Do community-managed schools work? An evaluation of El Salvador's EDUCO Program

This article examines how decentralizing educational responsibility to communities and schools affects student outcomes. It uses the example of El Salvador's Community-Managed Schools Program (Educacion con Participacion de la Comunidad, EDUCO), which was designed to expand rural education rapidly following El Salvador's civil war. Achievement on standardized tests and attendance are compared for students in EDUCO schools and students in traditional schools. The analysis controls for student characteristics, school and classroom inputs, and endogeneity, using the proportion of EDUCO schools and traditional schools in a municipality as identifying instrumental variables. The article finds that enhanced community and parental involvement in EDUCO schools has improved students' language skills and diminished student absences, which may have long-term effects on achievement.