New Evidence on Learning Trajectories in a Low-Income Setting

Using a unique longitudinal data set collected from primary school students in Pakistan, this paper documents four new facts about learning in low-income countries. First, children’s test scores increase by 1.19 standard deviation between Grades 3...

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Main Authors:	Bau, Natalie, Das, Jishnu, Chang, Andres Yi
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:	LEARNING OUTCOMES PRIMARY EDUCATION CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS POVERTY DROPOUT RATE FRAGILE STATES
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/742091616678503240/New-Evidence-on-Learning-Trajectories-in-a-Low-Income-Setting http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35350

id	okr-10986-35350
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-353502022-09-20T00:10:42Z New Evidence on Learning Trajectories in a Low-Income Setting Bau, Natalie Das, Jishnu Chang, Andres Yi LEARNING OUTCOMES PRIMARY EDUCATION CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS POVERTY DROPOUT RATE FRAGILE STATES Using a unique longitudinal data set collected from primary school students in Pakistan, this paper documents four new facts about learning in low-income countries. First, children’s test scores increase by 1.19 standard deviation between Grades 3 and 6. Second, going to school is associated with greater learning. Children who drop out have the same test score gains prior to dropping out as those who do not but experience no improvements after dropping out. Third, there is significant variation in test score gains across students, but test scores converge over the primary schooling years. Students with initially low test scores gain more than those with initially high scores, even after accounting for mean reversion. Fourth, conditional on past test scores, household characteristics explain little of the variation in learning. To reconcile the findings with the literature, the paper introduces the concept of “fragile learning,” where progression may be followed by stagnation or reversals. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of several ongoing debates in the literature on education in low- and middle-income countries. 2021-04-02T13:26:03Z 2021-04-02T13:26:03Z 2021-03 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/742091616678503240/New-Evidence-on-Learning-Trajectories-in-a-Low-Income-Setting http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35350 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9597 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	LEARNING OUTCOMES PRIMARY EDUCATION CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS POVERTY DROPOUT RATE FRAGILE STATES
spellingShingle	LEARNING OUTCOMES PRIMARY EDUCATION CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS POVERTY DROPOUT RATE FRAGILE STATES Bau, Natalie Das, Jishnu Chang, Andres Yi New Evidence on Learning Trajectories in a Low-Income Setting
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9597
description	Using a unique longitudinal data set collected from primary school students in Pakistan, this paper documents four new facts about learning in low-income countries. First, children’s test scores increase by 1.19 standard deviation between Grades 3 and 6. Second, going to school is associated with greater learning. Children who drop out have the same test score gains prior to dropping out as those who do not but experience no improvements after dropping out. Third, there is significant variation in test score gains across students, but test scores converge over the primary schooling years. Students with initially low test scores gain more than those with initially high scores, even after accounting for mean reversion. Fourth, conditional on past test scores, household characteristics explain little of the variation in learning. To reconcile the findings with the literature, the paper introduces the concept of “fragile learning,” where progression may be followed by stagnation or reversals. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of several ongoing debates in the literature on education in low- and middle-income countries.
format	Working Paper
author	Bau, Natalie Das, Jishnu Chang, Andres Yi
author_facet	Bau, Natalie Das, Jishnu Chang, Andres Yi
author_sort	Bau, Natalie
title	New Evidence on Learning Trajectories in a Low-Income Setting
title_short	New Evidence on Learning Trajectories in a Low-Income Setting
title_full	New Evidence on Learning Trajectories in a Low-Income Setting
title_fullStr	New Evidence on Learning Trajectories in a Low-Income Setting
title_full_unstemmed	New Evidence on Learning Trajectories in a Low-Income Setting
title_sort	new evidence on learning trajectories in a low-income setting
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2021
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/742091616678503240/New-Evidence-on-Learning-Trajectories-in-a-Low-Income-Setting http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35350
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New Evidence on Learning Trajectories in a Low-Income Setting

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