School Choice and Cognitive Achievement in Rural Bangladesh

This paper presents new evidence on the impact of school characteristics on secondary student achievement using a rich data set from rural Bangladesh. The authors deal with a potentially important selectivity issue in the South Asian context: the non-random sorting of children into religious schools. The authors do so by employing a combination of fixed effects and instrumental variable estimation techniques. Additionally, the authors use the variation between two classrooms of the same grade within individual schools to identify causal class-size effects. The empirical results do not reveal any difference in test scores between religious and secular schools when selection into religious school is taken into account. Net of school fixed-effects, the authors do not find evidence in support of smaller class size. However, they document significant learning deficit by gender and primary school type: girls and graduates of primary madrasas have a lower test score even after controlling for school and classroom-specific unobservable correlates of learning.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Asadullah, Mohammad Niaz, Chaudhury, Nazmul, Dar, Amit
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2006-06
Subjects:	ACCESS TO SCHOOLS, ACCESS TO SECONDARY EDUCATION, AVERAGE CLASS SIZE, BASIC EDUCATION, BASIC NUMERACY, CLASS SIZE, CLASS-SIZE, CLASSROOM, CLASSROOMS, COGNITIVE ACHIEVEMENT, COUNTRY STUDIES, CURRICULUM, EDUCATION POLICY, EDUCATION QUALITY, EDUCATION SECTOR, EDUCATION SYSTEM, EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT, EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT, EDUCATIONAL INPUTS, EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES, EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES, ELEMENTS, EMPLOYMENT, ENROLLMENT, EVALUATION OF EDUCATION, FEMALE EDUCATION, FEMALE ENROLMENT, FEMALE SECONDARY SCHOOL ASSISTANCE PROJECT, FEMALE STUDENTS, FEMALE TEACHERS, FURTHER EDUCATION, GENDER GAP, GIRLS, GIRLS SCHOOLS, HEAD TEACHER, HEAD TEACHERS, HIGH SCHOOL, HIGHER EDUCATION, HIGHER GRADE, HIGHER GRADES, HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, INDEXES, JUNIOR SECONDARY, LABOUR MARKET, LEARNING, LEARNING OUTCOMES, LEARNING SKILLS, LIFE SKILLS, LITERATURE, MAINSTREAM SCHOOLS, MATERNAL EDUCATION, MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM, MATHEMATICS SKILLS, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, NUMERACY, PAPERS, PARENTAL EDUCATION, PASS RATE, PERFORMANCE OF GRADUATES, PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS, PRIMARY EDUCATION, PRIMARY GRADE, PRIMARY LEVEL, PRIMARY SCHOOL, PRIMARY SCHOOL GRADUATES, PRIMARY SCHOOLS, PRIMARY-SCHOOL, PRIVATE SCHOOL, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS, PUBLIC SCHOOL, PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS, QUALITY OF EDUCATION, QUALITY SCHOOLS, READING, RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, RELIGIOUS EDUCATION, RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS, RESEARCHERS, RETURNS TO EDUCATION, RURAL AREAS, RURAL CHILDREN, RURAL PARENTS, RURAL SCHOOLS, SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT, SCHOOL ATTENDANCE, SCHOOL CATCHMENT AREAS, SCHOOL CERTIFICATE, SCHOOL ENROLMENT, SCHOOL EXPENDITURE, SCHOOL FACILITIES, SCHOOL FUNDING, SCHOOL GOING, SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN, SCHOOL GRADUATES, SCHOOL LEARNING, SCHOOL LEVEL, SCHOOL PARTICIPATION, SCHOOL PERFORMANCE, SCHOOL QUALITY, SCHOOL REGISTERS, SCHOOL SELECTION, SCHOOL STUDENTS, SCHOOL SURVEYS, SCHOOL TEACHERS, SCHOOL TYPES, SCHOOL-AGE, SCHOOLING, SCHOOLS, SCIENCE STUDY, SECONDARY CYCLE, SECONDARY EDUCATION, SECONDARY EDUCATION SECTOR, SECONDARY SCHOOL, SECONDARY SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT, SECONDARY SCHOOL QUALITY, SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS, SECONDARY SCHOOLING, SOUTH ASIAN, STANDARDIZED TESTS, STIPENDS, STUDENT ABILITY, STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS, STUDENT LEARNING, STUDENT OUTCOMES, STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICS, SUBJECT MATTER, SUBJECTS, TEACHER, TEACHER CHARACTERISTICS, TEACHER QUALITY, TEACHER RATIOS, TEACHERS, TEACHING, TERMS OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE, TEST SCORES,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/06/7242191/school-choice-cognitive-achievement-rural-bangladesh https://hdl.handle.net/10986/17821
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