The causal effect of a teacher training programme on child’s literacy: a randomised field experiment in the Amazon Forest

The study investigates a causal relationship between the Alphabetisation Policy Improvement Program - a specific set of results-oriented school management practices, such as teachers’ continued training - and student literacy in the initial grades of state-run schools in Rondônia state, northern Brazil. The program is led by the Court of Accountability of Rondônia (TCE-RO) and twenty-two Municipal Secretariat of Education from twenty-two municipalities of the Rondônia state. One hundred and fifty schools were selected from these 22 municipalities to participate in the program. Schools within each city were randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups. The implementation should last two years. At the end of the program, a cross-section analysis will be conducted to assess possible systematic differences – due to the program implementation - between pupils’ literacy in the control and treatment groups.