The Math for Parents and Children Together Project

Last registered on December 01, 2017

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

The Math for Parents and Children Together Project

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0002512

Initial registration date

November 30, 2017

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

December 01, 2017, 11:00 AM EST

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

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Chicago area

Primary Investigator

Name

William Delgado

Affiliation

Boston University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Susan Mayer

PI Affiliation

University of Chicago

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Ariel Kalil

PI Affiliation

University of Chicago

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2017-10-08

End date

2020-03-22

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

Math, Early Childhood, Parental Engagement, Behavioral Economics, Peer Effects

JEL code(s)

D80, D91, I28, I38

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Disadvantaged children are particularly at risk for entering kindergarten behind their more advantaged peers, setting up an achievement gap that continues through later school and into adulthood. Early math skills are the strongest predictor of both later math and reading skills. However, many parents spend little time promoting their children's math skills at home. Interventions to support parent's promotion of their children's math skills in the home environment may help build math and reading skills and narrow this gap. Unfortunately, few home-based interventions for low-income parents emphasize children's early math learning and even fewer have been rigorously evaluated.

MPACT, Math for Parents and Children Together, is a program that teaches parents what effective math instruction for young children looks like, shows them how to integrate math learning into everyday routines, and encourages parents to spend time in these activities. Building on the principles of the successful Parents and Children Together (PACT) project, which increased the time low-income parents spent reading to their children, MPACT uses insights from behavioral science to promote parents' engagement in building children's developmentally-relevant math skills.

Chicago-area parents with children ages 3-4 who are currently enrolled in subsidized preschool programs will be randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups or a control group. The first treatment group will be lent a digital tablet preloaded with developmentally appropriate, math-focused applications. The second group will receive an activity booklet with developmentally appropriate, math-focused activities for parents to do with their child. The third group will receive the same intervention as group two and in addition will receive behaviorally informed text messages aimed at overcoming present bias. The fourth group will receive the same intervention as group two and in addition will receive text messages with a growth-mindset approach. The control group will receive no math tools or behaviorally informed intervention.

The goal of MPACT is to test how each of these different interventions improves parents' confidence in building their children's math skills, decreases parents' math anxiety, and increases children's relevant math skills, such as: numeracy, number recognition and relationship, and counting.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Delgado, William, Ariel Kalil and Susan Mayer. 2017. "The Math for Parents and Children Together Project." AEA RCT Registry. December 01. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2512-1.0

Former Citation

Delgado, William, Ariel Kalil and Susan Mayer. 2017. "The Math for Parents and Children Together Project." AEA RCT Registry. December 01. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2512/history/23636

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The MPACT Project is a twelve-week experimental intervention developed for parents with children to increase children's math skills. The study is conducted in three rounds, with first round starting in Fall 2017 and last round starting in Fall 2018. Chicago-area parents with children ages 3-4 who are currently enrolled in subsidized preschool programs will be randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups or a control group. The first treatment group will be lent a digital tablet preloaded with developmentally appropriate, math-focused applications. The second group will receive an activity booklet with developmentally appropriate, math-focused activities for parents to do with their child. The third group will receive the same intervention as group two and in addition will receive behaviorally informed text messages aimed at overcoming present bias. The fourth group will receive the same intervention as group two and in addition will receive text messages intended to change parental beliefs to growth mindset. The control group will receive no math tools or behaviorally informed intervention.

Intervention Start Date

2017-12-03

Intervention End Date

2019-02-24

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Woodcock-Johnson IV Applied Problems and Preschool Early Numeracy Skills assessments.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Parental attitudes and beliefs on math engagement with children
Teacher's attitudes and beliefs on math engagement with children

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Attitudes and beliefs come from parents' and teachers' reports in a series of survey questions

Experimental Design

Eligible parents were those whose primary language was either English or Spanish, who had a child of age between 3 and 4 approximately, and who enrolled their children at one of our participant subsidized preschool centers in Chicago area.
Eligible parents who signed a consent form and were willing to receive text messages were randomized to either of the four treatment or control groups. In some preschool centers an opt-out recruitment strategy was used, thus eligible parents in these centers were enrolled, unless they consented not to be part of the project.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, about five classrooms per round across centers were randomly assigned to the untreated classroom group, which had control kids only, and the rest of the classrooms were assigned to the treated classroom group. In the second stage, students within the treated classrooms were assigned to a treatment or control group.

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer.

Randomization Unit

Classroom level randomization for treated and untreated classrooms.
Individual randomization for children in treated classrooms.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

150 classrooms (22 school-rounds with about 7 classrooms each)

Sample size: planned number of observations

1,500 children (10 children per classroom)

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

15 untreated classrooms, 135 treated classrooms.
150 control children in untreated classrooms
300 control children in treated classrooms, 300 MKit group, 300 MKit + present bias group, 300 Mkit + growth mindset group, 150 in math app group.

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

Assuming 1,500 students in 150 classrooms, 4 treatment groups and a control group, intra-class correlation of 0.2 and power of 0.8, the minimum detectable effect size when comparing one treatment group with control is 0.23. Regarding peer-effects analysis, the minimum detectable effect size when comparing controls in treated classrooms versus controls in untreated classrooms is 0.41.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB