Impact Evaluation for Scholarships in El Salvador
Project Description
The Education and Training Activity is intended to support both formal and non-formal technical training programs, including secondary and post-secondary technical and vocational education. The Formal Technical Education program includes multiple components, including school improvements , teacher training, and scholarships to increase the quality and capacity of secondary technical schools to train greater numbers of students and expand access to more at-risk youth and young adults. For more information see the El Salvador Country Page.
Evaluation Description
This evaluation focuses on analyzing the impact of the scholarships for students in secondary schools. The goal of the scholarship activity is to increase enrollment, persistence, and completion of secondary and postsecondary education, and ultimately to improve labor market outcomes. These outcomes will be evaluated through a randomized design that assigns eligible applicants when there is oversubscription to either receive scholarships (intervention group) or not receive scholarships (control group). For more information see the evaluation’s design report.
Data Collection
Data for the impact evaluation will come from both administrative records kept by the Ministry of Education (MINED) and from an independent survey. MINED will provide annual data on enrollment and persistence. MCC will contract a firm to collect the data for variables that MINED does not track, such as graduation, employment, wages, and post-secondary education. The survey will cover the 751 students in the study (515 in the intervention group and 236 in the control group). These students will be interviewed one year after the final year of schooling for labor outcomes such as employment and wages.