Abstract
We present experimental evidence on a high-dosage math tutoring (HDT) program implemented in three primary schools in a low-income neighborhood in the Netherlands. We find treatment effects on math scores of 0.28 national population standard deviations after one school year (p<0.01). These effects can account for 40% of the math achievement gap between low-income and high-income students in the Netherlands. As most of the evidence on intensive tutoring programs draws on research from the United States, we conclude that (i.) HDT programs can be successfully built from the ground up and exported to different institutional settings while maintaining substantial effect sizes, and, (ii.) existing income-achievement gaps can be substantially reduced by targeting low-income communities with scalable interventions like HDT.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 102383 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-17 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| Journal | Economics of Education Review |
| Volume | 94 |
| Early online date | 10 Apr 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:☆ The authors thank Dinand Webbink and Hessel Oosterbeek for helpful comments and discussions, Isabel Speelman and Shelby Sissing for excellent research assistance, and editorial support. From his role at the University of Amsterdam, one of the authors of this paper (Bowen Paulle) advocated for, and advised on the implementation of the intervention that is investigated in this paper. While retaining his academic position, in September 2021 Paulle became the director of Stichting (Foundation) The Bridge Learning Interventions, a Dutch non-profit implementing high-dosage tutoring. This is a different foundation than the one whose efforts are examined in this paper. The organization that provided the funding for this research was also involved in the funding of the intervention itself. The organization has expressed a desire to remain anonymous.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
Funding
☆ The authors thank Dinand Webbink and Hessel Oosterbeek for helpful comments and discussions, Isabel Speelman and Shelby Sissing for excellent research assistance, and editorial support. From his role at the University of Amsterdam, one of the authors of this paper (Bowen Paulle) advocated for, and advised on the implementation of the intervention that is investigated in this paper. While retaining his academic position, in September 2021 Paulle became the director of Stichting (Foundation) The Bridge Learning Interventions, a Dutch non-profit implementing high-dosage tutoring. This is a different foundation than the one whose efforts are examined in this paper. The organization that provided the funding for this research was also involved in the funding of the intervention itself. The organization has expressed a desire to remain anonymous.
Keywords
- Education policy
- High-dosage tutoring
- Inequality of opportunity
- Primary education
- Randomized control trial
