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Conditional cash transfers are programs under which poor families get a stipend provided they keep their children in school and take them for health checks. Although there is significant evidence showing that they have positive impacts on school participation, little is known about the long-term impacts of the programs on human capital. This paper investigates whether cohorts of children from poor households that benefited up to nine years from Familias en Accion, a conditional cash transfer program in Colombia, attained more school and performed better on academic tests at the end of high school. Identification of program impacts is derived from two different strategies using matching techniques with household surveys, and regression discontinuity design using a census of the poor and administrative records of the program. The authors show that, on average, participant children are 4 to 8 percentage points more likely than nonparticipant children to finish high school, particularly girls and beneficiaries in rural areas. Regarding long-term impact on tests scores, the analysis shows that program recipients who graduate from high school seem to perform at the same level as equally poor non-recipient graduates, even after correcting for possible selection bias when low-performing students enter school in the treatment group. Although the positive impacts on high school graduation may improve the employment and earning prospects of participants, the lack of positive effects on test scores raises the need to further explore policy actions to couple the program's objective of increasing human capital with enhanced learning.

Academic Achievement --- Conditional Cash Transfers --- Education --- Education For All --- Learning Outcomes --- Primary Education --- Public Sector Development --- School Completion --- Secondary Education --- Teaching and Learning --- Tertiary Education

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Despite a sharp increase in the share of girls who enroll in, attend, and complete various levels of schooling, an educational gender gap remains in some countries. This paper argues that one explanation for this gender gap is the degree of social exclusion within these countries, as indicated by ethno-linguistic heterogeneity, which triggers both economic and psycho-social mechanisms to limit girls' schooling. Ethno-linguistic heterogeneity initially was applied to explaining lagging economic growth, but has emerged in the literature more recently to explain both civil conflict and public goods. This paper is a first application of the concept to explain gender gaps in education. The paper discusses the importance of female education for economic and social development, reviews the evidence regarding gender and ethnic differences in schooling, reviews the theoretical perspectives of various social science disciplines that seek to explain such differences, and tests the relevance of ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity in explaining cross-country differences in school attainment and learning. The study indicates that within-country ethnic and linguistic heterogeneity partly explains both national female primary school completion rates and gender differences in these rates, but only explains average national learning outcomes when national income measures are excluded.

Completion rates --- Disability --- Education --- Education for All --- Effective Schools and Teachers --- Female education --- Gender --- Gender and Education --- Gender Gap --- Girls --- Human Development --- Learning --- Primary Education --- Primary school --- Primary school completion --- Schooling --- Social development --- Social Protections and Labor

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This book offers an innovative look at the pre- and post-migration educational experiences of immigrant young adults with a particular focus on members of the Latino community.  Combining quantitative data with original interviews, this book provides an engaging and nuanced look at a population that is both ubiquitous and overlooked, challenging existing assumptions about those categorized as ‘dropouts’ and closely examining the historical contexts for educational interruption in the chosen subgroup.  The combination of accessible prose and compelling new statistical data appeals to a wide audience, particularly academic professionals, education practitioners and policy-makers.

Hispanic American youth --- Immigrants --- adult education. --- alternative education. --- dropouts. --- generation 1.5. --- high school completion. --- immigrant dropouts. --- immigrant youth. --- incomplete schooling. --- interrupted schooling. --- latino immigrants. --- post-secondary access for immigrants. --- school accountability. --- students. --- unaccompanied minors. --- young adults. --- EDUCATION / Educational Policy & Reform / General. --- Emigrants --- Foreign-born population --- Foreign population --- Foreigners --- Migrants --- Persons --- Aliens --- Youth, Hispanic American --- Youth --- Education --- Social conditions.

