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MPACT Fall 2017 - Fall 2018 Chicago

Name: MPACT Fall 2017 - Fall 2018 Chicago
Published: 2022-07-27
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Ariel Kalil, University of Chicago. Harris School of Public Policy; Susan Mayer, University of Chicago. Harris School of Public Policy

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
MPACT Codebook Final.docx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document	305 KB	07/26/2022 01:50:PM
MPACT Final.dta	application/x-stata-dta	129.5 KB	07/27/2022 12:38:PM

Project Citation:

Kalil, Ariel, and Mayer, Susan. MPACT Fall 2017 - Fall 2018 Chicago. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-07-27. https://doi.org/10.3886/E176341V1

Project Description

Summary: Almost none of the research showing that greater parent engagement increases children’s cognitive skill exogenously increases parent engagement. In a randomized experiment we find that providing parents with information and materials relevant to engaging in math activities along with text messages to reduce present bias increased both parents’ engagement in math activities and children’s math skill. But a separate treatement that provided families with an electronic tablet and math apps that required no parent engagmenet increased math skill by at least as much.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Education and Inequality; Returns to Education; Early Childhood Development

Geographic Coverage: Chicago

Time Period(s): 12/3/2017 – 2/24/2019

Collection Date(s): 12/3/2017 – 2/24/2019

Universe: Chicago parents whose primary language was either English or Spanish, who had a child enrolled in one of 29 subsidized preschool programs in Chicago, who were between the ages of three and four years old enrolled in a participating preschool.

Data Type(s): experimental data; survey data

Methodology

Response Rate: For all three rounds, parents were recruited in one of two ways. In the eleven centers that allowed it, all eligible parents were automatically enrolled in MPACT but were given a chance to opt out of participation. Eighteen preschools did not permit opt-out recruitment. In these centers, research assistants recruited parents in person by approaching them at drop-off and pick-up time to ask if they would be willing to participate. Participation rates were high at both opt-out (99%) and opt-in (71%) preschool centers.

Specifically, we initially recruited 1,459 children. Eleven children dropped out before randomization. Of the remaining 1,448 children, 93 were siblings of enrolled children. We dropped siblings, leaving only one child per parent. After randomization, 61 children dropped out. This included children in a preschool that closed after randomization, and children that left the preschool in which they were enrolled before we were able to collect any data on either parents or children. Ten children remained enrolled in the preschool but were chronically absent; we were not able to collect data on either parents or children. Another 6 children could not be assessed reliably because of either cognitive or behavioral problems. This left 1,278 children who were assessed at baseline.

Sampling: We randomized in two stages. In the first stage, we randomly assigned classrooms across preschools to either a treated or untreated group. We assigned 15 classrooms (5 in each round) to the untreated group. All sample children in these classrooms were assigned to the control group. In the second stage, we randomly assigned students in the remaining sample classrooms to the control group or one of the treatment groups.

Data Source: All data is collected by the research team.

Collection Mode(s): cognitive assessment test; web-based survey

Scales: Likert-type scales are used for the pre- and post-experiment parental survey. We use the Woodcock-Johnson IV Applied Problems subtest for the baseline and follow-up assessments.

Weights: No weight is included in the analysis.

Unit(s) of Observation: Parent-child dyad

Related Publications

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Published Versions

V2 [2023-06-29]

V1 [2022-07-27]

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