Impacting non cognitive skills to reduce students' drop out in France

Last registered on February 17, 2017
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Impacting non cognitive skills to reduce students' drop out in France
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000376
Initial registration date
February 17, 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
February 17, 2017, 1:50 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
France
Region
Île-de-France, Hauts-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur

Primary Investigator

Name
Adrien Bouguen
Affiliation
UC Berkeley
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Coralie Chevalier
PI Affiliation
ENS-INSERM
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PI Name
Elise Huillery
PI Affiliation
Université Paris-Dauphine/ J-PAL Europe
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PI Name
Yann Algan
PI Affiliation
Sciences Po
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2014-09-01
End date
2019-06-30
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
Education, Self-Discipline, Perseverance, Non-cognitives skills, Early school dropout
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Non-cognitive skills, such as motivation, perseverance and self-discipline are increasingly considered to be at least as important as cognitive skills for educational attainment and labor market outcomes. However, a child’s early cognitive and non-cognitive development can be affected by family background and socioeconomic status. Children growing-up in low-income families, with less educated parents, often receive poor stimulation at home. They are more likely to fall behind in school and to drop out compared to their better-off peers. Investing in the development of non-cognitive skills at school could help close the attainment gap. Yet little evidence exists about the impact of policies that target students’ non-cognitive skills on educational achievement. In this study, researchers investigate the impact of a series of class discussions in middle school that emphasize the importance of these skills on student behavior, test scores, and dropout rates. The goal of this study is to provide empirical evidence on how it is possible to impact non-cognitive skills and how non-cognitive skills may affect cognitive ones and prevent students from an early drop out from school.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Algan, Yann et al. 2017. "Impacting non cognitive skills to reduce students' drop out in France." AEA RCT Registry. February 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.376-1.0
Former Citation
Algan, Yann et al. 2017. "Impacting non cognitive skills to reduce students' drop out in France." AEA RCT Registry. February 17. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/376/history/14134
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Researchers partnered with the NGO “Énergie Jeunes” to measure the impact of the program
“Exploiter tout son potential” (“Reaching your full potential”) on student behavior, test-scores, and dropout rates. The intervention consists in sending a volunteer from a private firm and trained by the NGO to classes in education action zones middle schools three times a year over a period of four years.
During these sessions, facilitators encourage students to adopt good study habits, to work hard, and to find positive role models. During the second workshop the facilitators ask students to write down their goals in terms of adopting new study habits. Six weeks later, during the last workshop, they verify whether students have worked to accomplish their objectives.
Intervention Start Date
2014-09-01
Intervention End Date
2019-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Non-cognitive skills:
- Motivation: Elementary School Motivation Scale (ESMS) [Guay, 2010]
- Perseverance: Short Grit Scale (GRIT-S) [Duckworth, 2009]
- Self-discipline:
- Behavioral additions game: the Academic Diligence Task (ADT) [Duckworth, 2014]
- International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) [Goldberg and al., 2006]
- Self-control: Domain-Specific Impulsivity Scale for Children (DSIS-C) [Duckworth, 2013]
- Self Esteem: Perceived Competence Scale for Children (PCS-C) [Harter, 1982]
- Personality: Big Five Inventory (BFI) [Goldberg, 1990]
Student behavior:
- Drop out rate
- Lateness
- Attendance rate
- Sanctions
- Behavior in class according to the teachers: KIPP survey
- Life habits: survey designed by researchers

Cognitive skills and schooling outcomes :
- Students’ grade
- Students’ end of middle school exam’s grade
- Class repetition
- Students’ school career
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
97 middle-schools volunteered to participate in the study and within each of them, two student cohorts will be followed during four years from 6th grade to 9th grade. The experimental design is based on the random assignment of the schools to one of two following groups:
- Group A : In this group, the program was offered to all sixth grade classes in 2014, and will be offered to the same group of students for the following three years of middle school i.e. until they complete 9th grade. The students entering 6th grade the following year -in 2015- will not receive the program throughout middle school.
- Group B : In the second group of schools, students entering sixth grade in 2014 will not receive the program during the four years of middle school, and constitute the comparison group for students who began receiving the program in 2014. In these schools, the program will be provided to sixth grade students a year later, and will be offered to the same group of students for the following three years i.e. until the end of middle school. These students will be compared with the corresponding cohort in the first group of schools.
Researchers will collect administrative and survey data on student study habits, behavior in class, grades, grade repetition, academic self-esteem, schooling decisions at the end of middle school, and drop-out rates. These data will be collected at the end of the academic year in each experimental middle school. Administrative data from the beginning of the year (before the beginning of the intervention) will also be collected and used as baseline data. All the data collected will be “de-identified” by the inquirer before leaving the middle school.
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
97 middle schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
24 500 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
97 treatment cohorts
97 control cohorts
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Paris School of Economics (PSE)
IRB Approval Date
2016-03-18
IRB Approval Number
2014-007 (R2016)
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