Training for the Future: Transforming Teacher Training Programs for Rural Teachers in Developing Economies

One reason for pervasive rural-urban gaps in student achievement is the poor quality of teaching in rural areas. Although high quality teacher training programs may improve teaching and student achievement, policymakers in developing countries face two problems in providing such programs. First, most programs are not sustained and do not actively engage teachers. Second, the impact of teaching training programs on student learning is rarely assessed. The overall goal of our research is to examine which teacher training program elements (especially those that sustain training and/or actively engage trainees) most effectively improve rural student learning. To achieve our goal, we propose conducting a SMART design of several adaptive teacher training programs in 200 rural schools in Henan Province, China. We hope the results from the SMART design will inform policymakers about how to create teacher training programs that will cost-effectively improve the achievement of rural students.