Beyond Basics: Whole-School Reform and Early Adolescent Development

Abstract

This study investigates whether a government-led, whole-school reform in public lower secondary schools can simultaneously reduce dropout and improve both academic and socioemotional outcomes. We employ a prospective difference-in-differences design, using machine learning on nationwide administrative data to match 200 reform schools in Morocco to 100 comparable schools. The analysis uses primary assessment data for 20,036 students and administrative enrollment records for 637,587 observations. After one year, the reform reduced end-of-year dropout by 1.6 percentage points (a 31.4 percent decline), increased learning by 0.52 standard deviations (a 3.3-fold acceleration), and improved a pre-specified index of socioemotional skills by 0.22 standard deviations. These findings demonstrate that government-led interventions can deliver multidimensional benefits during the critical lower secondary school years and highlight the potential of whole-school reform to support adolescent development.

Publication
CEGA Working Paper