Intervention(s)
The Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) in India has launched one of the first government-run PAL programs in over 500 schools, with an interest in scaling to more schools. However, the effectiveness of education interventions, including learning through the use of edtech, when conducted at scale can be sensitive to the implementation features (List 2022; Banerjee et al. 2017; Kulik and Fletcher 2016). In collaboration with the GoAP, this project contains 4 studies (Randomized Controlled Trials and other interventions) to achieve the project goals of:
1) Evaluating the impact of the GoAP’s PAL program, and
2) Studying how the program can be designed to be more effective at scale.
Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) with edtech fosters remedial learning and mitigates learning gaps in settings where children lag behind grade-level skills (de Barros and Ganimian 2023; Muralidharan, Singh, and Ganimian 2019; Escueta et al. 2017). It can be a cost-effective way to address pandemic-related learning loss and inequities in access to education when investments in edtech have already been made (World Bank 2020).
In 2019, the School Education Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) rolled out one of the first government-run PAL programs for students in grades 6 to 9 in 520 schools across 17 districts of Andhra Pradesh. Each of the 520 schools received 30 tablets with the PAL software with Mathematics content loaded on them and were told to setup a dedicated PAL Lab for students. Each student has an individual login through which they access the software. For each Mathematics chapter, the dynamic adaptive software identifies individual student learning gaps through a pre-assessment and provides remedial content including videos and questions. The chapters and content are mapped to the AP state curriculum. School math teachers are instructed to dedicate 2 out of 8 math periods in a week for PAL Lab. Further, the Government hired Field Management Staff (FMS) to help with operations and logistics of the PAL Labs in schools.
In collaboration with the GoAP, the researchers have been conducting 3 research studies (Randomized Controlled Trials and other studies) in Government schools. The aim of the first study is to evaluate the impact of the PAL program on student learning outcomes in mathematics.
As an extension of the first study, a second phase was conducted to examine the longer-term impacts of the government-run PAL program and the mechanisms underlying its effects. This follow-up was conducted with 40 treatment and 40 control schools from the original RCT to assess the persistence of impacts. In addition, the design includes a non-experimental component drawing on data from 80 additional schools (40 residential schools and 40 schools from the broader group of 500 non-RCT PAL schools that had received the program prior to the RCT). Outcomes in these schools will be compared to those in the original treatment and control schools to better understand how variation in exposure, and implementation context shapes learning outcomes.
The second study aims to study whether varying the intensity of software remediation affects student learning outcomes. In particular, it examines the trade-off between reinforcing remedial concepts—which may enable faster learning over time—and the risk that students remain overly focused on remedial content and progress more slowly. The study also explores whether differences in students’ prerequisite knowledge generate spillover effects at the classroom level within a large-scale personalized adaptive learning program in Andhra Pradesh.
The third study examines how implementation intensity and frontline support shape the effectiveness of a large-scale personalized adaptive learning program, by assessing whether variation in the frequency of Field Management Staff visits influences software usage and sustained engagement in schools.
These studies will contribute to the evidence base to support the scaling of targeted foundational learning programs in government systems.