School Participation-Learning Decoupling
Meta-AnalysisJournal Article
Public health and nutrition policies that successfully increase primary school participation fail to automatically improve academic learning outcomes or test scores.
Picture this
Getting a student physically into a classroom is like opening the front door of a library; if the books inside are written in an unreadable language, sitting in the building does not grant literacy.
What the evidence says
Interventions like deworming drugs and school meals significantly increased school participation but produced zero statistically significant improvements in average student test scores.
- Who was studied
- Primary school students evaluated across multiple health and nutrition randomized evaluations in developing countries.
- How
- Systematic review of randomized controlled trials evaluating health interventions (deworming, school meals) and educational outcomes.
What to do
Pair enrollment-boosting health and nutritional policies with targeted instructional reforms to ensure increased attendance translates into academic achievement.
From the source
"And indeed, the recent evidence suggests that many interventions, which increase school participation, do not improve test scores for the average student."
Remedying Education: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments in India