Schooling: Total Impact of

The total effect of schooling on the cognitive development of young people (its prime objective) has been addressed in a remarkably small number of studies. The available findings indicate that at least 50% of the learning gain across grades can be attributed to the effect of schooling. This figure contrasts sharply with the more frequently cited ‘school effect’ of only 15%. Some additional questions remain to be settled: for example, to what extent the impact of schooling varies across age ranges, content areas (e.g., language vs mathematics), background (e.g., by socioeconomic status or gender), and (last but not the least) across school