Study shows scholarships like GTL’s are cost-effective investment

We at GTL are delighted to welcome Alex Marthews to GTL.  He has joined us to serve as our Executive Director.  Alex comes to GTL with impressive expertise that is based on both working internationally as a teacher and development specialist in India and also serving as Executive Director for two US nonprofit organizations over the past five years.

Alex Marthews, GTL Executive Director, met April 8 with Harvard professor Michael Kremer, lead author of “Incentives to Learn,” a study of the effectiveness of merit-based educational scholarships for girls in Kenya.

In Kremer’s study, girls in several schools in Busia and Teso provinces in western Kenya were given scholarships if they scored in the top 15% of their class in the last two years of grade school. They were also given a small stipend for school supplies.

Surprisingly, Professor Kremer and his coauthors found that the scholarships don’t benefit only the girls who are smart enough to potentially benefit from scholarships. The scores of low-achieving girls and also of boys, who are completely ineligible for the scholarships and know they are ineligible, also rose.

Kremer also found that merit-based scholarships for girls are a cost-effective intervention for raising test scores relative to other potential interventions, such as providing free uniforms, giving subsidies to teachers to show up, and providing deworming events at the school.

His research provides strong academic support for the notion that investing in merit-based scholarships similar to those provided by Growth Through Learning is the most cost-effective way to raise test scores.