With a little help from my friends: Medium-Term effects of a remedial education program targeting Roma minority

Abstract

A poor-performing student can achieve better results by following the footprints of an older friend. In this paper, we study a remedial education program that takes advantage of this phenomenon. Introduced in Serbian primary schools in 2009, the Roma Teaching Assistant Program targets underachieving students belonging to the Roma minority. It assigns one person, usually Roma, to each school participating to provide support to targeted pupils and create a bridge with their community. We estimate its medium-term effects on educational attainments at the end of primary school by comparing students in schools participating and in schools that applied, but were not selected, before and after the introduction of the program. The impacts on marks and standardized test scores are modest, although positive and bigger in schools with a lower percentage of Roma. Roma students are, however, more likely to choose longer secondary school tracks, a requirement for entering higher education.