Developing countries spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year on schools, educational materials and teachers, but relatively little is known about how effective these expenditures are at increasing students' years of completed schooling and, more importantly, the skills that they learn while in school. This paper examines studies published…

An 8-year study of academic achievement, student performance, and education costs in rural northeastern Brazil investigated the presumption that students automatically perform better when more school resources are provided. Two main topics were examined: the success of EDURURAL, an educational intervention project in rural Brazil sponsored by the…