Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis March 2015, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 113–137 DOI: 10.3102/0162373714527786 © 2014 AERA. http://eepa.aera.net RURAL Hondurans confront severe and inter- twined challenges to their human development. Four of 10 individuals live below the extreme poverty line, and the rate of child labor supply is among the highest in Latin America (World Bank, 2006). Although most rural children have access to a local primary school, repetition rates are high (Urquiola & Calderón, 2006) and the average sixth grader leaves school with dramati- cally lower reading and mathematics achieve- ment than fourth graders in developed countries (Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Arora, 2012; Mullis, Martin, Foy, & Drucker, 2012). 1 Confronted with a growing number of under-prepared primary school graduates in rural areas, the Honduran government has prioritized the cost-effective expansion of middle schools in rural villages that do not have access to traditional high schools offering Grades 7 to 12. 2 The most common model, the Centro de Educación Básica (CEB), reconfigures rural pri- mary schools to offer Grades 7 to 9, but other- wise finances and manages them as public schools (Inter-American Development Bank [IDB], 2000). The government also supports the expansion of non-traditional schools operated by 527786EPA XX X 10.3102/0162373714527786McEwan et al.Improving Middle School Quality in Poor Countries research-article 2014 Improving Middle School Quality in Poor Countries: Evidence From the Honduran Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial Patrick J. McEwan Wellesley College Erin Murphy-Graham David Torres Irribarra University of California, Berkeley Claudia Aguilar Renán Rápalo Universidad Pedagógica Nacional Francisco Morazán This article evaluates the impact and cost-effectiveness of offering an innovative middle school model—the Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial (SAT)—to Honduran villages instead of traditional middle schools. We identified a matched sample of villages with either type of school and collected baseline data among primary school graduates eligible to enroll in middle schools. After 2 years, the test scores of children residing in SAT villages were 0.2 standard deviations higher than children in other villages, though the per-student cost in SATs was at least 10% lower than traditional schools. The article is one of the few studies to rigorously evaluate a scaled-up instruc- tional reform in a poor country, implemented with an alternative model of teacher recruitment and contracting. Keywords: middle schools, Honduras, rural schools, quasi-experiment, propensity score methods at WELLESLEY COLLEGE LIBRARY on January 28, 2015 http://eepa.aera.net Downloaded from