Arbeitspapier
Leveraging Technology to Engage Parents at Scale: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial
While leveraging parents has the potential to increase student performance, programs that do so are often costly to implement or they target younger children. We partner text-messaging technology with school information systems to automate the gathering and provision of information to parents at scale. In a field experiment across 22 middle and high schools, we used this technology to send automated text-message alerts to parents about their child’s missed assignments, grades and class absences. We pre-specified five primary outcomes. The intervention reduces course failures by 38% and increases class attendance by 17%. Students are more likely to be retained in the district. The positive effects are particularly large for students with below-average GPA and students in high school. There are no effects on standardized test scores however. We randomly chose either the mother or the father to receive the alerts, but there were no differential effects across these subgroups. As in previous research, the intervention appears to change parents’ beliefs about their child’s performance and increases parent monitoring. Our results show that this type of automated technology can improve student effort relatively cheaply and at scale.
- Language
-
Englisch
- Bibliographic citation
-
Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 6493
- Classification
-
Wirtschaft
Education and Research Institutions: General
Analysis of Education
Education and Inequality
Education: Government Policy
- Subject
-
education
information
experiments
- Event
-
Geistige Schöpfung
- (who)
-
Bergman, Peter Leopold S.
Chan, Eric W.
- Event
-
Veröffentlichung
- (who)
-
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
- (where)
-
Munich
- (when)
-
2017
- Handle
- Last update
-
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET
Data provider
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.
Object type
- Arbeitspapier
Associated
- Bergman, Peter Leopold S.
- Chan, Eric W.
- Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
Time of origin
- 2017
Other Objects (12)
Leveraging Technology and Gamification to Engage Learners in a Microbiology Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education
Equitable Access: Leveraging Multi-sensory Strategies to Engage and Empower Museum Learners of Diverse Abilities
Leveraging Transmedia storytelling to engage tourists in the understanding of the destination’s local heritage
Act your age to engage: field evidence on parent versus brand extension
Harm reduction stories: leveraging graphic medicine to engage veterans in substance use services within the VA
Engage with fungi
Engage with Fungi
Leveraging knowledge assets : success factors of external technology commercialization
Using technology to engage hospitalised patients in their care: a realist review
Using technology to engage preservice elementary teachers in learning about scientific inquiry
How to engage Cofilin
Leveraging technology to promote women's health: Evidence from a pilot program
Leveraging Technology and Gamification to Engage Learners in a Microbiology Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education
Equitable Access: Leveraging Multi-sensory Strategies to Engage and Empower Museum Learners of Diverse Abilities
Leveraging Transmedia storytelling to engage tourists in the understanding of the destination’s local heritage
Act your age to engage: field evidence on parent versus brand extension
Harm reduction stories: leveraging graphic medicine to engage veterans in substance use services within the VA
Engage with fungi
Engage with Fungi
Leveraging knowledge assets : success factors of external technology commercialization
Using technology to engage hospitalised patients in their care: a realist review
Using technology to engage preservice elementary teachers in learning about scientific inquiry
How to engage Cofilin
Leveraging technology to promote women's health: Evidence from a pilot program
Leveraging Technology and Gamification to Engage Learners in a Microbiology Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education
Equitable Access: Leveraging Multi-sensory Strategies to Engage and Empower Museum Learners of Diverse Abilities
Leveraging Transmedia storytelling to engage tourists in the understanding of the destination’s local heritage
Act your age to engage: field evidence on parent versus brand extension
Harm reduction stories: leveraging graphic medicine to engage veterans in substance use services within the VA
Engage with fungi
Engage with Fungi
Leveraging knowledge assets : success factors of external technology commercialization
Using technology to engage hospitalised patients in their care: a realist review
Using technology to engage preservice elementary teachers in learning about scientific inquiry
How to engage Cofilin