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                   enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database



Does Community Management Help Keep Kids in Schools? Evidence Using Panel Data from
                        El Salvador's EDUCO Program
       Author(s)            Emmanuel Jimenez, Yasuyuki Sawada
       Contact              ejimenez2@worldbank.org

       Country              El Salvador

  Organizing Theme          Education and Skills, Voice and Agency

        Status              Completed

 Intervention Category      School Management

        Sector              Education
                            This paper investigates how community management of schools can affect educational
                            outcomes, such as retention and repetition rates. In our model, parents make decisions
                            about whether their children should remain in school or not, and they monitor the
                            performance of the teachers, To test the theoretical implications, we use a unique data set
                            from El Salvador, which has recently expanded the role of communities in school
                            management through its EDUCO program. We find that EDUCO has a positive and
       Abstract
                            robust influence on students, encouraging them to continue their schooling. Our results
                            suggest that community participation is largely responsible for the positive effect of the
                            EDUCO program. The better classroom environment and careful teacher management
                            under the EDUCO program also seem to contribute to the positive results. We conclude
                            that in El Salvador, decentralization of responsibilities to communities has had significant
                            positive effects on educational outcomes
  Gender Connection         Gender Informed Analysis

  Gender Outcomes           Gender disaggregated school attainment

      IE Design             Instrumental Variable
                            In EDUCO schools, the community education association has a central role in the school
     Intervention           administration and management. The association is responsible for allocating school
                            budgets, hiring and firing teachers and monitoring teacher performance.
  Intervention Period       1991-
                            The sample is comprised of 311 randomly selected primary schools. Included in the sample
  Sample population         are 878 students in 35 pure and mixed EDUCO schools and 107 pure and mixed
                            traditional rural schools.
                            The study compares EDUCO participants to similar individuals who are not participants.
Comparison conditions
                            To control for endogeneity, the study creates a formal model of program placement.
    Unit of analysis        Student level

  Evaluation Period         June 1996-July 1998



    Last updated: 14 August 2013                                                                        1
                   enGender Impact: The World Bank’s Gender Impact Evaluation Database


                            The EDUCO program had a significant positive impact on the decision to remain in
                            school beyond age three. The probability of continuing school is negatively related to age
        Results             when all else is constant. Students in EDUCO schools are less likely to repeat grades than
                            students in traditional schools, however, this effect is not statically significant. There are no
                            significant gender differences in program impact.
                            There are high rates of internal and external emigration rates that may bias the results.
Primary study limitations
                            Program placement was likely endogenous.
    Funding Source
                            Jimenez, E., & Sawada, Y. (2003). Does community management help keep kids in
      Reference(s)          schools? Evidence using panel data from El Salvador's EDUCO program (No. CIRJE-F-
                            236). CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    Link to Studies
                            http://www1.worldbank.org/prem/poverty/ie/dime_papers/541.pdf
       Microdata




    Last updated: 14 August 2013                                                                          2