Impact Evaluation of an Incentive Program on Educational Achievement of Indigenous Students

This paper reports on an evaluation of the Fogs Artie program, designed to improve educational outcomes of Australian Indigenous students. In 2012, all Indigenous students enrolled in 21 high schools in Queensland were offered in-kind incentives conditional on their achievement of a specific target for academic grades, behaviour and attendance, coupled with information sessions on the importance of educational achievement. Using a differences-in-differences strategy, we find that the program improved behavioural and academic grades and reduced the number of unexplained absences for female students, but not for male students. In contrast, the program improved scores on a standardized national assessment test for male students. Moreover, we find that the program is only effective for students belonging to intact families.