Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP4381
Authors: Victor Lavy; Analia Schlosser
Abstract: There is renewed interest in ways to enhance secondary education, especially among disadvantaged students. This study evaluates the short-term effects of a remedial education programme that provided additional instruction to under-performing high school students in Israel. The programme targeted 10th?12th graders who needed additional help to pass the matriculation exams. Using a comparison group of schools that enrolled in the programme later and implementing a differences-indifferences estimation strategy, we found that the programme raised the school mean matriculation rate by 3.3 percentage points. This gain reflects mainly an effect on targeted participants and the absence of externalities on their untreated peers. The programme was found to be less cost-effective than two alternative interventions based on incentives for teachers and students.
Keywords: natural experiment; remedial education
JEL Codes: I20; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| targeted remedial education program (A20) | school mean matriculation rate (I23) |
| targeted remedial education program (A20) | probability of earning a matriculation certificate (C12) |
| targeted remedial education program (A20) | performance of targeted participants (C90) |
| targeted remedial education program (A20) | non-participating peers (C92) |