Empowering parents to improve education: evidence from rural Mexico

We examine a very inexpensive program in Mexico that involves parents directly in the management of schools located in disadvantaged rural communities. The program, known as AGE, finances parent associations and motivates parental participation by involving them in the management of primary school grants. We find that AGE reduced grade failure by 7.4 percent and grade repetition by 5.5 percent in grades 1 through 3. However, while AGE was effective in poor communities, it had no effect in extremely poor communities.