Information frictions in school track choice

Last registered on August 23, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information frictions in school track choice
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011821
Initial registration date
August 02, 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
August 10, 2023, 12:56 PM EDT

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

Last updated
August 23, 2024, 3:08 PM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Pia Schilling
Affiliation
University of Konstanz
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Moritz Welz
PI Affiliation
Ruhr Uni Bochum
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PI Name
Friederike Hertweck
PI Affiliation
RWI
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PI Name
Sven Werenbeck-Ueding
PI Affiliation
Ruhr Uni Bochum
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-08-03
End date
2025-07-31
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
School Choice, information, education, migration
JEL code(s)
D81, D83, I24
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The goal of the study is to study parental information frictions in making school type decisions for their children by providing different types of mobile information material regarding the secondary school choice. Previous evidence shows that in Germany, children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are underrepresented in the academic school track \citep{Woßmann2023, Blanden2023}. Also, children of immigrants often perform worse in school and have lower academic track choices than their native peers (Ammermüller, 2007; Wößmann, 2023). Their gap could even be widened by a lack of the host country's language skills of the students (Danzer, 2022) or the parents (Bleakley, 2008) and negative stereotypes (Carlana 2018). This study is the first to analyze whether a lack of knowledge about the German school system as well as linguistic barriers (that might cause this lack), hinders native and immigrant parents from making an informed decision about their children’s school track.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hertweck, Friederike et al. 2024. "Information frictions in school track choice." AEA RCT Registry. August 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11821-1.2
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We will conduct a randomized controlled trial targeting parents of 4th grade elementary school children in the German Federal state North Rhine-Westphalia.
This study is the first to analyze whether linguistic barriers and a lack of knowledge about the German school system and local school options hinders parents from making an informed decision about their children’s school track.
Intervention Start Date
2023-08-17
Intervention End Date
2025-07-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
-How well informed
-Registered school track
-Transition rates from elementary school to different school tracks
- School event participation
- School grades
- Predicted school track
- Effect of receiving information in native language
- Effect of receiving local information
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
1) How well informed: We ask in baseline and endline how well parents feel informed
2) Registered school track: We ask in an endline survey at which school type parents registered their child
3) Transition rates from elementary school to different school tracks: We use administrative data that has aggregated information which share of children transitioned from an elementary school to the different school types (also by gender and citizenship)
4) School event participation: We ask whether parents participated in informational events
5) School grades: We ask for students grades in math, German and Science
6) We will ask and rank importance of school characteristics
7) Predicted school track: We will use Machine learning to predict the registered school track based on characteristics
8 and 9) We will decompose the effect of different features in the treatment version of the app, namely language availability and local information

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
- Time, usage, ratings in App
- Aspirations
- Perceived Hurdles
- Used help
- Take up of schools
- Travel time to schools
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
1) Time, usage, ratings in App: We measure how much time users spend on different pages of the app, whether they click external links and whether they rate separate pages as useful
2) Aspirations: We ask parents which school track they wish for their child and can evaluate if there is differences by gender or origin
3) Perceived Hurdles: We can measure if parents are less likely to perceive hurdles in making their school track choice
4) Used help: we ask Parents whether they use any support for school matters
5) Take up: We can see if take up varies by school or parent characteristics
6) Travel time: We can evaluate for treatment group three if schools are choosen with different types of characteristics and therefore longer travel times

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Schools will be randomly assigned into two groups, so either the control or the treatment group Each group will have one half of the sample. Random assignment will be stratified by government district and quintiles of the share of non-German students in the school year 2023.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
School
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2500 Targeted schools. That received Emails to participate. The target is to have 200 participating schools for two treatment arms and 300 participating schools for three treatment arms. As of August 2024 192 target schools agreed to participate and therefore, two treatment arms are used.
Sample size: planned number of observations
In the schoolyear 2022/2023 in North Rhine Westphalia 155 870 students transitioned from elementary school to secondary school, around 15% of them are foreign citizens (24 115). The number of students with a migration background is higher with an average of 40 % in all public schools in the schoolyear 21/22. With 200 targeted schools each with an average of around 50 students in fourth grades in schools and a take up of 20% we hope to reach a minimum of 2000 parents.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
At the time of randomization we have 192 schools participating. 96 schools in the control group and 96 schools in the treatment group
Schools are still able to sign up. Out of the schools that are not yet signed up, we have 1297 in the control group and 1302 in the treatment 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
Ethics research committee of the Free University of Bolzano
IRB Approval Date
2023-06-27
IRB Approval Number
SprAPP_Cod2023_13
Analysis Plan

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