Evaluation of Espacio para Crecer ("Room to Grow") After-School Program for At-Risk Youth

Last registered on September 15, 2017

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Evaluation of Espacio para Crecer ("Room to Grow") After-School Program for At-Risk Youth

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0000640

Initial registration date

July 28, 2015

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

July 28, 2015, 7:24 PM EDT

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

Last updated

September 15, 2017, 11:00 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Nicaragua

Region

Region Autonoma del Caribe Sur (RACS)

Primary Investigator

Name

Steven Glazerman

Affiliation

Innovations for Poverty Action

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Emilie Bagby

PI Affiliation

Mathematica Policy Research

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Nancy Murray

PI Affiliation

Mathematica Policy Research

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2014-04-01

End date

2017-12-31

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

early grade reading, character development

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

This study seeks to measure the impact and cost effectiveness of Espacios para Crecer (EpC), or Room to Grow, a strategy for improving school attachment and early grade reading in a region that is poor, rural, isolated, economically unstable, and populated by ethnic and linguistic minorities. In these areas, the school day is often short, attendance is sporadic, and enrollment by school-age children is not universal. The EpC is a half-day after-school program with monthly "school for parents" meetings. The EpC program targets at-risk children of primary school age that have not passed 3rd grade at the time of eligibility and provides them with enrichment activities that include academic instruction, self-esteem-building, physical play, and other mechanisms to strengthen children's connection to formal school.

The study will follow children for two years, including both a program group and a randomized control group, conducting household surveys and individual assessments of literacy skills.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Bagby, Emilie, Steven Glazerman and Nancy Murray. 2017. "Evaluation of Espacio para Crecer ("Room to Grow") After-School Program for At-Risk Youth." AEA RCT Registry. September 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.640-3.0

Former Citation

Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Primary schooling in many poor parts of Latin America is only offered for half a day. To supplement the regular school day, the EpC is a daily half-day "after-school" program with monthly "school for parents" meetings. The intervention under study is being funded by USAID-Nicaragua as part of its Community Action for Reading and Security (CARS) program. The EpC program targets at-risk children and provides them with enrichment activities that include academic instruction, but also self-esteem building, physical play, and other mechanisms to strengthen children's connection to school. The EpCs serve children in early primary grades (1 to 3) or who are out-of-school children aged 6 to 12. Risk factors used to identify eligible children who are in school include poor attendance, low grades, or living in a household where the language of instruction is not spoken. Students in the age or grade range with any of these risk factors are considered eligible.

Intervention Start Date

2014-05-01

Intervention End Date

2016-12-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The main outcome of interest is literacy. We will measure this using an individually-administered early grade reading assessment, with components that measure oral reading fluency and reading comprehension, as well as other skills, as time allows.

Other academic outcomes include school attachment (enrollment and attendance) and other measures of success, such as school grades and promotion. We will measure related factors like reading frequency and access to print materials in the home and at school.

Non-academic outcomes include avoidance of risky and undesirable behaviors, such as misbehavior in school, child labor, and, if long-term followup allows, participation in risky behaviors like smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, gambling, crime, and gang activities.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Children in large educational communities (more than 30 children) are assigned to either a treatment group that is invited to participate in the EpC, or a control group that is not.

Smaller educational communities are listed, stratified by municipality, and assigned as a whole to either treatment group, where an EpC is established and all children may participate, or a control group where an EpC is not established.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Stratification and randomization are done by researchers at the Mathematica Policy Research Center for International Policy Research and Evaluation (CIPRE) in Washington, DC.

Randomization Unit

Group level randomization is used for small communities (<30 eligible children) and individual randomization is done for larger communities.

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

We expect to recruit approximately 250 educational communities, each of which contains one school.
There will be 50 large communities and 200 small communities.

Sample size: planned number of observations

3,000 children

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Smaller school sample: 100 treatment and 100 control educational communities
Large school sample: 50 educational communities, with about 20 treatment and 20 control children per community

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

We are finalizing this calculation because we still don't know how the sample will divide in terms of larger and smaller educational communities and we have very little information on likely intra-class correlation coefficients. At this point, we anticipate being able to detect impacts of approximately MDI = 6.2 points on a grade 2 Spanish comprehension test with standard deviation of 38.8, or MDE = 0.16. If the mean score on this test is 60, then this would be an MDI of just over 10%.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

IRB Approval Date

IRB Approval Number

Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?

Yes

Intervention Completion Date

May 31, 2017, 12:00 +00:00

Data Collection Complete

Yes

Data Collection Completion Date

June 30, 2017, 12:00 +00:00

Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)

This study was hybrid: part of the sample was randomized at child level, part at community level (clusters)

For clustered design: 139 clusters (70T and 69C)

Was attrition correlated with treatment status?

Yes

Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations

On the above question: correlation between attrition and treatment is not zero, but it's not meaningful enough to raise significant concerns about differential attrition bias: 11 vs 12 pct attrition at the cluster level.

Final sample size is 1,511 (572T and 549C) children in community-level study, 142 children (73T and 69C) in child-level randomized component of the study

Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms

Cluster-level study: 70T and 69C

Data Publication

Is public data available?

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Program Files

Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials

Description

Final impact report with full set of appendices.

Citation

Bagby, Emilie, Catalina Torrente, Steven Glazerman, Nancy Murray, and Ivonne Padilla. Evaluation of Espacios Para Crecer, An Afterschool Program in Nicaragua. Final Report. Washington, DC: U.S. Agency for International Development, January 2021.

URL

https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00XDR4.pdf