Do In-School Feeding Programs Have an Impact on Academic Performance and Dropouts? The Case of Public Schools in Argentina.

Authors

  • Cecilia Adrogue UdeSA-CONICET
  • Maria Eugenia Orlicki UdeSA-CONICET

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v21n50.2013

Keywords:

School Meals Programs, fixed-effects, academic perfomance, Argentina

Abstract

As Argentina presents problems of malnutrition, the federal in-school feeding program has become a key policy because it provides an important nutritional intervention during a relevant growth period.  This paper estimates the effect of the program on academic performance -measured by standardized test scores- with a difference in difference model which exploits the change over time in the supply of the in-school feeding program during the end of the nineties. We build an original panel using the ONEE corresponding to the years 1997, 1999 and 2000. Our findings suggest that the program has successfully targeted the most disadvantaged schools. However, only partial improvement in school performance has been found. Language test scores were the only ones to show a statistically significant improvement, with no noticeable effects reported in math scores. These results are consistent with the characteristics of the federal in-school feeding program in Argentina, which do not compensate for the nutritional deficit the children bring from their homes. This implies that having an in-school feeding program –even that reaching the most needy populations- does not necessarily address the desired goals of compensating for nutritional deficits and correlating to improved test results for students.

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Author Biographies

Cecilia Adrogue, UdeSA-CONICET

Dr. Adrogué is a postdoctoral scholar at CONICET-Universidad de San Andrés and Assistant professor at Austral University in Argentina. Her research interests include equality of opportunities, educational quality and the impact of education on multidimensional poverty measures.

Maria Eugenia Orlicki, UdeSA-CONICET

PhD. Candidate Orlicki is a doctoral student at Universidad de San Andés with a doctoral scholarship from CONICET, Argentina. Her research interests include poverty, inequality, child nutrition and the impact of public policies on them.

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Published

2013-06-03

How to Cite

Adrogue, C., & Orlicki, M. E. (2013). Do In-School Feeding Programs Have an Impact on Academic Performance and Dropouts? The Case of Public Schools in Argentina. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 21, 50. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v21n50.2013

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Articles