AEA RCT Registry

General Information

Title

A large-scale light-touch information campaign on the effect of transparent admission standards on students’ application to the college-bound upper-secondary school track

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011116

Initial registration date

March 17, 2023

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

March 21, 2023, 4:37 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Hungary

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Tamas Keller

Affiliation

Research Center for Educational and Network Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Centre for Social Sciences; TÁRKI Social Research Institute, Budapest

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2023-01-01

End date

2024-03-31

Keywords

Education, Welfare

Additional Keywords

Track choice, Admission standards, Information experiment

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

We analyze the transition from primary school to secondary school in Hungary. We conduct a large-scale light-touch information campaign to analyze the effect of transparent admission standards on primary school students’ application to the college-bound upper-secondary school track. Our treatment consists of a homepage summarizing all college-bound upper-secondary schools’ admission standards. Treated schools (N = 1,130) received access to the homepage. The control school (N = 1,130) did not receive access to the homepage. We compare students’ secondary school applications in treated and control schools involving data about approximately 80,000 students to evaluate the impact of the treatment. The administrative outcome data will be available in December 2023.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Keller, Tamas. 2023. "A large-scale light-touch information campaign on the effect of transparent admission standards on students’ application to the college-bound upper-secondary school track." AEA RCT Registry. March 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11116-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Treated students have access to a homepage that shows them the college-bound secondary schools' admission standards.

Intervention Start Date

2023-01-16

Intervention End Date

2023-02-22

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Application to college-bound secondary schools

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Admission to college-bound secondary schools
The share of college-bound secondary schools among all applied secondary schools
The mismatch between the applied schools’ admission standards and students' GPA

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We analyze the transition from primary school to secondary school in Hungary. We conduct a large-scale light-touch information campaign to analyze the effect of transparent admission standards on primary school students’ application to the college-bound upper-secondary school track.

We employed block randomization and randomized primary schools to treated or control conditions. We identified the most similar school pairs based on baseline variables. Within each school pair, we randomly allocated one school to the treated and the other one to the control group based on a value of a randomly generated number.

Our treatment consists of a homepage summarizing all college-bound upper-secondary schools’ admission standards. The homepage was designed by us for the purpose of this research based on administrative data that are publicly not available. Treated schools (N = 1,130) received access to the homepage. The control school (N = 1,130) did not receive access to the homepage.

We compare students’ secondary school applications in treated and control schools involving data about approximately 80,000 students to evaluate the impact of the treatment. The administrative outcome data will be available in December 2023.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

We employed block randomization. We identified the most similar school pairs based on baseline variables. Within each school pair, we randomly allocated one school to the treated and the other one to the control group based on a value of a randomly generated number.

Randomization Unit

We randomize schools.

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

2,260 primary schools

Sample size: planned number of observations

80,000 students

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

1,130 treated schools / 1,130 control schools

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

The minimum detectable effect size is between 0.02 and 0.05.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

Center of Social Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

IRB Approval Date

2021-11-05

IRB Approval Number

N/A

Analysis Plan

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A large-scale light-touch information campaign on the effect of transparent admission standards on students’ application to the college-bound upper-secondary school track

Pre-Trial

General Information

Locations

Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Registration Citation

Interventions

Primary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes

Experimental Design

Experiment Characteristics

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

Post-Trial

Study Withdrawal

Intervention

Data Publication

Program Files

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials