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Field
Last Published
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Before
November 10, 2022 06:05 PM
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After
January 24, 2023 12:08 PM
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Field
Intervention (Public)
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Before
Our management intervention consists of two elements: i) an early warning system to identify students at risk of dropping out of the program and ii) training and consultancy support to schools.
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After
The data-driven management meetings will rely on two key elements: i) the monitoring of meaningful key performance indicators and availability of a list of students at risk of dropping out of the program, and ii) the support of management consultants to facilitate discussions and introduce management practices informed by data that may contribute to reducing student drop-outs.
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Field
Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
student drop out (leaving the program without graduating) or student switching specialty (dropping out of one specialty and enrolling in another one)
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After
student drop out (leaving the program without graduating), student switching specialty (dropping out of one specialty and enrolling in another one), management practices. More details in the PAP.
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Field
Planned Number of Clusters
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Before
50 schools
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After
49 schools
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Field
Intervention (Hidden)
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Before
Our management intervention will consist of two elements: we will develop an early warning system to identify students at risk of dropping out of the program and provide training and consultancy support to schools.
Early Warning System: historical data on students' performance and behavior will be used to predict their probability of dropping out (leaving without graduating or re-enrolling in a different specialty). Based on the predictions of the EWS, DYPA, the government agency, will compile and share a confidential list of students at-risk with each school’s management team on a regular basis so that they can then provide targeted support to those students.
Consultancy: Consultancy support will be provided by hired and trained management consultants and will take place for at least the first 3 to 4 months of the school year 2022-23 in the EPAS schools assigned to the treatment group. Management consultants will meet with the schools’ management teams on a regular basis. The meetings to be held comprise of weekly discussions (through videoconferencing) plus one or two monthly physical visits to the EPAS schools. The consultancy will be complemented by a short and user-friendly manual summarizing the consultancy content.
Each EPAS Director will need to assign a management task team that will participate in the meetings with the management consultants. The assignment of the management team in each EPAS will ensure a greater degree of accountability towards meeting a common purpose and objective, i.e., the reduction of student dropouts in the school.
The main objective of the consultancy would be to teach the assigned management teams to carry out data- driven meetings. Building a data-driven culture within the school would have important implications on decision- making including making important management choices based on real evidence rather than intuition or personal experience. In those data-focused team meetings, the EPAS management team, with the help of the management consultant, will review the list of students at-risk (that will be shared confidentially only with the management team), examine a wide variety of student information, consider multiple interpretations of the data, exchange views with each other, and develop a meaningful operational plan. It should be noted that management training on specific, evidence-based methods is expected to have a broader impact on the quality of management practices overall. In other words, by teaching schools’ management teams to have meaningful meetings based on data, they would be able to identify and deal with other issues they might face at the schools. Each management team will be advised on effective strategies (such as career counseling and mentorship) to support students at-risk and to take timely preventive actions. Based on this advice, each school management team would be able to define a strategy that fit their needs and undertake remedial actions with the aim to help students at-risk stay in school. These strategies would be tailored to the characteristics and needs of different groups of students at-risk. At the end of the consultancy, it is expected that management teams would have acquired a basic knowledge of effective dropout prevention strategies to target their support to students at-risk.
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After
The data-driven management meetings will rely on two key elements: i) the monitoring of meaningful key performance indicators and availability of a list of students at risk of dropping out of the program, and ii) the support of management consultants to facilitate discussions and introduce management practices informed by data that may contribute to reducing student drop-outs.
Key Performance Indicators and List of “at-Risk” Students: Schools will be encouraged by management consultants to monitor a range of key performance indicators through the use of a dashboard that might be informative for discussing student dropouts. These indicators may include student drop-out rates, share of students with assigned apprenticeships, school and apprenticeship attendance rates, share of students who have never attended school or apprenticeship, performance in school and apprenticeship, etc. These indicators may also be disaggregated by year of enrollment and gender. Schools will also be given by DYPA a confidential list of students that are at “at-risk” of dropping out. This list will be based on a prediction model that uses data on students’ characteristics and performance to predict which students are at risk of dropping out of the vocational program or switching specialty. The list may be updated on a regular basis as new data becomes available (akin to early warning systems).
Management Consultancy Support: Schools will be asked to appoint a small management team tasked with reducing dropout rates which must comprise the Director and 2-3 additional school employees (Deputy Director, teachers etc.). The team will participate in meetings with hired and trained management consultants on a regular basis for at least the first 3 to 4 months of the school year 2022-23. The meetings to be held comprise weekly discussions (through videoconferencing) plus one physical visit to schools over the duration of the intervention.
The main objective of the consultancy is to help the management team to devise effective strategies to reduce dropout rates and implement them. Schools will receive advice on i) how to run data-driven meetings using established lean management tools and techniques (e.g., having a structured agenda, encouraging all team members to engage in a meaningful discussion, tracking student data in a timely manner, using data to inform the discussion, performing a root cause analysis, designing a concrete action plan with clear responsibilities, targets, and deadlines, and following up on it), and ii) effective strategies to support the students at-risk of dropping out. Effective strategies include (but are not limited to) contacting students, inquiring about satisfaction with school and apprenticeship, providing career counseling, mentoring and other support services as needed.
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Field
Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
students' attendance, students' performance, internship, performance during the internship, labor market outcomes (e.g., employment status, earnings, wages)
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After
students' attendance, students' performance, internship, performance during the internship, labor market outcomes (e.g., employment status, earnings, wages). More details in the PAP.
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