Reducing parent-school information gaps and improving education outcomes: Evidence from high frequency text messaging in Chile
Reducing parent-school information gaps and improving education outcomes: Evidence from high frequency text messaging in Chile
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缩小家长与学校的信息差距并改善教育成果：来自智利高频短信的证据
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发表时间：
2016
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
S. Berlinski
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作者：
S. Berlinski
世界各地的学校定期收集学生结果的高频数据，如缺勤、成绩和学生行为，这些都是重复成绩和辍学的有力预测指标。然而，父母很少能够实时访问这些数据。我们以智利低收入地区的8所小学的1500名学生为样本，测试了使用高频短信向家长发送这些数据的项目是否能改善教育成果。四个月后，接受治疗的学生数学成绩明显提高，出勤率提高，不良行为发生率降低，年底不及格的可能性也降低了。我们发现了一些证据，表明更多的学生（随机）在同一个教室接受治疗会产生积极的溢出效应。治疗缩小了家长与学校之间的信息差距，接受治疗的家长报告说，他们更愿意在随访中继续支付信息传递项目的费用。我们的研究结果表明，家长和学校之间沟通不良可能是提高教育成就的重要障碍。使用低成本的技术，以更高的频率提供有关学生成绩、出勤和行为的现有数据，可以显著提高人力资本的获得。
Schools around the world routinely collect high frequency data on student outcomes like absenteeism, grades, and student conduct, all strong predictors of grade repetition and school dropout. Yet parents rarely have access to these data in real time. We test whether a program of sending these data to parents using high frequency text messaging improves education outcomes in a sample of 1,500 students in eight elementary schools in a low-income region of Chile. After four months, treated students had significantly higher math grades, improved attendance, a lower prevalence of bad behaviors, and were less likely to fail the grade at the end of the year. We find some evidence of positive spillovers from having more students (randomly) treated in the same classroom. Treatment narrowed parent-school information gaps and treated parents reported a higher willingness to pay for continuing the messaging program at follow up. Our results suggest that poor communication between parents and schools may be an important barrier to improving educational attainment. Using low-cost technology to deliver existing data on student grades, attendance and behavior at higher frequency could significantly raise human capital attainment down the line.