Asia and Middle East: School Dropout Prevention Pilot Program

During the initial stages of the project, Mathematica worked with Creative Associates and other participating organizations to develop a methodology to review existing U. S. and international evidence on interventions designed to prevent student drop out, based on the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) model. Mathematica also participated in the review of the studies included in the resulting report. By drawing on the WWC model, Mathematica is also advising Creative Associates on the development of the project website.

In our work with Creative Associates, we helped to conceptualize an approach to assess dropout trends and issues in the four pilot countries. Mathematica also participated in the design of in-country assessment instruments and protocols to more closely examine dropout in each of the four countries, as well as the design of a data entry system and table shells for the resulting data. The review of the international evidence and the country assessments informed the design of the interventions.

Working with the other partners, we helped design rigorous impact evaluations of the pilot programs in each of the four countries. We developed an evaluation design report documenting the design parameters for each country evaluation. Mathematica also developed survey instruments, oversaw data collection and data entry, analyzed data, and produced baseline reports. The data sources included both school administrative and teacher and student survey data. Several rounds of data collection were conducted during the study.