Improving remote learning in the context of a developing country: a tutoring intervention.

Last registered on February 28, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Improving remote learning in the context of a developing country: a tutoring intervention.
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007307
Initial registration date
March 09, 2021

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 10, 2021, 9:33 AM EST

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

Last updated
February 28, 2023, 9:42 AM EST

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

Locations

Region
Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2021-03-05
End date
2023-07-01
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract

The learning crisis caused by the covid-19 pandemic is unprecedented. As governments seek to address the learning loss, so far, we know tutoring has been a widely proposed solution because it has proven to have a big positive effect on learning. We propose an RCT which can contribute to the literature of tutoring by looking at the interactions between interventions such as tutoring and tracking, and how socio emotional learning can affect the student’s self-perception, as well as group peer effects. Additionally, we can contribute to the very limited existing causal literature on peer tutoring and its effects on learning. We will be working with k-12 school students from 3rd to 12th grade and focusing on math tutoring. The tutors will be recruited among the universities and normal schools across Mexico.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Aguilar Llanes, Salome et al. 2023. "Improving remote learning in the context of a developing country: a tutoring intervention.." AEA RCT Registry. February 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7307-2.0
Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We will recruit tutors (volunteers of universities and normal schools seeking to meet their social service requirements) assign them into WhatsApp groups of 5 kids that will meet 2 times a week. Tutors will be instructed to revise topics that students are studying in class, or past topics that the students are not clear on and needed to understand their curriculum. All tutors will receive initial training on how to teach math and socio-emotional development and we will also create a platform that tutors can use to communicate among each other and share tips and questions. We will try out different versions of these tutoring sessions, some will have an important socio emotional component. In some treatment arms students will be assigned to tutoring groups randomly and in others they will be assigned based on their performance on the baseline evaluation.
Intervention (Hidden)
Tutors: we will recruit tutors (volunteers of universities and normal schools seeking to meet their social service requirements) assign them into WhatsApp groups of 5 kids that will meet between 2 times a week. Tutors will be instructed to revise topics that students are studying in class, or past topics that the students are not clear on and needed to understand their curriculum. All tutors will receive initial training on how to teach math and socio-emotional development and we will also create a platform that tutors can use to communicate among each other and share tips and questions.


● Track vs no track. Once schools are assigned to the tutor treatment they will be randomized into two groups. In the first group we will use the baseline evaluation to sort student from worst to best performing and then divide groups accordingly. In the no track arm we will divide groups randomly allowing for heterogeneity in the composition of the groups.
● Affective vs non affective. In schools assigned to affective treatment tutors will be told to use the first 10 to 15 minutes of their sessions with students to ask them about how they are feeling what they are interested in and also talk about themselves their studies and work. We will also provide suggestions to do activities to develop non-cognitive skills such as emotional regulation.
Intervention Start Date
2021-03-18
Intervention End Date
2023-07-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Outcomes: 1) Learning measured by the Math and Spanish score on standardized evaluations constructed by us based on questions from PLANEA, a national test. We will apply this evaluation before and after the intervention. 2) Self-perception measured by the answers of a survey. 3)Student tutor interactions measured by using a machine learning approach to extract information of the recordings of the tutoring sessions
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
We will try to study the differentiated effects of the tutor teaching it is a university student or a normal school student. Additionally, we will look, ex post at the differential success of the intervention depending on the goodness of match between students and tutors for example by gender or region.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Grades will be randomly assigned to treatments and tutors too. Then they will be randomly matched within each group. Randomization will be stratified based on baseline scores, gender, and past participation in other iterations of tutoring program by the same group.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
We will do a stratified randomization using a computer.
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomization will be at the student level.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
We have around 16,000 students. Number subject to change due to open enrollment of both tutors and students
Sample size: planned number of observations
Around 16,000 students. Number subject to change due to open enrollment of both tutors and students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
4,000 kids in socio emotional learning (SEL) + tracking
4,000 kids in socio emotional learning (SEL) + no tracking
4,000 kids in just math + no tracking
4,000 kids in just math + tracking
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
running simmulations with historical data we have an MDE of 0.070 standard deviation in math scores with no attrition, and 0.084 with 30% attrition.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects (COUHES) at MIT
IRB Approval Date
2021-03-08
IRB Approval Number
2101000304
Analysis Plan

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

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