Teaching the Language of Wider Communication, Minority Students, and Overall Educational Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Qinghai Province, China

The education of poor and disadvantaged populations, particularly those from minority subgroups, has been a long-standing challenge to education systems in both developed and developing countries. One reason for the underperformance of ethnic minority students might be low competency in the language of wider communication (LWC). This article uses a randomized field experiment in 57 schools (26 treatment schools and 31 control schools) to examine the impact of an LWC learning program on the overall academic performance (and other outcomes) of students who have limited competency in the LWC. This is a computer assisted learning program that teaches rural ethnic minority students in northwestern China Mandarin skills. Results show that this LWC-enhancing program not only improves the student test scores on the Mandarin language subject by 0.14-0.20 standard deviations but also improves the student math test scores by 0.22-0.23 standard deviations, possibly via improved language competency. It also has some positive effects on student nonacademic outcomes such as self-efficacy in studying Mandarin. Low-performing students benefit more from the program.