Project SUCCESS: a field experiment on social support and academic achievement in Further Education Colleges in the UK

Last registered on November 09, 2016

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Project SUCCESS: a field experiment on social support and academic achievement in Further Education Colleges in the UK

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0001644

Initial registration date

October 02, 2016

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

October 02, 2016, 4:11 PM EDT

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

Last updated

November 09, 2016, 5:39 AM EST

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

Locations

Country

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Region

London

Primary Investigator

Name

Bibi Groot

Affiliation

Behavioural Insights Team, UCL Institute of Education

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Michael Sanders

PI Affiliation

Behavioural Insights Team, University of Oxford Blavatnik School of Government

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2016-10-03

End date

2017-10-01

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

social support, personalised, text message, motivation, academic achievement, information

JEL code(s)

C93, I20

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Using text messages to motivate, inform, and remind individuals at key moments has shown to be a promising research area. We seek to answer whether the delivery mechanism of text messages can be effectively used to leverage students' social support network. A substantial literature shows that adolescents who with supportive parents, peers and teachers do better in school than those who cannot identify such sources of support. This study harnesses these relationships to improve student attainment. The process is as follows; students nominate one or two ‘study supporters’ via a short online survey - people whom they communicate with often and who support them. Students are subsequently individually randomised to one of the following arms: (1) control (2) study supporter receives messages, (3) student receives messages and (4) both study supporter and student receive messages. This allows us to test whether what the optimal way to provide information and triggering support might be.

External Link(s)

Informational video used for recruitment

Informational website for students

Registration Citation

Citation

Groot, Bibi and Michael Sanders. 2016. "Project SUCCESS: a field experiment on social support and academic achievement in Further Education Colleges in the UK." AEA RCT Registry. November 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1644-2.0

Former Citation

Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

All learners who opt in to participating in the research will nominate up to two ‘study supporters’; people in their social networks they think would encourage and support them in their studies. Students are subsequently individually randomised to one of the following arms: (1) control, where no one receives text messages (2) study supporter receives text messages, (3) learner receives text messages and (4) both study supporter and learner receive the messages.

Once students are individually randomised to treatment arms, messages are sent using a text messaging platform. The first text is sent out in the students’ autumn half term. As successful communication with Study Supporters (and students) depends on content being timely and relevant, the research team will work closely with the Heads of Maths & English at Colleges to write the prompts. This ensures that the content of the messages is sufficiently specific to the college’s exam schedule and pedagogical practices. The intervention runs for the full academic year 2016/17.

Intervention Start Date

2016-11-10

Intervention End Date

2017-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The two primary outcome measures, will be attendance rate in their maths and/or English GCSE classes, and the final grade achieved for the subject (GCSE: A*-C is pass, below C is fail). This data is collected using the college administrative datasets.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Students are subsequently individually randomised to one of the following arms: (1) control, where no one receives text messages (2) study supporter receives text messages, (3) learner receives text messages and (4) both study supporter and learner receive the messages.

Individuals (Study Supporters and learners) then receive weekly messages for the full academic year 2016/17. At the end of the year, the research team collects student level information on attendance and attainment from participating colleges.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomisation performed using Stata.

Randomization Unit

Individual randomisation

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Sample size: planned number of observations

1000 (after opt-in)

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

250 students per treatment arm, evenly distributed across 4 arms (including control).

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

Power calculations, adjusted for pre-treatment covariates and baseline outcome measures. We will be collecting learners’ opt-in responses before randomisation. Binary outcome measure (pass/fail). With power set to 0.80 and alpha set to 0.05, and N = 250 per arm, observable treatment effect = 5.9%, MDES = .141.

Supporting Documents and Materials

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