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Getting Girls Back in School: The Returns to Alternative Education

Last registered on March 09, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Getting Girls Back in School: The Returns to Alternative Education
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003942
Initial registration date
February 22, 2019

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
February 24, 2019, 7:37 PM EST

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

Last updated
March 09, 2021, 7:24 PM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
UC Merced

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
BRAC
PI Affiliation
BRAC

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2019-02-15
End date
2023-08-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Using an individual level randomization, we evaluate an alternative education program targeted at girls who have dropped out of secondary school in Tanzania. In the first phase, we randomly offered female applicants a BRAC program designed to prepare individuals to pass the Tanzanian secondary school exit exam and obtain their secondary school equivalency. In the second phase, we randomly offered applicants a scholarship that paid for the tuition at alternative centers that are designed to prepare individuals to pass the Tanzanian secondary school exit exam and obtain their secondary school equivalency.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Sheth, Ketki, SK Tariquzzaman and James Ward. 2021. "Getting Girls Back in School: The Returns to Alternative Education." AEA RCT Registry. March 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3942-1.3
Former Citation
Sheth, Ketki, SK Tariquzzaman and James Ward. 2021. "Getting Girls Back in School: The Returns to Alternative Education." AEA RCT Registry. March 09. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3942/history/87039
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2019-02-15
Intervention End Date
2023-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1) Engagement with mainstream education; 2) Cognitive Skills; 3) Labor market outcomes; 4) Psychosocial well-being; 5) Risky behaviors, and 6) Aspirations
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
1. Engagement with mainstream education is measured by participation in exit exams, enrollment in formal education, and enrollment in any educational programs that prepares a person for formal education.
4. Psycho-social well-being: Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
6. Aspirations: Expectations on earning an income, expectations on age of marriage.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Phase 1: We will use an individual level randomization stratified on 25 center locations. Specifically, we created a list of interested girls in each of the 25 program center areas. These girls were then interviewed and narrowed to approximately 30 to 40 girls per center. Due to limited space in each center, only 20 girls can be selected for the program. Therefore, from this narrowed list, we randomly select 20 girls for each center. Not all girls accepted the offer. As a result, we randomized the control sample in each of the 25 centers, to randomly select an additional subset of girls to be offered the program.

Phase 2: We publicize the scholarship and collect applicants interested in the scholarship. In phases and conditional on screening interest, we offer the scholarship to a random subset of the applicants.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in an office by a computer.
Randomization Unit
individuals
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Phase 1: 970 individuals
Phase 2: 930 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
Phase 1: 970 individuals Phase 2: 930 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Phase 1: 651 individuals in treatment (offered program); 319 individuals in control (not offered program).
Originally, we had 500 in treatment and 470 in the control - our updated numbers reflect that a random subset of the control was offered the program after this initial selection.
Phase 2: 442 in treatment and 488 in control. The comparisons require re-weighting of the control group because additional rounds of treatment offers were selected from the control conditional on screening continued interest in the scholarship.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
UC Merced IRB
IRB Approval Date
2019-02-28
IRB Approval Number
UCM2019-24
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials