Learning to Work Towards Goals: A Sequential Evaluation of the Effect of a Goal-Setting Course on Academic and Soft Skills

This study sequentially evaluates a soft-skills course implemented in Ugandan and Kenyan primary schools that replaced academic review time with lessons on goal-setting and related skills as students prepared for high-stakes primary school-leaving exams. An exploratory evaluation in Uganda provided evidence of positive impacts on girls’ test scores. A confirmatory evaluation in Kenya found that the course led to improvements in self-reported soft skills, especially among girls, although no gains in test scores. The study illustrates the utility of sequential evaluation, with exploratory analysis to identify promising hypotheses, followed by out-of-sample testing, as a tool to uncover heterogeneous effects.