Assessing the Impact of "Programa Compasso" on children’s Socio-Emotional and Academic Skills in Brazil

Last registered on April 27, 2018
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Assessing the Impact of "Programa Compasso" on children’s Socio-Emotional and Academic Skills in Brazil
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002887
Initial registration date
April 25, 2018

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
April 27, 2018, 1:17 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Brazil
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Vladimir Ponczek
Affiliation
FGV
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Natália Zanetti Marchi
PI Affiliation
FGV
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Gabriela Couto Fonseca
PI Affiliation
FGV
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Dana Charles Mccoy
PI Affiliation
Harvard
PI Name
Cristine Campos Xavier Pinto
PI Affiliation
FGV
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2016-11-16
End date
2019-06-30
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
Socioemotional skills, Cognitive development, Randomized Experiment, Impact Assessment
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
International studies indicate that social-emotional skills are good predictors of academic performance and also of professional and personal outcomes in adulthood. In addition, some studies show that such skills can be stimulated by socio-emotional learning initiatives, in which specific topics are added to traditional school curriculum. Despite those evidences, socio-emotional learning programs are incipient in Brazil and in the rest of Latin America. Therefore, through a random experiment with baseline and follow-up of a two year implementation of a social-emotional learning program (Compasso Program), this work aims to collect data that will allow us to push socioemotional skills' formation agenda forward in Brazil. We also aim to contribute with direct recommendations for Brazilian public policies. Compasso Program is a Brazilian version of a United States Program called Second Step. Both programs add socio-emotional lessons in the traditional school curriculum.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Couto Fonseca, Gabriela et al. 2018. "Assessing the Impact of "Programa Compasso" on children’s Socio-Emotional and Academic Skills in Brazil." AEA RCT Registry. April 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2887-1.0
Former Citation
Couto Fonseca, Gabriela et al. 2018. "Assessing the Impact of "Programa Compasso" on children’s Socio-Emotional and Academic Skills in Brazil." AEA RCT Registry. April 27. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2887/history/28891
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2017-05-08
Intervention End Date
2018-12-14

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The main objective of this research is to understand the benefits of social-emotional learning using Compasso Program data. Therefore, we want to answer the following questions: (a) What are the effects of Compasso Program oh children’s development of skills such as: (i) executive functions; (ii) emotional regulation; (iii) socio and emotional skills; and (iv) behavioral functioning? (b) Are there any indirect effects of socio-emotional lessons in academic results, such as language and math scores? (c) Is there any connection between the effect of Compasso Program and the training and support which is given to teachers of socio-emotional lessons? (d) Is it possible for Compasso Program to be used in a larger scale, as a public policy for socio-emotional development initiatives?
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This will be a randomized trial with baseline and follow-up. The first field research happened at the beginning of 2017 Brazilian school-year (around March) and the second data collection took place at the end of the same school year (around December). The third and forth data collection will happen during 2018, also at the beginning and at the end of the school year. The sample was carefully chosen to be a representative sample of Rio de Janeiro municipality Elementary schools. Through randomization 98 schools were selected and approximately 3.000 students (from 3rd and 5th grades in 2017 and 3rd and 4th grades in 2018) took part of the research. Due to budget issues, only 84 of those schools will be part of the research for the second year. The schools were randomly assigned into three groups: (i) Intervention: schools in which teachers will be trained in Compasso Program methodology and teach socioemotional lessons once a week, without parental involvement; (ii) Intervention with parental involvement: schools in which teachers will be trained in Compasso Program methodology and teach socioemotional lessons once a week, and parents are engaged in kids socioemotional development through text messages(ii) Control: schools that do not receive the training, the intervention, nor the parental involvement.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer.
Randomization Unit
School
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
98 (2017) to 84 (2018) schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
3,000 pupils
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
47 schools controls; 47 schools treatment (2017)
42 schools controls; 42 schools treatment (2018)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Committee on the Use of Human Subjects (IRB00000109)
IRB Approval Date
2016-10-28
IRB Approval Number
IRB16-1644
IRB Name
Comitê de Conformidade Ética em Pesquisas Envolvendo Seres Humanos da FGV
IRB Approval Date
2016-12-15
IRB Approval Number
01/2016
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