Table 5 Pedagogical Practices, Textbook Quality and Curriculum Coverage (Clustered Standard Errors)

||A. Pedagogica|l Practices|B. Book Quality|C. Curricu|lum Coverage|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Teacher Checks**<br>**Maths Homework**<br>(1)|**Teacher Checks**<br>**Port Homework**<br>(2)|**Textbook**<br>**is good/great**<br>(3)|**Covers**<br>_≥_80%<br>(4)|**Covers**<br>_≤_40%<br>(5)|
|||5<sup>_th_ </sup>Grade|_−_Teachers/Students|||
|**DD, Results**_−_**Based Financing (**_β_<sup>_rbf _</sup>_−β_<sup>_pre_</sup>**)**|0_._008|0_._006|_−_0_._051|0_._002|0_._018|
||(0_._010)|(0_._010)|(0_._056)|(0_._032)|(0_._019)|
|**DD, Teaching Assistance (**_β_<sup>_rbf_+</sup><sup>_ta _</sup>_−β_<sup>_rbf_</sup>**)**|0_._018<sup>_∗_</sup>|0_._023<sup>_∗∗_</sup>|0_._094<sup>_∗∗_</sup>|0_._081<sup>_∗_</sup>|_−_0_._036<sup>_∗∗_</sup>|
||(0_._010)|(0_._010)|(0_._046)|(0_._043)|(0_._017)|
|**DD, Results**_−_**Based Financing, re (**_β_<sup>_rbf_(</sup><sup>_re_)+</sup><sup>_ta _</sup>_−β_<sup>_rbf_+</sup><sup>_ta_</sup>**)**|0_._010|0_._004|0_._103<sup>_∗∗_</sup>|0_._010|0_._004|
||(0_._009)|(0_._009)|(0_._043)|(0_._036)|(0_._011)|
|**# of Observations**|225_,_869|224_,_593|2_,_310|2_,_310|2_,_310|
|**Adj. R**_−_**squared**|0_._006|0_._634|0_._084|0_._549|0_._484|
|||9<sup>_th_ </sup>Grade|_−_Teachers/Students|||
|**DD, Results**_−_**Based Financing (**_β_<sup>_rbf _</sup>_−β_<sup>_pre_</sup>**)**|0_._016<sup>_∗_</sup>|0_._010|0_._000|0_._051|_−_0_._005|
||(0_._008)|(0_._008)|(0_._038)|(0_._042)|(0_._014)|
|**DD, Teaching Assistance (**_β_<sup>_rbf_(</sup><sup>_re_)+</sup><sup>_ta _</sup>_−β_<sup>_rbf_(</sup><sup>_re_)</sup>**)**|0_._009|0_._010|_−_0_._014|0_._081<sup>_∗∗_</sup>|0_._018<sup>_∗∗_</sup>|
||(0_._009)|(0_._008)|(0_._038)|(0_._039)|(0_._008)|
|**DD, Results**_−_**Based Financing, re (**_β_<sup>_rbf_(</sup><sup>_re_)</sup> _−β_<sup>_rbf_</sup>**)**|0_._007|0_._006|0_._034|0_._116<sup>_∗∗∗_</sup>|_−_0_._027<sup>_∗∗∗_</sup>|
||(0_._008)|(0_._008)|(0_._044)|(0_._042)|(0_._009)|
|**# of Observations**|191_,_503|191_,_764|2_,_310|2_,_310|2_,_310|
|**Adj. R**_−_**squared**|0_._005|0_._005|0_._084|0_._549|0_._484|
|**Questionnaire Respondent**|**Student**|**Student**|**Teacher**|**Teacher**|**Teacher**|

**Notes.** *** denotes significance at 1 percent, ** at 5 percent, and * at 10 percent level. This table presents the effects of RBF and technical assistance on pedagogical practices, textbook quality, and curriculum coverage. Data comes from teacher questionnaires in the _Sistema de Avaliação da Educação Básica_ (SAEB) and all regressions are restricted to municipalities at the border between _Ceará_ and its adjacent states as shown in Figure 1. The regressions include municipality controls for the number of births per year in _Sistema de Nascidos Vivos_ (SINASC), a dummy for rural schools (SAEB); if schools offer from the 1<sup>_st_</sup> to the 9<sup>_th_</sup> grade. A time trend, municipal-specific trends, and a border fixed-effect are also included. The teacher/student controls are: if male, if white, and dummies per age group. Weights for school size, in terms of number of students, are considered in columns (3) to (5). The “ _DD_ , Results _−_ Based Financing" shows the _RBF_ impacts. The “ _DD_ , Teaching Assistance” refers to the effects of introducing the technical assistance component and “ _DD_ , Results _−_ Based Financing, re” shows _DD_ estimates reformulating the RBF mechanism. The baseline difference at the border is _β_<sup>_pre_</sup> . Standard errors are clustered by municipality and shown in parenthesis.

on curriculum coverage is even stronger for teachers in 9<sup>_th_</sup> grade. In addition to the 8 _._ 1 _pp_ increase during TA periods, teachers were 11 _._ 6 _pp_ more likely to cover 80% of the curriculum after RBF reformulation. However, reinforcing this argument, an opposite movement is observed in column (5). It shows a 3 _._ 6 _pp_ decrease in the percentage of 5<sup>_th_</sup> grade teachers reporting covering less than 40% of the curriculum during the TA periods, and 2 _._ 7 _pp_ less likely among 9<sup>_th_</sup> grade teachers after RBF was reformulated. In the same way that textbook quality plays a prominent role in explaining the gains in performance for students in 5<sup>_th_</sup> grade, greater curriculum coverage by teachers seems to be an important driver for learning improvement in 9<sup>_th_</sup> grade.

Figure 6 complements Table 5 by showing that _Ceará_ is distributing textbooks where they are scarcer. Using school principal questionnaires from SAEB and plotting the _DD_ coefficients from Eq. (2), Figure 6 shows no change in the provision of pedagogical materials by the municipal council (blue bars), but significant decreases in the incidence of schools reporting a lack of text36