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The authors report on a survey of primary public and private schools in rural Pakistan with a focus on student achievement as measured through test scores. Absolute learning is low compared with curricular standards and international norms. Tested at the end of the third grade, a bare majority had mastered the K-I mathematics curriculum and 31 percent could correctly form a sentence with the word "school" in the vernacular (Urdu). As in high-income countries, bivariate comparisons show that higher learning is associated with household wealth and parental literacy. In sharp contrast to high-income countries, these gaps decrease dramatically in a multivariate regression once differences between children in the same school are looked at. Consequently, the largest gaps are between schools. The gap in English test scores between government and private schools, for instance, is 12 times the gap between children from rich and poor families. To contextualize these results within a broader South Asian context, the authors use data from public schools in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. Levels of learning and the structure of the educational gaps are similar in the two samples. As in Pakistan, absolute learning is low and the largest gaps are between schools: the gap between good and bad government schools, for instance, is 5 times the gap between children with literate and illiterate mothers.

Adult Literacy --- Adult Literacy Rate --- Children --- Curriculum --- Education --- Education for All --- Effective Schools and Teachers --- Enrollment --- Formal Schooling --- Gender --- Gender and Education --- Girls --- Groups --- Human Development --- Knowledge --- Learning --- Literacy --- Net Enrollment --- Numeracy --- Participation --- Primary Education --- Primary School --- Primary School Completion --- Private Schools --- Public Schools --- Secondary Education --- Student Achievement --- Tertiary Education

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This paper estimates the impacts of secondary school on human capital, occupational choice, and fertility for young adults in Kenya. The probability of admission to government secondary school rises sharply at a score close to the national mean on a standardized 8th grade examination, permitting the estimation of causal effects of schooling in a regression discontinuity framework. The analysis combines administrative test score data with a recent survey of young adults to estimate these impacts. The results show that secondary schooling increases human capital, as measured by performance on cognitive tests included in the survey. For men, there is a drop in the probability of low-skill self-employment, as well as suggestive evidence of a rise in the probability of formal employment. The opportunity to attend secondary school also reduces teen pregnancy among women.

Academic year --- Adults --- Average schooling --- Basic education --- Catholic schools --- Childbearing --- Class size --- Class-size --- Cognitive performance --- Cognitive test --- Development goals --- Development policy --- Disasters --- District education --- Early marriage --- Educated parents --- Education --- Education for all --- Education investments --- Education offices --- Education policy --- Education system --- Educational attainment --- Educational participation --- Effects of education --- Examination --- Fees --- Female education --- Female schooling --- Fertility --- First births --- First child --- Free primary education --- Gender parity --- Girls' schools --- Grade repetition --- Health, nutrition and population --- High school --- HIV --- Human capital --- Human capital accumulation --- Human development --- Impact of education --- Infant --- Infant health --- Labor market --- Labor markets --- Learning --- Learning outcomes --- Level of education --- Literacy --- Low-income country --- Marriage --- Millennium development goals --- Mother --- National boundaries --- National schools --- Natural disasters --- Number of schools --- Number of students --- Older men --- Parents' education --- Policies --- Policy --- Policy change --- Policy discussions --- Policy research --- Policy research working paper --- Population --- Population growth --- Population policies --- Populations --- Pregnancies --- Pregnancy --- Pregnancy by age --- Primary education --- Primary education policy --- Primary education system --- Primary school --- Primary school leaving examination --- Primary schooling --- Primary schools --- Private schools --- Private secondary schools --- Progress --- Public examination system --- Public schools --- Public services --- Publishers --- Rates of population --- Respect --- Returns to education --- Rural areas --- School --- School administrators --- School attendance --- School completion --- School construction --- School enrollment --- School entry --- School fees --- School leaders --- School leaving examination --- School participation --- School quality --- Schooling --- Schools --- Secondary education --- Secondary school --- Secondary schooling --- Secondary schools --- Sex --- Sexual behavior --- Skills --- Spouse --- Student achievement --- Students --- Teachers --- Teen --- Teen pregnancy --- Teens --- Tertiary education --- Textbooks --- Universal primary education --- Urban centers --- Values --- Vocational education --- Vocational schools --- War --- Women --- Young adults --- Young men --- Young women