In the late 1990s, the UK government sought to improve standards of reading, writing and mathematics in primary schools by means of prescriptive, centrally directed national policies. The introduction of a dedicated hour in numeracy and literacy in primary schools (together with instruction as to how the class should be delivered) was very different to what went before and has been very controversial. In this paper we ask (1) have the strategies made a difference to pupil outcomes in the short and the long term? (2) does the length of exposure to the ‘literacy hour’ or ‘numeracy hour’ matter? (3) to what extent are the effects of the pilot strategies representative of effects when the policies are rolled out nationally? We analyse this question using administrative data on all school children in England. We make use of the fact that these policies were not introduced to other parts of the UK and the fact that they were introduced to a small number of Local Authorities before the national roll-out (though with little overlap between Local Authorities involved in the literacy hour and numeracy hour respectively).  
Joint work with Stephen Machin (London School of Economics).