Does tackling poverty related barriers to education improve school outcomes? Evidence from the North East of England

Poverty related barriers to education perpetuate inequalities in educational attainment which lead to inequalities in income, health, and happiness in later life. While schools cannot tackle poverty directly, they can implement policies that tackle the stigma of poverty and ensure that the school day is more equitable. This study estimates the effect of a programme delivered to schools in North East England that is designed to remove barriers to education by reducing the stigma of poverty which impacts pupils’ educational attainment and school absences. Since the roll-out of the programme was staggered, we apply the Callaway–Sant'Anna​ time-varying-treatment difference-in-differences approach. The results show that tackling the obstacles to learning that arise from children being in poverty can improve their educational attainment and the attainment for all children, particularly in math and English reading.