Can Discussions about Girls' Education Improve Academic Outcomes? Evidence from a Randomized Development Project

This article evaluates the impact that facilitated discussions about girls' education have on education outcomes for students in rural Zimbabwe. The staggered implementation of components of a randomized education project allowed for the causal analysis of a dialogue-based engagement campaign. This campaign involved regular discussions between trained facilitators and parents, teachers, and youth about girls' rights, the importance of attending school, and the barriers girls face in pursuing education. The campaigns increased mathematics performance and enrollment in the year after implementation. There was no similar improvement in literacy performance during this period. Longer-term data on the broader project suggest that adding additional education-focused interventions did not further increase mathematics performance and enrollment beyond what can be attributable to the dialogue campaigns alone.