Tesis
Evaluación de impacto mediante aleatorización ("field experiments") de tres programas educativos
Autor
Rossi, Martín A.
Institución
Resumen
Using a randomized trial, we evaluate the impact of an innovative and free privatelymanaged
middle school in a poor neighborhood of a developing country. The research
compares adolescents randomly selected to enter the treatment school with those that
were not drawn in the lottery. Not only have we found better educational outcomes in
the treatment group relative to control subjects, but also we find positive impacts on
expectations. Several features of the treatment school –autonomy to hire teachers,
commitment of the staff, discipline, extended time at school, close contact with the
family and the community, interaction with students of other social contexts,
educational and recreational workshops after school- contrast with the features of a
highly inflexible public education system embedded in a deep crisis. Our results shed
light on new approaches to education that may contribute to improve opportunities for
disadvantaged adolescents. This cost-effective treatment sounds appealing for a
developing country with scant resources.