Action: Experimental Evidence on Activity-based Instruction in India

Last registered on October 19, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Action: Experimental Evidence on Activity-based Instruction in India
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003494
Initial registration date
January 17, 2019

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
January 24, 2019, 7:26 PM EST

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

Last updated
October 19, 2020, 3:03 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Independent Consultant

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
MIT
PI Affiliation
University of Minnesota
PI Affiliation
University of Minnesota

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2019-01-21
End date
2021-01-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The number of rigorous studies on “what works” to foster education in less developed countries has strongly increased, but there is surprisingly little evidence on how to improve child learning through changes in instructional practice. We study the effect of an innovative program in Karnataka, India, that promotes activity-based learning through teacher training, community engagement, and additional inputs. In a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), we will assign 98 administrative units (Gram Panchayats) and their 294 schools to either receiving the program,or not. Our primary outcome of interest is child learning, in mathematics, for students enrolled in grade four (at baseline). Sub-group analyses will focus on differential effects by students’ initial ability level, by gender, and by geographic location (i.e., by district). The study’s secondary analyses investigate changes in observed instructional behaviors and the program’s implementation fidelity.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
de Barros, Andreas et al. 2020. "Action: Experimental Evidence on Activity-based Instruction in India." AEA RCT Registry. October 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3494-3.3000000000000003
Former Citation
de Barros, Andreas et al. 2020. "Action: Experimental Evidence on Activity-based Instruction in India." AEA RCT Registry. October 19. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3494/history/78005
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention combines providing new learning materials, teacher training, and better classroom resources to improve the mathematics abilities of students in grade 1 through 5. This new environment in the treatment schools uses these new tools to cover all the topics in mathematics up to the fifth grade in an activity-based setup, while being aligned with there commended curriculum of the state government.
Intervention Start Date
2019-01-21
Intervention End Date
2020-01-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The study’s main outcome of interest is student learning, in mathematics. We will measure this outcome in two ways: (1) Student math scores on standardized, written tests, and (2) Student math scores on one-on-one tests (capturing basic skills).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
(1) Measures of sub-competencies; (2) Measures of instructional behaviors; (3) Measures of student behaviors; (4) Measures of teacher behaviors; (5) Community Engagement.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
To increase statistical power and to warrant balance across treatment and control units, we will conduct a stratified randomization. After the baseline test, within each district, baseline test scores will be used to create quadruplets of Gram Panchayats with similar academic performance. Thereafter, for each of these strata, two GPs will be selected to participate in the GKA program, while the other two GPs will remain as a “control”. Thus, 49 GPs and their selected schools will be assigned to receiving the program; the remaining 49 GPs and their selected schools will continue with “business-as-usual”. We repeat the above-mentioned randomization procedure ten times, to select the randomization with greatest balance. To this end, we select a vector of covariates – from India’s District Information System for Education (DISE) – that are predictive of baseline scores. Thereafter, we calculate t-statistics for each of the selected variables as well as the baseline score. We do so by estimating regressions of each characteristic on the treatment indicator and strata fixed effects. We then store away the most extreme of these t-statistics, and select the randomization where this value is smallest.

After selecting the randomization of schools with the greatest balance, we randomized all of the 49 treatment pairs into two arms: one group of GPs with community events (24), and one group of GPs without the community events (25). Both treatment arms continue to get the kits and related training. All pairs of control GPs remained untouched. This randomization for the GP contests took place in July, 2019.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Gram Panchayat (GP)
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
98 Gram Panchayats and 292 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
As per current enrollment numbers, we expect an overall student roster of 5,462 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
49 Gram Panchayats and 147 schools will be selected to receive the program; the remaining 49 Gram Panchayats and their 147 schools will continue with “business-as-usual”.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Our calculations consider a power of 0.8 under the following assumptions: We use administrative enrollment numbers on the study’s roster of 98 GPs and 292 schools, assume that 14 percent of students are absent on the day of the baseline test, and further assume that 15 percent of baseline students cannot be followed up, at endline. Based on recent work by J-PAL SA colleagues, in Rajasthan Government schools (Ganimian et al. 2017), we expect that baseline data will explain 60% of the outcome variables’ variance, at endline. MDEs stay under 0.2 standard deviations, even for a (very conservative) intra-cluster correlation of 0.3.
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai, India
IRB Approval Date
2018-10-29
IRB Approval Number
IRB00007107; FWA00014616; IORG0005894
IRB Name
University of Minnesota
IRB Approval Date
2018-10-10
IRB Approval Number
STUDY00004101
Analysis Plan

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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