Advancing academic opportunitie for disadvantaged youth: third year impact evaluation of a privately - managed school in a poor neighborhood in Montevideo.

Ana Inés Balsa; Alejandro Cid

doi:10.22235/pe.v7i1.578

Authors

Ana Inés Balsa Universidad de Montevideo
Alejandro Cid Universidad de Montevideo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22235/pe.v7i1.578

Keywords:

randomized design, private school, low-income population, high expectations

Abstract

ABSTRACT. We study the three-year impact of a private tuition-free middle school on the academic outcomes of poor students. Several features of the treatment school fit with innovative paradigms that have delivered successful outcomes in poor urban areas. Our research design exploits the excess of applicants over the school capacity and the fact that participants were selected randomly. Specifically, we follow a cohort of students that entered middle school in 2010 and that were randomly assigned to attend the treatment school or public school as usual. We find that the treatment school impacted favorably on students’ academic advancement and math competencies. Also, the treatment school had a positive —and quite robust over time— impact on students’ and their parents’ academic expectations. This culture of high expectations has been previously identified in the literature as a key input for school success.

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Author Biographies

Ana Inés Balsa, Universidad de Montevideo

Doctora en Economía por Boston University. Docente de la Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economía de la Universidad de Montevideo (UM) e investigadora del Centro de Investigaciones en Economía Aplicada de la UM. Sus áreas de trabajo son la economía de la salud y la evaluación de impacto de programas sociales y políticas públicas, especialmente en los campos de la educación y de la salud.

Alejandro Cid, Universidad de Montevideo

Doctor en Economía por la Universidad de San Andrés. Docente de la Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economía de la Universidad de Montevideo (UM) e investigador del Centro de Investigaciones en Economía Aplicada de la UM. Sus áreas de trabajo son la economía de la familia y la evaluación de impacto de programas sociales.

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