All members of society benefit from improving the educational outcomes of all of our children

Does Educational Support for Struggling Students Also Benefit High Achievers?

From Research Insights - IDB

Education for all children is the absolutely correct thing to aspire for

What effect did improving low-achieving students’ literacy skills have on their higher- achieving classmates? We investigated the relationship between the performance of high and low achievers and found that the test scores of higher-achieving students negatively correlated with the share of low achievers in their classroom. Figure 1 plots the relationship between end-of- the-year literacy and math scores of non-eligible students and the share of low achievers before the intervention, in the control schools only.

We compared the test scores of higher-achieving students after one academic year, finding substantially greater achievement across the board in treated schools - compared to control schools. In treatment schools where there were tutoring activities, higher-achieving students outperformed similar students in control schools by 0.108 of a standard deviation. This coefficient is sizable and represents roughly 30 percent of the treatment effect on the eligible students (low achievers). For both literacy and math, average achievement decreases monotonically with the share of low-achieving students.

We also estimated the effect of peers’ contemporaneous outcomes on high achievers and found strong evidence of peer effects on academic outcomes. Our results imply that a one-standard- deviation increase in peers’ contemporaneous test scores increases individual reading scores by 0.679 of a standard deviation.

Quality learning and education for every child of the world

To address whether these changes were due to direct (non-peer) or indirect (peer) treatment effects, we ruled out alternative mechanisms coming from a reduction in class size. Additionally, we did not find evidence that teachers changed their effort or teaching practices. Rather, we found suggestive evidence that some of the effect might be due to a reduction in students’ misbehavior. Finally, the effects were stronger in classes where eligible (low achiever) peers improved the most, consistent with direct peer-to- peer learning interactions.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Our findings suggest that policies looking to support the bottom of the achievement distribution have the potential to generate social-multiplier effects for all students, providing a strong rationale that underscores why all members of society can benefit from improving the educational outcomes of only some. It is possible to substantially improve the quality of education for all while focusing on the students who need it the most.

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