Tracking in Principals of Economics Classes

Last registered on August 20, 2019

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Tracking in Principals of Economics Classes

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0004590

Initial registration date

August 16, 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

August 20, 2019, 10:53 AM EDT

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

Primary Investigator

Name

Richard Patterson

Affiliation

United States Military Academy

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Dallas Gilmore

PI Affiliation

United States Military Academy

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Susan Carter

PI Affiliation

United States Military Academy

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2019-08-16

End date

2020-06-14

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

This study will examine the effects of tracking students within economics courses via a randomized controlled trial (RCT).

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Carter, Susan, Dallas Gilmore and Richard Patterson. 2019. "Tracking in Principals of Economics Classes." AEA RCT Registry. August 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.4590-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2019-08-19

Intervention End Date

2020-05-24

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Course performance; Major Choice

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Course evaluation scores; Desire to take advanced level courses

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

This study will examine the effects of tracking students within economics courses via a randomized controlled trial (RCT).

Experimental Design Details

Students who would have been assigned a section of SS251 within an hour will be randomly assigned to one of the sections of SS201 offered in the same hour (time slot). If there are are fewer than 9 SS251 students within an hour, they will all be assigned the same randomly selected section. If there are more than 8 but fewer than 17 within an hour, the SS251 students will be equally and randomly split between two sections within the hour, and so on. SS201 students within an hour will then be randomly assigned to fill in a section with or without SS251 students.

At the conclusion of the semester, we will analyze how assignment to a section with SS251 students affects SS201 student's performance, major choice, and other taste and academic outcomes.

Randomization Method

randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

cluster of randomization is classroom

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

70 classrooms

Sample size: planned number of observations

1100

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

17 treatment classrooms, 53 control classroom

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

Assuming an intraclass correlation in grades and major choice of 0.03, we estimate being able to detect a 0.1 grade point change in performance and a 3.3 percentage point increase in probability of majoring in economics (with power of 0.8)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB