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Parent-Child Preferences and Secondary School Choice: Evidence from Kenya

Last registered on April 15, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Parent Child Preferences and Secondary School Choice: Evidence from Kenya
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005517
Initial registration date
March 12, 2020

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
March 12, 2020, 6:56 PM EDT

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

Last updated
April 15, 2020, 12:33 AM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
RAND

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2020-02-17
End date
2021-05-01
Secondary IDs
Abstract
School choice systems pose a potential constraint to educational attainment in low-income countries, as students and their parents must make important academic decisions with limited information. Evidence shows this is particularly salient for girls and low-income groups. Uninformed schooling choices may lead to poor student-school match, or even failure to attend secondary school. In this study, we first document the extent to which inaccurate child and parent beliefs and misaligned preferences between children and their parents can lead to sub-optimal secondary school choices in Busia County, Kenya. We then implement a randomized-controlled-trial in 308 primary schools that randomly varies information sharing between parents, teachers, and children. Schools are randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) parent-teacher-child-meetings, (2) teacher-child meetings, and (3) no meeting. Both meetings provide individualized performance feedback and information about quality, cost, and admission cutoffs of nearby secondary schools. The parent-teacher-child meeting additionally allows parents and children to learn about each other’s preferences. Using administrative data, we will evaluate the effect of these meetings on secondary school application choices, enrollment, and educational attainment.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bonds, Stephanie. 2020. "Parent Child Preferences and Secondary School Choice: Evidence from Kenya." AEA RCT Registry. April 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5517-1.1
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2020-02-17
Intervention End Date
2020-11-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
secondary school choice, secondary school entrance exam score, secondary school enrollment, secondary school attendance
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The sample is children in the final year of public primary school (Grade 8) who will be attending secondary school the following year. 308 schools from Busia County will be randomly selected for inclusion in the study, and 20 students from each school will be selected.

Randomization will be at the school level. Schools will be randomized into one of three groups: (1) Teacher-Child Meeting, (2) Parent-Teacher-Child Meeting, (3) No meeting.

Both meetings provide individualized performance feedback and information about quality, cost, and admission cutoffs of nearby secondary schools. The parent-teacher-child meeting additionally allows parents and children to learn about each other’s preferences.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done using random number generator
Randomization Unit
school-level
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
308
Sample size: planned number of observations
6,000 pupils and their parents
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
98 schools teacher-child meeting (Group 1), 94 schools parent teacher-child meeting (Group 2), 116 schools control (Group 3)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Strathmore University Institutional Ethics Review Committee
IRB Approval Date
2019-12-03
IRB Approval Number
SU-IERC0586/19
IRB Name
UC Berkeley Committee for Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS)
IRB Approval Date
2020-02-12
IRB Approval Number
2019-10-12643

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