Teaching with the Test: Experimental Evidence on Diagnostic Feedback and Capacity-Building for Public Schools in Argentina

This paper presents experimental evidence on the impact of the use of large-scalestudent assessments for diagnostic feedback and capacity building. We randomlyassigned 105 public primary schools in the Province of La Rioja,... [ view full abstract ]

This paper presents experimental evidence on the impact of the use of large-scalestudent assessments for diagnostic feedback and capacity building. We randomlyassigned 105 public primary schools in the Province of La Rioja, Argentina to:(a) a “diagnostic feedback” group in which we administered standardized tests inmath and Spanish at baseline and two follow-ups and made their results availableto the schools through user-friendly reports; (b) a “capacity-building” group inwhich we did the same and also provided schools with professional developmentworkshops for supervisors, principals, and teachers; or (c) a control group, in whichwe administered standardized tests only at the second follow-up. After two years,diagnostic feedback schools outperformed control schools by 0.323 and 0.343σ inthird grade math and Spanish, and by 0.278 and 0.377σ in fifth grade math andSpanish, respectively. Capacity-building schools performed on par with controlschools in third grade, but they outperformed control schools by 0.209 and 0.188σin fifth grade math and Spanish, respectively.