Interactive Phone Calls to Improve Reading Fluency

Last registered on April 09, 2022
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Interactive Phone Calls to Improve Reading Fluency
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007663
Initial registration date
May 11, 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
May 12, 2021, 1:15 PM EDT

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

Last updated
April 09, 2022, 11:21 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Kenya
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Anja Sautmann
Affiliation
World Bank
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2021-05-11
End date
2021-07-31
Keywords
Education, Other
Additional Keywords
adaptive sampling, methodology
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The application is a test of six formats for interactive phone calls to parents of first-graders in 108 primary schools in Kenya that encourage reading at home through short exercises. Each experimental wave carries out biweekly calls during one half of term 3 of the Kenyan school year and uses the exploration sampling algorithm in wave 2 of the experiment to identify the call with the highest rate of call engagement, that is, the listener starts the reading exercises.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Sautmann, Anja. 2022. "Interactive Phone Calls to Improve Reading Fluency." AEA RCT Registry. April 09. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7663-3.0
Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name
New Globe
Type
private_company
URL
https://newglobe.education/
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We carry out 3 methods of leveling reading exercises by students' reading proficiency, and 2 different delivery formats (either instructing parents how to tutor children, or the IVR tutoring the reading exercises directly), for a total of 3x2 = 6 treatment arms.
Intervention Start Date
2021-05-11
Intervention End Date
2021-07-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Oral reading fluency, parental engagement.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We carry out an adaptive experiment with 6 treatment arms and a control group to identify the treatment arm that in expectation leads to the greatest parental engagement and therefore improvements in reading fluency, through engaging parents in reading regularly with their children at home. In the first wave of the experiment, student IDs are randomly assigned to each arm and the control; in the second wave, we calculate the probability that each treatment arm is optimal using Bayesian estimation and then use Exploration Sampling (Kasy and Sautmann, 2021) to assign the wave-2 sample to these arms.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Computer based.
Randomization Unit
Individual student
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
3128 students
Sample size: planned number of observations
3128 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Equal assignment to treatment arms in wave 1, tbd in wave 2 based on exploration sampling shares.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
N/A
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Kenya Reading Fluency - Pre-Analysis Plan June 11

MD5: 984d6ed4b151f484948f5a0f5a9442c6

SHA1: fa81e0e8a27dc858c0b7e61aa407dd5c86ecb354

Uploaded At: June 12, 2021

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