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Can after-school tutoring improve the academic performance of students from low-income families? Trial evidence from economically backward areas in China

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Abstract

This study comprised a randomized controlled trial focusing on after-school English tutoring for all Grade 1 junior middle school students from low-income families (LIFs) in an economically backward county in China. In total, 120 randomly selected students from LIFs participated in four months of online after-school English tutoring. The results show that after-school English tutoring can significantly improve the English examination results of students from LIFs by 11 points (based on OLS regression estimation), which is equivalent to 0.3 standard deviations. In terms of result heterogeneity, we found boys may benefit more than girls, and both students with better (the top 40%) and relatively poor learning ability (the other students) can benefit from the extra instruction, but the latter benefits more. The spillover effect of the after-school English tutoring on Chinese scores only existed among students from urban LIFs. An extended analysis showed that the effects are sustained even after the program ends and that there is no spillover effect among students.

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Notes

  1. According to Opinions on Establishing Poverty Withdrawal Mechanism jointly issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, the Notice on Printing and Distributing the Implementation Measures for Special Assessment and Inspection on Withdrawal of Poverty Counties (Trial) issued by the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council, and the Work Plan for Special Assessment and Inspection on Withdrawal of Poverty Counties issued by the Government of Guizhou Province in 2018, the incidence of poverty should be taken as the main criterion for withdrawal of poverty-stricken counties. In principle, the incidence of poverty in poverty-stricken counties in western China should be reduced to below 3% for withdrawal. For poverty-stricken people in rural areas, escaping poverty is based on the stable realization of “reaching one standard, no worry for two things, and three guarantees” as the main criteria. That is, the annual per capita disposable income of registered poor families in rural areas should stably exceed the current PAS level announced by the central government of China in that year; rural poor people should no longer be worried about food (including drinking water) and clothes; school-age children from poor families in rural areas should enjoy compulsory education according to law and should not be deprived of education or drop out of school due to financial difficulty facing their families; and all members of registered poor families in rural areas should be covered by basic medical insurance, serious illness insurance, and medical assistance as well as guaranteed housing.

  2. When the interaction term equals 0, the coefficient of the intervention variable indicates the effect for students with relatively poor learning ability. When the interaction term equals 1, the sum of the coefficient of the intervention variable and the coefficient of the interaction term represents the effect for students with better learning ability. Therefore, the positive coefficient of the intervention variable indicates that students with relatively poor learning ability can benefit from the instruction. The positive interaction term indicates that students with better learning ability (top 40%) can benefit more from the instruction.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Chinese National Social Science Foundation (19ZDA117), Office of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Guizhou Province (21GZGX05), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, China (PAPD), and the China Center for Food Security Studies in Nanjing Agricultural University, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Postdoctoral Research Center of Applied Economics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, People’s Republic of China

    Lingzhi Li

  2. Postdoctoral Programme, Bank of Nanjing, Nanjing, 210008, People’s Republic of China

    Lingzhi Li

  3. College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    Yang Yang & Li Zhou

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  1. Lingzhi Li
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Correspondence to Yang Yang.

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The authors declare that the experiment was approved by local educational authorities.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Appendix Tables 10, 11, 12, 13.

Table 10 Impact of after-school English tutoring on (standardized) academic performance—differences in learning ability—20% cutoff
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Table 11 Impact of after-school English tutoring on (standardized) academic performance—differences in learning ability—30% cutoff
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Table 12 Impact of after-school English tutoring on (standardized) academic performance—differences in learning ability—50% cutoff
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Table 13 Impact of after-school English tutoring on (standardized) academic performance—differences in learning ability—score before intervention
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Li, L., Yang, Y. & Zhou, L. Can after-school tutoring improve the academic performance of students from low-income families? Trial evidence from economically backward areas in China. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-022-09803-3

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