Experimental Evidence on Four Policies to Increase Learning at Scale

Abstract

We partnered with the Ghanaian government to test simultaneously four methods of increasing achievement—assistant-led remedial pull-out lessons, remedial after school lessons, or smaller class sizes or teacher implemented partial day tracking—in schools with low and heterogeneous student achievement. The interventions increased student learning by about 0.1SD, rising to 0.4SD when adjusting for imperfect implementation, with no effects on attendance, grade repetition, or drop-out. Test score increases were larger for girls. Test score gains persisted after the program ended. Assistants implemented the program with higher fidelity than teachers, although their fidelity decreased over time while teacher fidelity marginally improved.