Educator incentives and educational triage in rural primary schools

In low-income countries, primary school students often fall far below grade level and primary dropout rates remain high. Further, in some countries, educators encourage their weaker students to drop out before reaching the end of primary school. These educators hope to avoid the negative attention t...

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Autores principales: Gilligan, Daniel O., Karachiwalla, Naureen, Kasirye, Ibrahim, Lucas, Adrienne M., Neal, Derek
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Institute for the Study of Labor 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146838
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author Gilligan, Daniel O.
Karachiwalla, Naureen
Kasirye, Ibrahim
Lucas, Adrienne M.
Neal, Derek
author_browse Gilligan, Daniel O.
Karachiwalla, Naureen
Kasirye, Ibrahim
Lucas, Adrienne M.
Neal, Derek
author_facet Gilligan, Daniel O.
Karachiwalla, Naureen
Kasirye, Ibrahim
Lucas, Adrienne M.
Neal, Derek
author_sort Gilligan, Daniel O.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description In low-income countries, primary school students often fall far below grade level and primary dropout rates remain high. Further, in some countries, educators encourage their weaker students to drop out before reaching the end of primary school. These educators hope to avoid the negative attention that authorities direct to a school when its students perform poorly on the primary leaving exams that governments use to certify primary completion and eligibility for secondary school. We report the results of an experiment in rural Uganda that sought to reduce dropout rates in grade six and seven by offering bonus payments to grade six teachers that rewarded each teacher for the performance of each of her students relative to comparable students in other schools. 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 conjecture that teacher effort and books are complements in education production and document several results that are consistent with this hypothesis.
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spelling CGSpace1468382025-12-08T10:11:39Z Educator incentives and educational triage in rural primary schools Gilligan, Daniel O. Karachiwalla, Naureen Kasirye, Ibrahim Lucas, Adrienne M. Neal, Derek rural youth education less favoured areas teaching primary education capacity development incentives educational status developing countries bonuses In low-income countries, primary school students often fall far below grade level and primary dropout rates remain high. Further, in some countries, educators encourage their weaker students to drop out before reaching the end of primary school. These educators hope to avoid the negative attention that authorities direct to a school when its students perform poorly on the primary leaving exams that governments use to certify primary completion and eligibility for secondary school. We report the results of an experiment in rural Uganda that sought to reduce dropout rates in grade six and seven by offering bonus payments to grade six teachers that rewarded each teacher for the performance of each of her students relative to comparable students in other schools. 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 conjecture that teacher effort and books are complements in education production and document several results that are consistent with this hypothesis. 2019-12-13 2024-06-21T09:09:00Z 2024-06-21T09:09:00Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146838 en https://www.nber.org/papers/w24911 https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.57.1.1118-9871R2 Open Access Institute for the Study of Labor Gilligan, Daniel; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Kasirye, Ibrahim; Lucas, Adrienne M.; and Neal, Derek. 2018. Educator incentives and educational triage in rural primary schools. IZA Discussion Paper No. 11516. Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor. http://ftp.iza.org/dp11516.pdf
spellingShingle rural youth
education
less favoured areas
teaching
primary education
capacity development
incentives
educational status
developing countries
bonuses
Gilligan, Daniel O.
Karachiwalla, Naureen
Kasirye, Ibrahim
Lucas, Adrienne M.
Neal, Derek
Educator incentives and educational triage in rural primary schools
title Educator incentives and educational triage in rural primary schools
title_full Educator incentives and educational triage in rural primary schools
title_fullStr Educator incentives and educational triage in rural primary schools
title_full_unstemmed Educator incentives and educational triage in rural primary schools
title_short Educator incentives and educational triage in rural primary schools
title_sort educator incentives and educational triage in rural primary schools
topic rural youth
education
less favoured areas
teaching
primary education
capacity development
incentives
educational status
developing countries
bonuses
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146838
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AT kasiryeibrahim educatorincentivesandeducationaltriageinruralprimaryschools
AT lucasadriennem educatorincentivesandeducationaltriageinruralprimaryschools
AT nealderek educatorincentivesandeducationaltriageinruralprimaryschools