Encouraging STEM Specialization Among High School Girls

Last registered on August 20, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Encouraging STEM Specialization Among High School Girls
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0018840
Initial registration date
August 14, 2026

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 20, 2026, 9:07 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

Name
Karen Ye
Affiliation
Queen's University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
John A. List
PI Affiliation
University of Chicago
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PI Name
Faisal Kattan
PI Affiliation
University of Chicago
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PI Name
Nour Abdelbaki
PI Affiliation
University of Chicago
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2026-05-14
End date
2028-06-30
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Women remain significantly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and employment in the Middle East. This study investigates the barriers preventing female students in Grades 10 - 11 from selecting specialized STEM high school tracks and evaluates the effectiveness of two interventions designed to close this gap. Qualitative evidence from focus groups with students, parents, and teachers reveals that while 83% of girls report enjoying STEM subjects, positive attitudes fail to translate into enrollment decisions due to persistent social norms, family influence toward gender-conforming career paths, and limited awareness of STEM's educational and labor market returns for women. To address these barriers, we implement two interventions that are cross-randomized across 40 schools: (1) role model videos featuring successful women in STEM, shown to both girls and their parents to shift perceptions of social acceptability and career viability, combined with information letters sent directly to both parents and students, emphasizing earnings returns, available government support for women in STEM, and the regional needs for STEM majors; and (2) default enrollment, automatically enrolling girls within a school into specialized STEM paths with an opt-out option to test whether inertia can convert positive attitudes into action. This design enables causal identification of each intervention's effects and potential spillovers, while generating cost-conscious, policy-actionable evidence for governments on how to sustainably increase girls' enrollment and retention in STEM education pathways.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Abdelbaki, Nour et al. 2026. "Encouraging STEM Specialization Among High School Girls." AEA RCT Registry. August 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.18840-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This study employs two cross-randomized interventions targeting both students and their parents to encourage STEM specialization among high school students. The intervention components are: (1) role model videos featuring women in STEM careers, designed to shift perceptions and aspirations, combined with an information letter providing parents and students with information about STEM opportunities for women; and (2) default enrollment into a STEM track (opt-out design), leveraging behavioral insights around inertia and defaults to increase STEM take-up.
Intervention Start Date
2026-08-23
Intervention End Date
2026-09-20

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
High school track specialization, specifically whether students choose a STEM or non-STEM specialization track
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
N/A, the outcome is directly observed from administrative enrollment records

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
o For Students:
- College and career aspirations and expectations
- Beliefs about own ability to succeed in specialized STEM tracks, as well as relative ability of girls vs. boys
- Attitudes toward gender norms in STEM
- Second-order beliefs regarding gender norms in STEM
- Beliefs about STEM majors and careers
- Expected returns to STEM
- 11th and 12th grade grades (after choosing STEM/non-STEM specialization track, if possible)
- College enrollment and major (if possible)
o For Parents:
- College and career aspirations and expectations for daughter
- Beliefs about daughter's ability to succeed in specialized STEM tracks, as well as relative ability of girls vs. boys
- Attitudes toward gender norms in STEM
- Second-order beliefs regarding gender norms in STEM
- Beliefs about STEM majors and careers
- Expected returns to STEM
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
N/A, the outcomes will be measured through survey responses or administrative data

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This study evaluates two cross-randomized interventions aimed at increasing STEM specialization among secondary school girls in Saudi Arabia. The first intervention, consisting of role model videos and information letters, uses a randomized saturation design that first assigns schools to one of four saturation arms (0%, 20%, 50%, 80%), determining the share of students within each school eligible to receive the intervention, and then randomizes at the student-level within-school. The second intervention, consisting of the default enrollment condition, is randomized at the school-level, where schools are assigned to either an opt-in or opt-out framing.

The information intervention consists of two components delivered to both students and their parents: role model videos featuring women in STEM careers and an information letter about STEM opportunities. Additionally, the second intervention is default enrollment into a STEM track (opt-out) compared to active choice enrollment (opt-in). The primary outcome is students' high school track specialization (STEM vs. non-STEM). Secondary outcomes include changes in attitudes toward women in STEM, spanning social and family norms, perceptions of gender equality and capability, and views on STEM careers.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
At the school level, randomization occurs across two dimensions simultaneously: (1) treatment saturation as schools are assigned to one of four saturation arms (0%, 20%, 50%, 80%), determining the share of students within each school eligible to receive the information intervention; and (2) default enrollment condition, where schools are assigned to either an opt-in or opt-out framing, crossed with saturation to yield eight school-level treatment groups. Target allocation across saturation levels is 30%, 20%, 30%, and 20% of schools respectively, split equally between opt-in and opt-out schools within each saturation level. School randomization is stratified by school size (above vs. below median enrollment). Within schools, individual students are randomly assigned to treatment or control (for the information intervention) consistent with their school's saturation target, with treatment status harmonized among siblings.

A rerandomization procedure was implemented computationally using Python. Following school assignment, students within each school were randomly assigned to treatment or control consistent with their school's saturation target. A post-processing step then unified treatment status among siblings sharing the same parent within a school, with ties broken randomly. Across 50,000 iterations, the procedure selected the assignment minimizing the maximum deviation between realized and target shares of schools and students across saturation arms, subject to a tolerance of 2 percentage points.
Randomization Unit
- Information intervention: Student-level randomization (w/ saturation randomized at school-level)
- Default enrollment: School-level randomization
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
40 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
4,575 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
- 6 schools (pure control, opt-in), 6 schools (pure control, opt-out),
- 4 schools (20% saturation, opt-in), 4 schools (20% saturation, opt-out),
- 6 schools (50% saturation, opt-in), 6 schools (50% saturation, opt-out),
- 4 schools (80% saturation, opt-in), 4 schools (80% saturation, opt-out)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Assuming ICC = 0.2, - For the saturation design w/ information interventions, the MDE = 0.46 SD; detect a shift of ~2.49%; ~114 girls choosing advanced STEM paths - For the opt-in/opt-out arm, the MDE = 0.4031 SD; can detect a shift of ~2.21%, or ~54 additional girls choosing advanced STEM paths in the opt-out schools
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
The University of Chicago- Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2025-02-26
IRB Approval Number
IRB25-0397
Analysis Plan