Teacher Trainees as Tutors: Improving Foundational Skills in Morocco

This study proposes a randomized trial in Morocco to measure the effects of a new teacher trainee internship program on (1) middle school student learning and (2) future-teacher retention and productivity. This is a large-scale trial that tests one of the main ingredients of a wide reform effort led by the Ministry of Education. There are two main evaluation designs: First, a sample of 200 middle schools will be randomly assigned to either treatment or control. Treatment schools will receive student-teacher interns to lead tutoring sessions throughout the school year with low-achieving students randomly placed into tutoring groups. This allows for the identification of the causal effect of being assigned to a volunteer tutor on an eligible student’s learning. Second, across a larger set of schools and student-teacher volunteers, we will randomly assign student-teachers to internship placements to generate exogenous variation in school quality and study effects on retention into the teaching profession and subsequent teaching skills. This study will provide insights into the potential benefits of volunteer programs and their impact on student outcomes and school environments and on teacher training and selection.