Publicly Provided After-School Tutoring and Children’s Noncognitive Development: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in China

Last registered on January 29, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Publicly Provided After-School Tutoring and Children’s Noncognitive Development: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in China
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012811
Initial registration date
January 09, 2024

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
January 12, 2024, 1:05 PM EST

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

Last updated
January 29, 2026, 9:01 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
China
Region
Hubei

Primary Investigator

Name
Chunchao Wang
Affiliation
South China Normal University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
yao wang
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator
PI Name
jiahui chen
PI Affiliation
PI Name
hang zou
PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2018-03-05
End date
2018-06-30
Keywords
Education, Labor
Additional Keywords
Publicly provided after-school tutoring; noncognitive abilities; academic motivation; parent-child interaction
JEL code(s)
C93; I21; J24
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Using a randomized experiment, this study examines the impact of publicly provided after-school tutoring on primary school students' noncognitive development. We find that the tutoring intervention significantly improves students' conscientiousness, with larger effects for those from low-socioeconomic-status (SES) backgrounds. Mechanism analysis shows that improved academic motivation and enhanced parent–child interaction jointly contribute to the positive effect. These mechanisms respond more strongly among low-SES students, helping to explain treatment effect heterogeneity. Further channel decomposition reveals that academic motivation accounts for a larger share of the overall effect, whereas parent–child interaction plays a more prominent role in explaining the heterogeneity.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
chen, jiahui et al. 2026. "Publicly Provided After-School Tutoring and Children’s Noncognitive Development: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in China." AEA RCT Registry. January 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12811-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We conduct a 16-week randomized experiment for students in Grades 3 to 5 across 22 randomly selected public primary schools in Y County of Hubei Province in central China. Students in the treatment group received after-school tutoring provided by teachers.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2018-03-05
Intervention End Date
2018-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Students’ noncognitive abilities.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We randomly chose 22 local elementary schools to conduct an after-school tutoring intervention, focusing on students who were at their grades 3 to 5. In total, we have a sample that is composed of 2,902 students, with 507 students belong to the treatment group in the experimental classes, 1,375 students belong to the control group in the experimental classes and 1,020 students belong to the control group in the control classes. For students in the treatment group, we arranged for two teachers to provide Chinese and math tutoring on Thursday and Friday afternoons, respectively. The tutoring was held in separate classrooms by grade and lasted for 40 minutes after school. During the tutoring, the teachers’ duties included helping students to review what they had learned during the week and assisting students completing their homework, while no new knowledge were allowed to be taught during the process of tutoring.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
We randomly choose 507 students and provide them access to a 40-minute after-school tutoring conducted by teachers.
Randomization Unit
class
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
22 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
22 schools
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
507 students are treatment group 2395 students are control 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
Study has received IRB approval. Details not available.
IRB Approval Date
Details not available
IRB Approval Number
Details not available
Analysis Plan

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