Academic Journal

The challenge of efficient instructional targeting in the presence of between-school heterogeneity.

Λεπτομέρειες βιβλιογραφικής εγγραφής
Τίτλος: The challenge of efficient instructional targeting in the presence of between-school heterogeneity.
Συγγραφείς: Rodriguez-Segura, Daniel1 (AUTHOR) drodriguezsegura@worldbank.org, Tierney, Savannah2 (AUTHOR)
Πηγή: Education Economics. Jun2026, p1-29. 29p. 11 Illustrations.
Θεματικοί όροι: Individualized instruction, Curriculum alignment, Educational outcomes, Public education
Γεωγραφικοί όροι: West Africa, South Asia
Περίληψη: This paper examines the extent and implications of between-school heterogeneity in foundational learning outcomes across six public education systems in South Asia and West Africa, using harmonized, system-representative data from systems collectively serving more than 900,000 enrolled children. We document substantial and pedagogically meaningful variation that tends to increase with grade level and baseline performance, and is therefore often most pronounced in upper primary grades, while also often exceeding variation explained by common subnational proxies such as administrative region and rural–urban status. In the vast majority of cases, the between-school component exceeds what would be expected from random chance due to sampling variation, often by statistically significant margins. These findings suggest that, in the presence of meaningful between-school heterogeneity, setting a single instructional level for an entire system may remain a consequential policy challenge even when overall curricula are brought closer to the level of the median child. Simulations further suggest that in systems with greater school-level heterogeneity, differentiated instructional targeting can increase the share of students whose proficiency is aligned with the assigned instructional level, relative to a uniform curriculum. Whether these alignment gains translate into realized learning gains depends on the quality of school-level data and the feasibility of implementing differentiated instruction in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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