Reducing Parent-School Information Gaps and Improving Education Outcomes: Evidence from High Frequency Text Messaging in Chile

Schools around the world routinely collect high frequency data on student outcomes like absenteeism,grades, and student conduct, all strong predictors of grade repetition and school dropout. Yet parentsrarely have access to... [ view full abstract ]

Schools around the world routinely collect high frequency data on student outcomes like absenteeism,grades, and student conduct, all strong predictors of grade repetition and school dropout. Yet parentsrarely have access to these data in real time. We test whether a program of sending these data toparents using high frequency text messaging improves education outcomes in a sample of 1,500students in eight elementary schools in a low-income region of Chile. After four months, treatedstudents had significantly higher math grades, improved attendance, a lower prevalence of badbehaviors, and were less likely to fail the grade at the end of the year. We find some evidence ofpositive spillovers from having more students (randomly) treated in the same classroom. Treatmentnarrowed parent-school information gaps and treated parents reported a higher willingness to pay forcontinuing the messaging program at follow up. Our results suggest that poor communicationbetween parents and schools may be an important barrier to improving educational attainment. Usinglow-cost technology to deliver existing data on student grades, attendance and behavior at higherfrequency could significantly raise human capital attainment down the line.