The Flexible Education Models (FEM) are compensatory supply-intervention programs targeted at rural schools in Colombia, which provide extra and/or specific resources to schools that enroll disadvantaged students. These FEM programs supply didactic materials, textbooks, teacher training and infrastructure. This study attempts to evaluate the impact of increasing the student enrollment share in FEM programs on school average standardized test results (Language and Math exams) and school dropout and grade retention rates, in rural schools in Colombia. Two data-panels at school level, one for secondary (2010-2015) and one for primary (2012-2015), with a set of institutional and sociodemographic characteristics at school and municipality level are exploited, using Pooled-OLS and Fixed Effect estimation. Additionally, robustness bounds are applied to evaluate the problems associated with selection on unobservable factors. The results suggest that expansion of the FEM enrollment has a significant impact on lowering the dropout and grade retention school rates, for both secondary and primary cycles, where the strongest impact is found on the grade retention rate. However, no consistent positive effects are found for the impact on average student’s test results.

Bijkerk, S.
hdl.handle.net/2105/39544
Business Economics
Erasmus School of Economics

Florez Bustamante, M.E. (2017, October 4). Flexible Education Models in Colombia: An Impact Evaluation of a Compensatory Program for Rural Schools. Business Economics. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/39544