When Do Informational Interventions Work? Experimental Evidence from New York City High School Choice. Working Paper 29690

Autor/inn/en	Cohodes, Sarah; Corcoran, Sean; Jennings, Jennifer; Sattin-Bajaj, Carolyn
Institution	National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Titel	When Do Informational Interventions Work? Experimental Evidence from New York City High School Choice. Working Paper 29690
Quelle	(2022) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Intervention; Middle School Students; School Choice; Delivery Systems; Decision Making; Information Seeking; Program Effectiveness; New York (New York) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Middle school; Middle schools; Student; Students; Mittelschule; Mittelstufenschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Choice of school; Schulwahl; Auslieferung; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Informationserschließung
Abstract	This paper reports the results of a large, school-level randomized controlled trial evaluating a set of three informational interventions for young people choosing high schools in 473 middle schools, serving over 115,000 8th graders. The interventions differed in their level of customization to the student and their mode of delivery (paper or online); all treated schools received identical materials to scaffold the decision-making process. Every intervention reduced likelihood of application to and enrollment in schools with graduation rates below the city median (75 percent). An important channel is their effect on reducing nonoptimal first choice application strategies. Providing a simplified, middle-school specific list of relatively high graduation rate schools had the largest impacts, causing students to enroll in high schools with 1.5-percentage point higher graduation rates. Providing the same information online, however, did not alter students' choices or enrollment. This appears to be due to low utilization. Online interventions with individual customization, including a recommendation tool and search engine, induced students to enroll in high schools with 1-percentage point higher graduation rates, but with more variance in impact. Together, these results show that successful informational interventions must generate engagement with the material, and this is possible through multiple channels. [Funding for this report was provided by the Heckscher Foundation for Children and the NYU Institute for Human Development and Social Change.] (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	National Bureau of Economic Research. 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-5398. Tel: 617-588-0343; Web site: http://www.nber.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01