Human Resources, vol 57(1), pages 79-111.

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Journal Article: Educator Incentives and Educational Triage in Rural Primary Schools (2022)
Working Paper: Educator Incentives and Educational Triage in Rural Primary Schools (2018)
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