Revamping the Teaching Profession by Attracting Non-Teachers to It: Evidence from Enseña Chile Mariana Alfonso Education Division, Inter-American Development Bank Chicago, IL – CIES 2010

Roadmap I – Background II – The Importance of a Good Teacher III – Enseña Chile (Ech): Recruiting the Best to Become Teachers IV – Evaluation Design V – Sample VI – Preliminary Results VII – Next Steps

I - Background  Poor performance and highly unequal  Chile lags behind in international student achievement tests  Chilean students had largest increase in reading scores in PISA between 2000 and 2006  Still, Chile ranks among lowest performing countries  Chile has one of the largest achievement gaps between high and low income students  Among countries with highest between-school variance  Most between-school variance explained by students’ SES  Highly segregated education system along socioeconomic lines

II – The Importance of a Good Teacher  A good (effective) teacher is  One that improves student outcomes  The most important within-school factor that can help close the achievement gap  Disadvantaged students are often taught by the low-quality teachers  In Chile, municipal schools are staffed with least skilled teachers

III – Enseña Chile (ECh): Recruiting the Best to Become Teachers  Objective  To provide high quality educational opportunities to help close Chile’s achievement gap  How does it work? Based on Teach for America  Selects, trains and supports highly qualified college graduates from all majors  Professionals (PECh) work as full-time teachers for 2 years in schools serving low income students  2009 pilot: over 700 applications; 27 PECh assigned to 15 public and subsidized private schools in three Regions

III – Enseña Chile (ECh): Recruiting the Best to Become Teachers

IV – Evaluation Design  Objective: estimate ECh’s impact on  student achievement, using value added measures  students’ cognitive and non-cognitive abilities  students’ behaviors (motivation, expectations, attendance, etc.)  school organization and other teachers’ behaviors  Quasi-Experimental Approach:  PSM based on probability of applying to be an ECh school; nearest neighbor matching algorithm  Unit of analysis: classroom with an ECh corps member  Control sample 1: based on grade and section in school sharing similar characteristics as ECh school  Control sample 2: untreated sections within ECh schools

IV – Evaluation Design  Data: primary data collection done in June and November 2009  Academic achievement for grades 7, 8 and 9  Math and Spanish standardized tests  Pruebas SEPA allow computation of value added  Cognitive and non-cognitive skills for grades 9 to 12  Tests of intellectual abilities  Tests of intrapersonal abilities  Self-esteem  Academic self-efficacy  Social abilities  Metacognitive abilities  Questionnaires for students, parents, teachers and school principals  Socioeconomic background  Motivation, expectations, study habits, school attendance …

V - Sample  Between 20% to 30% of students absent on data collection days  To make baseline results representative, sample reduced to classrooms with  Attendance of more than 6 students  Representing 60% of classroom’s enrollment  Of 119 treated classrooms, 96 are representative and have representative control  Response rates for parent questionnaires low (35%)

VI – Preliminary Results  At Baseline:  Program targeting:  Most students from low SES households  Math and Spanish performance below national average  Important share of students have poor study habits  Many students do not expect to finish college  Poor classroom environment  Differences between ECh treatment and control:  Control students have better socioeconomic indicators  Control students have higher educational expectations  No differences in Pruebas SEPA, self-esteem and self- efficacy tests  No differences in study habits and classroom environment

VI – Preliminary Results  Socioeconomic indicators

VI – Preliminary Results  Test results  Educational expectations

VI – Preliminary Results  At Follow-Up: promising results  ECh students made greater gains in 9 th grade Spanish

VI – Preliminary Results  At Follow-Up: promising results  ECh students have significantly higher intellectual abilities and academic self-efficacy scores

VII – Next Steps  Evaluation:  Difference-in-difference regression to analyze ECh impact  2010 evaluation: Two years in ECh compared to one  Ech corps members assigned to same schools  46 new Ech corps members and 18 new schools  TFA-inspired programs in LAC:  Peru  Selection process; summer institute  Argentina, Brazil?, Haiti?, Colombia?