Joan B. Anderson, USD
“Social Capital and Student Learning: Empirical Results from Latin American Primary Schools”

Using indirect measures of social capital, this paper presents empirical estimates of the effects of social capital on student math and language achievement and on the probability of promotion. The data are gathered from fourth grade classrooms in public schools in four Latin American cities: Buenos Aires, Argentina, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Santiago, Chile and Leon, Mexico. The empirical evidence presented suggests that social capital between teachers in the school, between teacher and students, and among the students contribute significantly to learning achievement and the probability of promotion.