Impact Evaluation of a Privately Managed Tuition-Free Middle School in a Poor Neighborhood in Montevideo

Abstract:     
Using a randomized trial, we evaluate the impact of one of the few free privately-managed middle schools in Uruguay: Liceo Jubilar. The research exploits the excess of applicants over the school’s capacity and the fact that participants are selected randomly. The study tracks and compares over time adolescents selected to enter the school and those that were not drawn in the lottery. A year after the start of the intervention, we find higher levels of promotion and lower dropout rates in the treatment group relative to control subjects, but no differences in standardized tests. The intervention also shows positive effects on adolescents’ and parents’ academic expectations, and on their perceptions about safety, teachers’ attitudes, and peer atmosphere at school. In terms of resources, students in Jubilar spend more hours at school but have larger class sizes than students in public schools. Unlike charter schools, Jubilar does not compete for public funds, but it shares with charter schools its autonomy of management, capacity for innovation, and adaptation to the context. These features contrast with the Uruguayan highly centralized and inflexible public education system. Our results shed light on new approaches to education that may contribute to improve opportunities for disadvantaged adolescents in Uruguay.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 29

Keywords: education, randomized experiment, opportunities

JEL Classification: I20

working papers series