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Reducing student absences at scale by targeting parents' misbeliefs
1Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. todd_rogers@hks.harvard.edu.
Nature Human Behaviour
|April 10, 2019
Summary
Personalized information interventions significantly reduced chronic absenteeism by correcting parents' misconceptions about student absences. This cost-effective strategy empowers parents to improve student attendance across all grade levels.
Area of Science:
- Education
- Psychology
- Behavioral Economics
Background:
- Student attendance is crucial for academic achievement and is a key focus for educational stakeholders.
- Chronic absenteeism presents a significant challenge in K-12 education, impacting student success and requiring effective interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of personalized information interventions in reducing student absenteeism.
- To determine if these interventions can correct parental misperceptions regarding student absences.
Main Methods:
- A large-scale randomized experiment involving 28,080 high-risk students across kindergarten to 12th grade.
- Parents received one of three personalized information treatments or served as a control group.
- Interventions were delivered repeatedly throughout the school year.
Main Results:
- The most effective interventions reduced chronic absenteeism by 10% or more.
- Reductions in absenteeism were observed across all grade levels and in untreated children within treated households.
- The intervention successfully corrected parents' biased beliefs about accumulated student absences.
Conclusions:
- Personalized information interventions are a scalable and highly cost-effective method to combat student absenteeism.
- Empowering parents with accurate information can complement existing student-focused absenteeism reduction strategies.
- This approach offers a significant improvement over current best practices in absence reduction.
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