Heterogeneous Treatment Effects in the Low Track: Revisiting the Kenyan Primary School Experiment

Joseph Cummins

No 201615, Working Papers from University of California at Riverside, Department of Economics

Abstract: I present results from a partial re-analysis of the Kenyan school tracking experiment first described in Duflo et. al (2011). My results suggest that, in a developing country school system with state-employed teachers, tracking can reduce short-run test scores of initially low-ability students with high learning potential. The highest scoring students subjected only to the tracking intervention scored well below comparable students in untracked classrooms at the end of the intervention. In contrast, students assigned to tracking under the experimental alternative teacher intervention experienced gains from tracking that increased across the outcome distribution. These alternative teachers were drawn from local areas, exhibited significantly higher effort levels and faced different incentives to produce learning. I conclude that although Pareto-improvements in test scores from tracking are possible, they are not guaranteed.

Keywords: ability tracking; human capital; economic development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J45 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 Pages
Date: 2016-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-edu, nep-exp and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://economics.ucr.edu/repec/ucr/wpaper/201615.pdf First version, 2016 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: Heterogeneous treatment effects in the low track: Revisiting the Kenyan primary school experiment (2017)
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