Schools for Everyone: Social Cohesion and Socio-Emotional Skills in Contexts of High Human Mobility

Last registered on June 04, 2025

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Schools for Everyone: Social Cohesion and Socio-Emotional Skills in Contexts of High Human Mobility
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016152
Initial registration date
May 31, 2025

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
June 04, 2025, 9:56 AM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Affiliation
IADB

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
IADB
PI Affiliation
University of Colorado Denver

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-04-26
End date
2026-06-30
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study evaluates a school-based intervention designed to promote social cohesion in public schools in Bogotá, Colombia, with a high concentration of migrant students. The intervention consists of a one-hour weekly session integrated into the school schedule, led by teachers using structured materials featuring stories, games, videos, and music to foster prosocial behaviors and reduce exclusion. This study implements a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving 121 schools randomly assigned to either treatment or control groups, with student-level outcomes measured at baseline and at the endline. The intervention focuses primarily on outcomes related to peer violence and antisocial behavior, social integration and exclusion, and prosociality and cooperation. Additionally, the evaluation collects behavioral and social network data to enrich the analysis. We will examine heterogeneous treatment effects across key dimensions such as student nationality, gender, and teacher characteristics. The study is conducted in partnership with the Secretaría de Educación de Bogotá and designed for potential scale-up.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Luzes, Marta, Cynthia Van Der Werf and Andrea Velásquez. 2025. "Schools for Everyone: Social Cohesion and Socio-Emotional Skills in Contexts of High Human Mobility." AEA RCT Registry. June 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16152-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2025-06-14
Intervention End Date
2025-12-05

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Antisocial Behavior
• Peer violence
• Victimization
• Antisocial behavior
Social Integration and Exclusion
• Social exclusion
• Ethnic segregation
• Social cohesion
• Behavioral and social networks
Prosociality and Cooperation
• Trust
• Prosocial behavior
• Cooperation
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We implement a clustered randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate a school-based intervention to promote social cohesion in public elementary schools in Bogotá, Colombia, with a high concentration of migrant students. Schools are the unit of randomization, stratified by locality and absenteeism rates. A total of 121 schools are randomly assigned to treatment (n=60) or control (n=61). Within each school, two to three fifth-grade classrooms (the final grade of primary school) are selected to participate, with an average of 70 students per cluster. The intervention consists of weekly one-hour sessions during the school day, facilitated by trained teachers using materials specifically designed for this project (e.g., illustrated stories, videos, songs, and group activities). The intervention will run for approximately four months. Teachers have already received training on delivering the intervention and will continue to receive ongoing implementation support, including regular monitoring and incentives to maintain high fidelity to the program. Control schools continue their standard curriculum during the trial period but will receive all intervention materials and teacher training after the endline survey. Importantly, current control students will not participate in the intervention, enabling future evaluations of medium-term effects by comparing treated and untreated cohorts within these schools. Data collection includes student surveys, behavioral games, social network mapping, cognitive and social intelligence tests, and teacher surveys. Baseline data is collected before the intervention, with endline data collected six to seven months later. The analysis will estimate intent-to-treat (ITT) effects of assignment to treatment on key outcomes, along with heterogeneity analyses by nationality, gender, and teacher characteristics.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Computer randomization, stratified by locality and absenteeism rates
Randomization Unit
School
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
121 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
8,507 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
60 schools (treatment) and 61 schools (control)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Econometría Consultores S. A.
IRB Approval Date
2025-05-12
IRB Approval Number
003-2025