Decentralizing Education Resources: School Grants in Senegal

Last registered on March 26, 2015
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Decentralizing Education Resources: School Grants in Senegal
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000671
Initial registration date
March 26, 2015

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
March 26, 2015, 1:39 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
March 26, 2015, 2:00 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
Senegal
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Konstantinos (Costas) Meghir
Affiliation
Yale University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Oswald Koussihouede
PI Affiliation
University Gaston Berger
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PI Name
Corina Mommaerts
PI Affiliation
Yale University
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PI Name
Nathalie Lahire
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
Pedro Carneiro
PI Affiliation
University College London
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2009-11-01
End date
2011-05-31
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
Quality of education, Decentralization, School resources, Child development
JEL code(s)
H52, I22, I25, O15
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The impact of school resources on the quality of education in developing countries may depend crucially on whether resources are targeted efficiently. We use a randomized control trial to analyze the impact of a school grants program in Senegal, which decentralized a portion of the country's education budget.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Carneiro, Pedro et al. 2015. "Decentralizing Education Resources: School Grants in Senegal." AEA RCT Registry. March 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.671-2.0
Former Citation
Carneiro, Pedro et al. 2015. "Decentralizing Education Resources: School Grants in Senegal." AEA RCT Registry. March 26. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/671/history/3864
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2009-11-01
Intervention End Date
2011-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Primary outcomes: test scores of students (French, mathematics and oral), by gender, baseline ability and geographical region (north/south)
Secondary outcomes: use of funds, parental investments, parental expectations
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In 2009, all Senegalese primary schools were eligible to respond to a call for proposals for school grants to fund pedagogical improvements in education quality. An evaluation committee first ranked the applications and discarded low quality and ineligible applications. The remaining ones, referred to as “approved applications” were grouped into two categories. The first consisted of very good proposals which were eligible for financing. The second consisted of strong proposals with potential, but which needed revision. These were sent back to schools with comments from the evaluation committee, then re-submitted. This process resulted in the selection of 633 projects to fund, which were randomly allocated to three funding cohorts. 211 schools were selected randomly to receive funding in the first cohort (June 2009), at the end of the school year. This funding could only be executed at the beginning of the following school year (October/November). Of the remaining schools, 211 were to receive funding in June 2010, and another 211 were to receive funding in June 2011.

Three waves of surveys were administered to students and their families, teachers, and principals in these schools. A baseline survey was conducted at the start of the 2009-2010 academic year (in November), right as the first round of grants were able to be executed. Subsequent surveys took place in November 2010 at the beginning of the 2010-2011 academic year (first follow-up), and in May 2011 at the end of the 2010-2011 academic year (second follow-up).
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
School
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
525 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
15,750 pupils; 2,100 households; 525 principals, 525 teachers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
175 schools in treatment arm 1, 175 schools in treatment arm 2, 175 schools in control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials