We evaluate the long-term effect of a “girl-friendly” primary school program in Burkina Faso,
using a regression discontinuity design. The intervention consisted of upgrading existing three-classroom
schools to six-classroom schools to accommodate more grades. After six years, the program increased
enrollment by 15.5 percentage points and increased test scores by 0.29 standard deviations. Students in
treatment schools progress further through the grades, compared to students in non-selected schools.
These upgraded schools are effective at getting children into school, getting children to start school on
time, and keeping children in school longer. Overall, we find that the schools sustain the large impacts
observed about three years earlier, with enrollment declining slightly from 18.5 to 14.9 for the cohorts of
children who were exposed to both the first and second phases of the intervention