El Salvador Catch Up Clubs Costing Brief

This study of Save the Children El Salvador’s Catch Up Clubs programs compared “Digital Math” classes where students used a learning app on tablets with “Paper Math” classes led by facilitators. Digital math was 11.2% less costly at $79/child for 3 months of classes, compared with $89/child for Paper Math – due to reduced facilitator training, shorter classes and lower progress monitoring costs. Both programs significantly improved students’ test scores, but Paper Math was more effective, improving math scores by 0.28 standard deviations (sd), compared with 0.18sd for Digital Math. Therefore, Paper Math ($318/sd) was found to be 36% more cost-effective than Digital Math ($433/sd) in the pilot project. However, a scaled-up Digital Math program would likely be more cost-effective: tablets could be re-used by multiple students; extensive teacher training would not be needed; Spanish translation has been completed already; delays in procuring tablets and technical glitches were resolved