The Best Buy? From Global Evidence to Government Practice

Abstract

Can governments translate evidence on “what works” into learning gains in public schools? Morocco combined targeted remediation and structured pedagogy (two approaches ranked as “great buys” by a global evidence panel) and delivered them through the existing public-school workforce in 626 schools. Using a pre-registered matched difference-in-differences design across 276 schools and 22,846 students, we estimate that the program increased scores on an independent assessment after one year by 0.90 standard deviations: 0.52 in Arabic, 1.30 in French, and 0.93 in mathematics. Administrative records also show higher grade promotion (1.7 percentage points), while enrollment, which is nearly universal, remained unchanged.

Publication
CESifo Working Paper