Can well-informed families improve school performance?

Responsible researcher: Angelo Cruz do Nascimento Varella

Article title: ARE THE EFFECTS OF INFORMATIONAL INTERVENTIONS DRIVEN BY SALIENCE?

Article authors: Eric Bettinger, Ricardo Madeira and Guilherme Lichand

Location of intervention: São Paulo, Brazil

Sample size: 19,253 ninth grade high school students, in 287 schools in the State of São Paulo.

Sector: Education

Type of Intervention: Large-scale experiment with information systems via text messaging

Variable of Main Interest: School performance and attendance

Evaluation method: Experimental Evaluation (RCT)

Policy Problem

Progress in Brazilian education has been substantial in the last two decades, especially with regard to universal access to basic education. However, in relation to the quality of teaching, there is still a lot to improve. The unsatisfactory results can be explained by factors such as poor infrastructure, low added value on the part of teachers and little participation of families in school life. Such aspects have a direct impact on both student performance and grades, as well as attendance and participation in classes, which reflects on the quality of education offered and absorbed.

Specifically regarding family participation in school life, research indicates that increased family interest in students' daily lives has a positive impact on school performance, as well as presence in the classroom. Professionals and scholars claim that the participation of those responsible is one of the main causes of successful education. Although it is not yet known for sure what the best way to encourage this engagement, or why this phenomenon occurs, it is estimated that effective communication between educational institutions and family members is an excellent way to encourage this beneficial behavior.

Assessment Context

In contrast to the encouraging success of the Brazilian strategy of universal access to basic education, which in 2015 had more than 98% of young people aged between 7 and 14 regularly enrolled in school, the performance of students in the International Student Assessment Program ( PISA) is worrying. This is because, in the same year, 15-year-old students who participated in the test obtained an average in mathematics that was 121 points lower than the average for Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, which indicates a delay of two years in skills related to the subject. Furthermore, 48% of Brazilian students had missed at least one day of school in the week before the test, compared to an average of 20% of students in OECD countries.

This performance can be explained by little family participation in early childhood education. According to the National School Health Survey (PeNSE), from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), around 25% of relatives do not know if their dependents miss school and only half are informed about their schoolwork and duties. from home. Furthermore, few Brazilian schools have real-time information systems about their students, so the lack of communication between these institutions and families is widespread.

In São Paulo, where the experiment took place, social inequality represents a significant challenge. In addition to being the richest and most populous Brazilian state in the country, São Paulo also has the largest national education network, with more than 5.3 million primary and secondary education students in 2015, according to the Ministry's School Census of Education. While richer families prefer high-quality private educational institutions, students from lower socioeconomic classes mostly use public education. In the research sample, more than half of the households had a monthly family income of up to three minimum wages and around 60% of those responsible had not completed high school.

Policy Details

In partnership with the São Paulo State Department of Education, the researchers conducted a large-scale experiment, with the aim of measuring the effect of different communication strategies with families and guardians of ninth grade students on their school performance and attendance. . The aim is to determine whether different information mechanisms are capable of influencing the beliefs, aspirations and behaviors of family members and students.

To do this, the researchers divided the students into five groups, so that their respective families received weekly text messages with different types of information:

1. Individual – specific information about the frequency, delay and completion of tasks of your dependents;
2. Relative – specific information about the frequency, tardiness and completion of tasks of their dependents in relation to other students in the class;
3. Salience – general information about the importance of presence in the classroom and commitment to education;
4. Engagement – ​​specific information about extracurricular activities related to your dependents;
5. Control Group – did not receive any type of information.

The experiment lasted 6 months, from June to December 2016 and included 287 schools, 934 classes and 19,253 students. Information was provided by the students' mathematics teachers via weekly text messages, and the frequency of messages varied according to the research needs. The results were complemented by questionnaires.

Methodology Details

Each group in the experiment has different objectives, so the researchers carried out several tests throughout the process. The purpose of individual information is to determine whether knowledge about the dependent's performance is sufficient to interest the family member, changing their behavior. Similarly, relative information aims to determine whether the effect of comparison with the student's classmates is relevant to family involvement.

Engagement information tests the ability of messages to change family members' behavior, based on stimuli independent of teachers' actions. The objective of salience information is to measure the effect that generic and low-cost messages have in capturing the family's attention and generating beneficial changes in behavior on the part of those responsible, efficiently. In turn, control groups serve as a basis for comparison.

Results

After carrying out the research, it was possible to ascertain that weekly communication with families, through text messages, had a significant impact on students' performance and attendance. Groups that received general information about the importance of monitoring students (salience) obtained the best results observed.

In relation to attendance, groups that received individual, relative and salience information had an increase of 2.1% percentage points, which represents five more days of classes per year. Average math test scores for students in these groups also increased by 0.1 standard deviations, as their chances of passing the school year increased by 3.2 percentage points. When analyzing only the groups that received weekly information, those that received only generic information (salience) obtained considerably higher results, in the order of 89% to 126% more than in comparison to the groups with specific and relative information.

Public Policy Lessons

Constant communication between educational institutions and families is an excellent way to engage those responsible in the routine of their dependents, improving their performance and school attendance. Actions capable of encouraging the interest and attention of these individuals in students' daily lives have the potential to generate benefits with little investment and minimal costs, which represents an effective strategy that is easy to implement.

Family beliefs and expectations in relation to students prove to be useful tools in the search for improving national education, making relatives and guardians participate and improve the study conditions of young people, which characterizes a relevant opportunity for public educational policies.

Reference
BETTINGER, Eric et al. Are the effects of informational interventions driven by salience?. University of Zurich, Department of Economics, Working Paper, no. 350, 2021.