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)
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.
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 (end points)
Short-run: Preferences Long-run: Test scores, SAT scores, graduation, college enrollment, labor market outcomes
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
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?
No
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)