Custodes Futurifor the advancement of humanity

Educational factor, barrier 5 of 6

Teaching above students' level

Many school systems teach to the curriculum for a child's grade, even when children are far behind it. Students who fall behind early may never catch up.

Evidence

  • Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL). India's Pratham organization groups children by their actual learning level rather than age or grade. Randomized evaluations found language gains of 0.15 standard deviations in Haryana and 0.70 in Uttar Pradesh. J-PAL describes the Uttar Pradesh learning camps as the largest impact of any TaRL model evaluated (Banerjee et al., 2016).
  • Implementation matters. Evaluations found that simply training teachers or providing materials did not improve learning. Ongoing mentorship and monitoring were needed. A trial in Côte d'Ivoire found no impact when assessment was not linked to changes in teaching practice.

Proposed and experimental methods

Methods that are proposed, under trial, approved in some places, or tried and then failed. Each shows a stage label and an evidence rating. A stage label shows how far a method has progressed, not whether it works. The stage labels are explained on the educational factor page.

  • Remedial teaching at the right level run through government schools (Large trial, B). Builds on Teaching at the Right Level in the evidence above. In a randomized trial with Ghana's government, assistant-led remedial lessons, smaller classes, and teacher-led partial-day grouping by level raised learning by about 0.1 standard deviations despite implementation problems, or about 0.4 after adjusting for imperfect implementation. Gains were larger for girls and lasted after the program ended (Duflo et al., 2020). Implementation by teaching assistants weakened over time, while teachers' implementation improved.
  • Grouping first-grade classes by prior achievement (Large trial, B). In a randomized trial in 121 Kenyan primary schools, schools that split classes by initial achievement outperformed schools that assigned students at random, and students at all achievement levels gained, which the authors attribute to teachers being able to teach at the students' level (Duflo et al., 2011). Tracking in other settings can lock low achievers into weaker classes, and this trial covered only early grades.
  • Slowing the curriculum to match student skills (Theoretical, C). A model by Pritchett and Beatty shows that two countries with the same learning potential can end with very different results if one moves through the curriculum faster than students can learn, and argues that slower curricula could raise total learning (Pritchett and Beatty, 2015). It is a simulation, and no country has tested a slower national curriculum.
  • Not shown to help: free textbooks (Large trial, B). In a randomized trial in rural Kenya, textbooks did not raise average test scores, helping only students who already scored high, partly because the books were in English, most students' third language (Glewwe et al., 2009).
  • Failed: algebra for all in eighth grade (Failed or reversed, B). When two large North Carolina districts moved algebra earlier for most students, there was no average gain and there were significant negative effects on Algebra I and Geometry, clearly harmful for the lowest performers (Clotfelter et al., 2015).

Sources cited on this page

  1. Banerjee, A., Banerji, R., Berry, J., Duflo, E., Kannan, H., Mukerji, S., Shotland, M., & Walton, M. (2016). Mainstreaming an effective intervention: evidence from randomized evaluations of "Teaching at the Right Level" in India. NBER Working Paper 22746. IDEAS A Strong: multiple randomized trials, with the scale-up evidence peer reviewed in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2017
  2. Clotfelter, C. T., Ladd, H. F., & Vigdor, J. L. (2015). The aftermath of accelerating algebra: Evidence from district policy initiatives. Journal of Human Resources, 50(1), 159-188. link B Moderate
  3. Duflo, A., Kiessel, J., & Lucas, A. (2020). Experimental evidence on alternative policies to increase learning at scale (NBER Working Paper No. 27298, revised May 2022). National Bureau of Economic Research. link Published as Duflo, A., Kiessel, J., & Lucas, A. M. (2024). Experimental evidence on four policies to increase learning at scale. The Economic Journal, 134(661), 1985-2008. link B Moderate
  4. Duflo, E., Dupas, P., & Kremer, M. (2011). Peer effects, teacher incentives, and the impact of tracking: Evidence from a randomized evaluation in Kenya. American Economic Review, 101(5), 1739-1774. link B Moderate
  5. Glewwe, P., Kremer, M., & Moulin, S. (2009). Many children left behind? Textbooks and test scores in Kenya. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1(1), 112-135. link B Moderate
  6. Pritchett, L., & Beatty, A. (2015). Slow down, you're going too fast: Matching curricula to student skill levels. International Journal of Educational Development, 40, 276-288. link C Limited

Every source for this factor is listed on the educational factor page.