Unlocking the Black Box:To what extent are interactive classrooms effective classrooms in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India?

Universalisation of basic education in India has increased demand for access to secondary schooling, yet concerns about quality and equity remain. While evidence of poor learning attainment continues to accumulate, less is known about classroom interactions or how these relate to student outcomes. In this paper, we employ a unique dataset linking school effectiveness and classroom observation data to examine the relationship between these dimensions. We show that teacher classroom practices represent a potentially distinctive aspect of school quality in two states in India only weakly associated with effectiveness measures. We discuss the implications of this for understandings of equity of learning opportunities.