Director of J-PAL, Professor Abhijit Banerjee, presents at the convening "Taking a Strategic Approach to Education CSR," where he discusses the role of CSR to design, fund, and test promising solutions that can impact remedial education programs. November 12, 2014

1. Professor Abhijit Banerjee (MIT)
Director, J-PAL
12 November 2014
Reinventing Education:
What Does the EvidenceTell Us?

2. J-PAL started in 2003 as a center in the economics
department at MIT and works to reduce poverty by
ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence
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3. J-PAL’s Work in Education
 Narrowing in on the “small picture”
 135 ongoing and completed evaluations
in 32 countries
 33 studies in South Asia
 Broad policy lessons in primary
education
 Exploring new research in post-primary
education through a dedicated research
initiative
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4. WHY EVIDENCE MATTERS
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5. How do you improve learning outcomes?
1. Books for Free
2. Improved School Buildings
3. Cash Grants for Attendance
4. Community Participation
5. Deworming
6. Lunch for Free
7. Remedial Education
8. Information Campaigns
9. School Supplies
10. Teacher Attendance (Monitoring)
11. Free Uniforms
12. Merit Scholarships
Children in Udaipur, India wait for their absent
teacher
Which initiatives work? Which work best? Which are the most cost-effective?
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6. Why Evaluate Impact?
 Causality Matters
 IMPACT = Causal effect of a program or policy on an outcome of interest
 Causal effect can be determined only through a rigorous evaluation, that
separates out impact of the program from other factors
 Rigorous evaluations have produced important and
surprising results
 Major programs not as effective as previously thought (e.g. business-as-usual
inputs to education)
 Small interventions proved very cost-effective (e.g. deworming)
 Conventional wisdoms have been undermined (e.g. pupil-teacher ratios)
 Creates space for evidence based social investments
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7. J-PAL conducts randomized evaluations to test the
effectiveness of programs aimed at reducing poverty
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Before the program starts, eligible individuals are
randomly assigned to two groups so that they are
statistically identical before the program.
• Any differences in
outcomes between
the groups can be
attributed to the
program
• Two groups
continue to be
identical, except for
treatment

8. A Model for Funding Evidenced Based Interventions
 Stage 1 funding:
 Proof of Concept for new innovations and testing
 Stage 2 funding:
 Replication studies to further develop scalable and generalizable models
 Stage 3 funding:
 Scaling-up programs backed by strong evidence
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9. A QUICK REVIEW OF J-PAL’S
EVIDENCE IN EDUCATION
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10. Landscape of Education in India
 Over 96 percent of children ages 6-14 are
enrolled in school (ASER 2013)
 But being in school does not seem to imply
that children are learning
 2013 ASER survey: majority of 5th graders in rural
India are three or more grades behind in reading
 Similar results from ASER Pakistan and Uwezo in East
Africa
 Very poor results on international exams such as
TIMSS, PISA
 Why might this be and what are possible
solutions?
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11.  There are many avenues
through which this might
occur
 Teacher absenteeism is high
 Even when present, often not
teaching
 Teachers rarely held
accountable for either
Low Teacher Effort May Contribute to Low Learning Levels
 Could this be solved through monitoring and incentives?
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12. Monitoring and Incentives Work, With a Few Caveats
 Monitoring and incentives can be a useful to motivate teachers,
increase attendance, and improve learning
 Camera Monitoring in Udaipur cut absenteeism in half and
improved test scores
 Small incentives (3% of annual salary) improved test scores in AP
 But can also be ineffective or lead to undesirable outcomes
 Performance pay in Kenya led to “cram sessions”
 StrengtheningVEC monitoring had no effect on teacher effort or
learning outcomes
 Need a credible way of measuring teacher effort and enforcing
accountability
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13.  Proliferation of low-cost private schools and tuitions
 Almost 30% of India’s children in Standards 1-V attend private schools
 The proportion of children taking private tuitions is increasing
 Vouchers for private schools in AP had mixed results
 No effect of private schools on Math andTelegu test scores
 More efficient? Achieved similar results with less instructional time and
lower cost
 Ultimately, private schools don’t seem to be focused on
building basic skills
 Vouchers v. PPP
Are Private Schools the Answer?
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14. Teaching at the Right Level Works
 Interventions that facilitate teaching at the child’s level are
most consistently effective across many studies
 In India, J-PAL has worked with Pratham to test many remedial
education programs
 Remedial tutoring
 After-school tutoring and summer camps
 How do you get entire school systems to focus on learning
outcomes?
 Dedicated time plus monitoring
 Learning Enhancement Program (LEP) in Haryana government schools
 Teacher Community Assistant Initiative, Ghana
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15. Concluding Thoughts
 Huge role for CSR in designing, funding, and testing promising
“solutions”
 And in bringing proven interventions to scale
 Evidence base currently strongest on the impact of
investments in remedial education programs
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16. THANK YOU
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