subjects with the most prominence in the curriculum. Second, our classroom observation sample prioritized the observation of math and Portuguese teachers, to increase the comparability of the types of lessons observed. For SPAECE, we concentrate on the results for 1<sup>st</sup> year students, which have the broadest sample. Table 21 – Sample Balance in Student Characteristics, pre-treatment, 2013-2015 - Ceará census and administrative data

||||Ctl<br>2013|||Ctl<br>2014|||Ctl<br>2015||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Grade|N|onro<br>Means<br>(T=0)|Diff.<br> (T[1]-T[0])|N|onro<br>Means<br>(T=0)|Difference<br> (T[1]-T[0])|N|onro<br>Means<br>(T=0)|Diff.<br> (T[1]-T[0])|
|Covariates|||||||||||
|Female|1|82850|0.50<br>[ 0.00]|0.01<br>[ 0.01]|78548|0.51<br>[ 0.00]|0.00<br>[ 0.01]|73143|0.49<br>[ 0.00]|0.00<br>[ 0.01]|
||||0.54|0.00||0.53|0.00||0.53|-0.00|
|Female|2|70228|[ 0.00]|[ 0.01]|67508|[ 0.00]|[ 0.01]|62917|[ 0.00]|[ 0.01]|
|Fl|3|61744|0.55|-0.01|60180|0.55|0.00|55908|0.54|0.00|
|emae|||[ 0.00]|[ 0.01]||[ 0.00]|[ 0.01]||[ 0.00]|[ 0.01]|
|Whit|1|82850|0.13|-0.01|78548|0.12|-0.00|73143|0.11|0.00|
|e|||[ 0.01]|[ 0.01]||[ 0.01]|[ 0.01]||[ 0.01]|[ 0.01]|
|White|2|70228|0.13|-0.00|67508|0.13|-0.01|62917|0.12|-0.00|
||||[ 0.01]|[ 0.01]||[ 0.01]|[ 0.01]||[ 0.01]|[ 0.01]|
|White|3|61744|0.14|0.01|60180|0.14|-0.00|55908|0.14|-0.00|
||||[ 0.01]|[ 0.01]||[ 0.01]|[ 0.01]||[ 0.01]|[ 0.01]|
|Black|1|82850|0.01|0.00|78548|0.01|0.00|73143|0.01|0.00|
||||[ 0.00]|[ 0.00]||[ 0.00]|[ 0.00]||[ 0.00]|[ 0.00]|
|Blk|2|70228|0.01|0.00|67508|0.01|0.00|62917|0.01|0.00|
|ac|||[ 0.00]|[ 0.00]||[ 0.00]|[ 0.00]||[ 0.00]|[ 0.00]|
||||0.02|0.00||0.01|0.00||0.01|0.00|
|Black|3|61744|[ 0.00]|[ 0.00]|60180|[ 0.00]|[ 0.00]|55908|[ 0.00]|[ 0.00]|
||||0.60|0.01||0.62|-0.01||0.59|-0.01|
|Brown|1|82850|[ 0.02]|[ 0.03]|78548|[ 0.02]|[ 0.03]|73143|[ 0.02]|[ 0.03]|
||||0.59|0.01||0.60|-0.00||0.63|-0.02|
|Brown|2|70228|[ 0.02]|[ 0.03]|67508|[ 0.02]|[ 0.03]|62917|[ 0.02]|[ 0.03]|
||||0.57|0.01||0.60|0.01||0.62|-0.01|
|Brown|3|61744|[ 0.02]|[ 0.03]|60180|[ 0.02]|[ 0.03]|55908|[ 0.02]|[ 0.03]|
|Age in years|1|82850|17.07<br>[ 0.07]|-0.01<br>[ 0.10]|78548|17.08<br>[ 0.06]|0.01<br>[ 0.09]|73143|17.07<br>[ 0.06]|-0.03<br>[ 0.09]|
||||17.95|0.02||17.87|-0.01||17.88|-0.01|
|Age in years|2|70228|[ 0.07]|[ 0.10]|67508|[ 0.06]|[ 0.09]|62917|[ 0.06]|[ 0.09]|
||||18.92|-0.04||18.89|-0.03||18.81|-0.02|
|Age in years|3|61744|[ 0.07]|[ 0.10]|60180|[ 0.07]|[ 0.10]|55908|[ 0.06]|[ 0.09]|
||||40.18|-1.43||37.90|-0.06||36.88|-0.36|
|Students per class|1|82850|[ 0.88]|[ 0.98]|78548|[ 0.37]|[ 0.57]|73143|[ 0.41]|[ 0.59]|
||||38.18|-1.33||36.19|-0.38||35.23|-0.01|
|Students per class|2|70228|[ 0.96]|[ 1.09]|67508|[ 0.39]|[ 0.58]|62917|[ 0.47]|[ 0.65]|
|Sdl|3|61744|37.76|-1.10|60180|36.04|-0.71|55908|34.79|-0.34|
|tuents per cass|||[ 1.02]|[ 1.10]||[ 0.41]|[ 0.59]||[ 0.46]|[ 0.62]|

Note: Standard errors in brakets, clustered at the school level . Statistical significance levels * p<0.1 ** p<0.05 *** p<0.01 Out of our original randomized sample of 350 schools, one treatment school and one control school closed between 2014 and 2015. Beyond this, 18 treatment schools were not able to be observed at baseline and thus could not receive the “information shock” of observation results at the beginning of 2015. However, all 174 schools received the other two elements of the intervention – coaching and self-help materials – and we have learning outcomes for the full sample of 348 schools.

Tables 21 and 22 examine the balance on pre-treatment covariates at the student level for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 cohorts of students. Table 21 uses administrative data from the National Educational Census, while Table 22 uses data from the SPAECE student survey.

Imbalance on these variables might indicate selection bias in the students taking the exam, and there are some small imbalances. For race, there were approximately 1% fewer black students in our treatment group in 2014 (among 2<sup>nd</sup> year students) and in 2015 (among 3<sup>rd</sup> year students) when compared to the control group, and 2% more brown students in several years (among 1<sup>st</sup> year students in 2013, 2<sup>nd</sup> year students in 2014 and 3<sup>rd</sup> year students in 2015). The proportion of parents who had not completed high school was 1% smaller in the treatment group for 1<sup>st</sup> year students in 2014. Somewhat countervailing this, the proportion of parents who had not completed primary school was 1% higher in our treatment group for 2<sup>nd</sup> year students in 2015. Overall, however, the students in our treatment and control groups are quite well balanced on demographic and background characteristics.

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