ERIC Number: EJ994732
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 36
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0964-5292
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
The Impact of School Quality, Socioeconomic Factors, and Child Health on Students' Academic Performance: Evidence from Sri Lankan Primary Schools
Aturupane, Harsha; Glewwe, Paul; Wisniewski, Suzanne
Education Economics, v21 n1 p2-37 2013
One of the eight Millennium Development Goals is that all children in developing countries should complete primary education. Much progress has been made toward this goal, but completing primary school does not ensure that students attain basic literacy and numeracy skills. Indeed, there is ample evidence that many children in developing countries are not learning these basic skills. This raises the question: What can schools and communities do to increase the learning that takes place in schools? Sri Lanka exemplifies these issues. It has achieved universal primary completion, but many Sri Lankan primary school students perform poorly on academic tests. This paper uses unusually rich data from Sri Lanka to investigate the determinants of academic performance, as measured by achievement tests, of Grade 4 students. At the child and household level, educated parents, better nutrition, high daily attendance, enrollment in private tutoring classes, exercise books, electric lighting, and children's books at home all appear to increase learning, while hearing problems have a strong negative effect. Among school variables, principals' and teachers' years of experience, collaborating with other schools in a "school family," and meetings between parents and teachers all appear to have positive impacts on students' scores. Estimates that exclude some of the variables available in the unusually rich data yield different results, which suggests that results based on less complete data are likely to suffer from omitted variable bias. A final section provides recommendations for education policies in Sri Lanka. (Contains 10 tables and 21 notes.)
Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Achievement Tests, Elementary School Students, Numeracy, Foreign Countries, Child Health, Lighting, Educational History, Socioeconomic Status, Literacy, Developing Nations, Educational Attainment, Low Achievement, Nutrition, Attendance, Childrens Literature, Family Environment, Educational Policy
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Sri Lanka
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A