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While secondary school enrollment rates have increased in recent years, net enrollment rates remain below 70% in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Gender-based constraints, such as paid work and early marriage, contribute to high dropout rates during this period of schooling. In Bangladesh, where a reverse gender-gap in enrollment has emerged in recent years at both the primary and early secondary levels, gender inequities remain in the intrahousehold allocation of educational resources, with boys receiving greater investment in the quality of schooling. At the secondary level, dropout rates among girls outpace boys at 42% compared to 33%. Furthermore, recent school closures due to the covid-19 pandemic threaten to undo progress in enrollment and widen disparities in investment, especially for girls and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Adolescents in Bangladesh are among the most negatively affected globally, with complete school closures that lasted 63 weeks. We are testing evidence-based approaches among adolescents in Bangladesh to promote re-enrollment, increase secondary school completion, and promote gender equitable behavior. We use baseline and follow-up data, collected in 2020 and 2022, to evaluate a school-based cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (cRCT) with 109 schools that delivered two virtually-implemented interventions during covid-19-related school closures: (1) gender-neutral Growth Mindset programming around malleable intelligence and (2) Girl Rising programming that focuses on gender norms around girls’ education that is layered on top of the Growth Mindset programming. We layer Girl Rising on Growth Mindset in order to test whether programming that speaks particularly to the constrains faced by adolescent girls has additional positive impacts on adolescent outcomes. We estimate intention to treat (ITT) impacts of both treatments on school enrollment, student motivation and learning, gender attitudes, engagement in paid work, and experience of early marriage.
Presenter(s)
Jennifer E. Seager, The George Washington University
Non-Presenting Authors
Sarah Baird, The George Washington University
Akarshik Banerjee, University of Wisconsin – Madison
TM Asaduzzaman, World Bank
Shwetlena Sabarwal, World Bank
Amita Vyas, The George Washington University
"I Have Grown Confidence in Me": Shifting Adolescent Mindsets on Schooling,"
Category
Volunteer Session Abstract Submission
Description
Session: [186] EXPERIMENT AND MACHINE LEARNING IN EDUCATION
Date: 7/4/2023
Time: 2:30 PM to 4:15 PM
Date: 7/4/2023
Time: 2:30 PM to 4:15 PM