High-Dosage Tutoring and Reading Achievement: Evidence from New York City

Last registered on November 09, 2017
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
High-Dosage Tutoring and Reading Achievement: Evidence from New York City
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002467
Initial registration date
November 08, 2017

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
November 09, 2017, 11:50 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region
New York City

Primary Investigator

Name
Roland Fryer
Affiliation
Harvard University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Meghan Howard Noveck
PI Affiliation
Harvard University
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Roland G. Fryer
PI Affiliation
Harvard University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2013-06-01
End date
2017-09-30
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
I20, J0
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This study examines the impact on student achievement of high-dosage reading tutoring for middle school students in New York City Public Schools, using a school-level randomized field experiment. Across three years, schools offered at least 130 hours of 4-on-1 tutoring based on a guided reading model, which consisted of 1-on-1 read alouds, independent reading, vocabulary review, and group discussion. We show that, at the mean, tutoring has a positive and significant effect on school attendance, a positive, but insignificant, effect on English Language Arts (ELA) state test scores and no effect on math state test scores.
External Link(s)
J-PAL Evaluation Summary

Registration Citation

Citation
Fryer, Roland G., Roland Fryer and Meghan Howard Noveck. 2017. "High-Dosage Tutoring and Reading Achievement: Evidence from New York City." AEA RCT Registry. November 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2467-1.0
Former Citation
Fryer, Roland G., Roland Fryer and Meghan Howard Noveck. 2017. "High-Dosage Tutoring and Reading Achievement: Evidence from New York City." AEA RCT Registry. November 09. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2467/history/23130
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2013-09-01
Intervention End Date
2016-06-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
scores on New York State's achievement test; school attendance;
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The list of sixty schools were randomly assigned to one of three groups – the treatment group consisted of twenty schools that were assigned to be a part of NYC’s Middle School Quality Initiative and added 2.5 hours of after-school programming which included 4-on-1 tutoring and the main control group consisted of twenty schools that were assigned to be a part of NYC’s Middle School Quality initiative. A secondary control group serves the purpose of a “pure” control.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Matched triples were assigned by ordering the set of sixty schools by sixth grade enrollment and their average proficiency rate in math and ELA. Then we designated every three schools from this ordered list as a "matched triple" and randomly selected one school in each triple to treatment, one to main control, and one to supplementary control. Randomization was done in Stata using a random number generator.
Randomization Unit
Schools
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
60 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
1,700 students in treatment and main control.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
20 schools received the treatment (tutoring and after-school programming)
20 schools were assigned to NYC's middle school quality initiative
20 schools served as a pure control group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Harvard University
IRB Approval Date
2013-05-13
IRB Approval Number
F24129-101
IRB Name
New York City Department of Education Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2013-06-19
IRB Approval Number
461
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
April 30, 2016, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
April 30, 2016, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
60 schools
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
1,700 students
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
20 schools received the treatment (tutoring and after-school programming) 20 schools were assigned to NYC's middle school quality initiative 20 schools served as a pure control group 20 schools served as a pure control group
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

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Program Files

Program Files
No
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
Citation
Roland G. Fryer Jr., and Meghan Howard Noveck. "High-Dosage Tutoring and Reading Achievement: Evidence from New York City." NBER Working Paper No. 23792, September 2017.
URL
https://www.nber.org/papers/w23792.pdf

Reports & Other Materials