AEA RCT Registry

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What do parents value in schools? Evidence from the Zones of Choice

Last registered on October 11, 2019

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

What do parents value in schools? Evidence from the Zones of Choice

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0004844

Initial registration date

October 10, 2019

Last updated

October 11, 2019 11:32 AM EDT

Location(s)

Country

United States of America

Region

California

Primary Investigator

Name

Christopher Campos

Affiliation

UC Berkeley

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2019-09-16

End date

2020-12-31

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

I20, I21, I24, I29, L15, D70, D83

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Selecting schools is arguably one of the most important decisions parents make for their children. In the aggregate, collective decisions made across households distort the incentives of schools, and in extreme cases, schools are incentivized to exert more effort in recruiting high-achieving students than they are affecting any outcomes families may care about. This project directly assesses the factors parents value most in a setting where they are actively making enrollment decisions through a centralized assignment mechanism. We evaluate what margins of information had the strongest impact on changing submitted preferences to learn about what factors matter most to parents.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Campos, Christopher. 2019. "What do parents value in schools? Evidence from the Zones of Choice." AEA RCT Registry. October 11. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.4844-1.0.

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Distribute information to households and assess how the information changed their preferences. In the long-run, assess how the information affected other outcomes both while in school and afterward.

Intervention Start Date

2019-10-02

Intervention End Date

2019-10-09

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Short-run: Preferences
Long-run: Test scores, SAT scores, graduation, college enrollment, labor market outcomes

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

1. Collect baseline preferences and other baseline characteristics

2. Two-stage randomization of information to detect spillovers
a. Randomize school-level saturation
b. Randomize treatment to families within schools

3. Assess the impact of information on outcomes and check for spillovers

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization was done in the office on a computer.

Randomization Unit

Two levels
1. School
2. Individuals

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

52 schools

Sample size: planned number of observations

13015

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

20 Pure control group schools
16 Low saturation treatment schools
16 High saturation treatment schools

1906 Receive incoming achievement school-level information
1906 Receive achievement growth school-level information
2641 Receive both

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 for Protection of Human Subjects - UC Berkeley

IRB Approval Date

2019-09-11

IRB Approval Number

0006252

Analysis Plan