Student Learning in Government Schools in Rural India

• In Event: International Perspectives on Assessment in the Schools

Abstract

This analysis examines the relationship between student reading levels and student, family background, and school characteristics in rural India. Ordered probit models are fitted to 2007 Data from 154,840 children in grades one through eight, attending 15,559 government schools, in 30 states in India in 2007. State fixed effects on student reading levels are also estimated. Key findings from this analysis include large variation of student reading level by state controlling for other covariates and a significant and positive relationship between student attendance and learning. In first grade, the predicted learning level for students in a prototypical higher-performing state are .8 standard deviations above the predicted learning levels of a lower-performing state—a difference of nearly one grade level.

Author

• Tavis N. Linsin, University of Washington