TY - JOUR TI - Nudging parents and teachers to improve learning and reduce child labor in Cote d’Ivoire AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Lichand, Guilherme T2 - npj Science of Learning AB - Whether SMS-based nudge interventions can increase parent engagement and improve child learning outcomes across diverse contexts such as rural West Africa is unknown. We conducted a school-randomized trial to test the impacts of an audio or text-message intervention (two messages per week for one school year) to parents and teachers of second and fourth grade students (N = 100 schools, 2246 students) in Cote d’Ivoire. Schools were randomly assigned to have messages sent to (i) parents only, (ii) teachers only, (iii) parents and teachers together, or (iv) control. There were statistically non-significant impacts of the parents-only treatment on learning, although with typical effect sizes (d = 0.08, p = 0.158), and marginally statistically significant increases in child labor (d = 0.11, p < 0.10). We find no impacts of the other treatment conditions. Subgroup analyses based on pre-registered subgroups show significantly larger improvements in learning for children with below-median baseline learning levels for the parents-only arm and negative impacts on learning for girls for the teachers-only arm, suggesting different conclusions regarding impacts on equity for vulnerable children. DA - 2023/09/13/ PY - 2023 DO - 10.1038/s41539-023-00180-z DP - www.nature.com VL - 8 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 13 J2 - npj Sci. Learn. LA - en SN - 2056-7936 UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41539-023-00180-z Y2 - 2024/02/14/13:07:43 KW - Economics KW - Education ER - TY - RPRT TI - Nudges to Improve Learning and Gender Parity: Preliminary findings on supporting parent-child educational engagement during Covid-19 using mobile phones AU - Aurino, Elisabetta AU - Tsinigo, Edward AU - Wolf, Sharon AB - Key words: parental education engagement; caregiver engagement; nudges; text messages; schooling; learning; Ghana; gender In this study we evaluate a digital intervention to improve low-literate caregivers’ engagement with their children’s education and development in rural Ghana during the Covid-19 pandemic. The programme was a text-message-based behavioural change intervention for parents / caregivers that aimed to improve caregiver engagement in children’s educational activities, caregiver beliefs about returns to education, as well as children’s learning, enrollment, attendance, and gender parity in education. This household-randomised trial, conducted in the North East, Northern, Savannah, Upper East, and Upper West regions of Ghana, tested four variations of the intervention, varying both duration and a gender-parity focus. Households were randomised to one of five conditions: (i) regular behavioural nudges, 12 weeks; (ii) gender-boost behavioural nudges, 12 weeks; (iii) regular behavioural nudges, 24 weeks; (ii) gender-boost behavioural-nudges, 24 weeks; or (v) control. The interventions were implemented from January to April 2021 (for the 12-week groups) and January to June 2021 (for the 24-week groups). We collected data at midline (April–June 2021) and endline (August–September 2021). Our preliminary results suggest that a short, light-touch, SMS-based intervention can change caregiver behaviours and child outcomes in a rural, low-literate sample. However, the results were complex and intervention effectiveness depended on the caregiver having minimum levels of schooling. For caregivers with no education (65% of the sample), the intervention only increased caregiver expectations on reaching the desired level of education, especially among girls, but reduced educational engagement and some measures of children’s school enrollment and attendance. Educational engagement among Ghanaian caregivers is low relative to peer countries (Bornstein & Putnick, 2012; McCoy et al., 2018). The findings suggest that caregivers may need a base level of capital and resource (e.g., exposure to formal education) to enact the messages and increase their educational engagement with their children. Without this base level of capital, messages may increase caregivers’ aspirations for their children without providing enough support to change educational investments in positive ways. An output of the EdTech Hub, https://edtechhub.org CN - 0083 DA - 2022/02/18/ PY - 2022 LA - en M3 - Technical Report PB - EdTech Hub UR - https://docs.edtechhub.org/lib/PWU63GQS KW - _r:AddedByZotZen ER - TY - RPRT TI - Nudges to improve learning and gender parity: Supporting parent engagement and Ghana’s educational response to COVID-19 using mobile phones AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Aurino, Elisabetta AU - Osei-Akoto, Isaac AU - Ackwerh, Eunice Yaa Brimfah AB - Randomized control trial testing impacts of SMS messages to suggest activities that promote social-emotional development at home and to encourage engagement with remote instruction, variants of these messages that have a gender-parity focus, and the duration of these messages (3 months vs. 6 months) DA - 2021/06/30/ PY - 2021 LA - en PB - World Bank Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF) ST - Nudges to improve learning and gender parity UR - https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/sief-trust-fund/brief/ghana-nudges-to-improve-learning-and-gender-parity-supporting-parent-engagement-and-ghana-s-educational-response-to-covi Y2 - 2022/03/04/15:34:24 ER - TY - RPRT TI - Arm-wrestling in the classroom: the non-monotonic effects of monitoring teachers AU - Lichand, Guilherme AU - Wolf, Sharon T2 - Working Paper Series AB - Teacher absenteeism and shirking are common problems in developing countries. While monitoring teachers should ameliorate those problems, mobilizing parents to do so often leads to small or even negative effects on learning outcomes. This paper provides causal evidence that this might result from non-monotonic effects of monitoring teachers. Cross-randomizing nudges to teachers and parents in Ivory Coast – to motivate and monitor teachers directly, and to mobilize parents –, we find that, in schools where parents are nudged, numeracy and literacy test scores improve by an additional school quarter, and student dropouts decrease by over 50%. In contrast, in schools where both are nudged, there is no effect on either learning outcomes or dropouts – even though the latter also fall by nearly 50% where teachers are nudged alone. In those schools, teachers show up less frequently, allocate less time to career development, and target instruction to top students to a greater extent than in schools where only parents are nudged. Monitoring backfires precisely for teachers who were most motivated at baseline, consistent with monitoring intensity eventually crowding out intrinsic motivation. Our results have implications for the design of accountability programs above and beyond education. DA - 2021/02// PY - 2021 DP - www.zora.uzh.ch LA - eng PB - University of Zurich Department of Economics SN - 357 ST - Arm-wrestling in the classroom UR - https://www.econ.uzh.ch/en/research/workingpapers.html?paper-id=1039 Y2 - 2022/03/04/14:42:36 ER - TY - GEN TI - Nudges to improve learning and gender parity: Supporting parent engagement and Ghana’s educational response to Covid-19 using mobile phones AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Aurino, Elisabetta AB - While recent evidence from Brazil and Ivory Coast suggests that SMS messages to nudge parents' engagement in their children's education have large effects on educational outcomes, the Covid-19 pandemic raises additional concerns. In particular, learning deficits and school dropouts are likely to increase following school shutdowns, especially among vulnerable populations such as older girls who need to work to support their families or due to early marriage, childbearing and adolescent pregnancy. A further knowledge gap relates to the optimal period of exposure to the nudges, which is critical to scale-up. This study investigates whether sending nudges to parents can improve parental engagement in child education and broader development across child age groups and gender, in the low-resource setting of Ghana, by randomly assigning whether parents receive two different versions of nudges, with one version including content promoting girls’ education and addressing some common stereotypes around gender, and whether the duration of these different modalities vary between three and six months. DA - 2021/// PY - 2021 DO - 10.1257/rct.6118-1.4000000000000001 DP - DOI.org (Crossref) LA - en PB - American Economic Association ST - Nudges to improve learning and gender parity UR - https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/rct.6118-1.4000000000000001 Y2 - 2021/11/18/13:43:08 ER - TY - JOUR TI - WORLD BANK STRATEGIC IMPACT EVALUATION FUND (SIEF) AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Aurino, Elisabetta AU - Brown, Autumn AU - Tsinigo, Edward DA - 2021/// PY - 2021 DP - Zotero SP - 21 LA - en KW - ⛔ No DOI found ER - TY - RPRT TI - Learning in the time of a pandemic and implications for returning to school: effects of COVID-19 in Ghana AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Aurino, Elisabetta AU - Suntheimer, Noelle AU - Avornyo, Esinam AU - Tsinigo, Edward AU - Jordan, Jasmine AU - Samanhyia, Soloman AU - Aber, J Lawrence AU - Behrman, Jere R T2 - CPRE Working Papers AB - The Covid-19 pandemic led to school closures all over the world, leaving children across diverse contexts without formal education for nearly a year. Remote-learning programs were designed and rapidly implemented to promote learning continuity throughout the crisis. There were inequalities in who was able to access remote-learning during school closures, though little systematic evidence documenting these gaps exists, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, we surveyed 1,844 children in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, as well as their caregivers and teachers, regarding their engagement in remote learning, literacy and math test scores, and household economic hardships. We document inequalities in access to and engagement in remote-learning activities during the ten months in 2020 in which schools were closed in Ghana. Specifically, children in private schools and children in highersocioeconomic status households engaged in remote-learning at higher rates and received more support from their schools and caregivers. Further, controlling for demographic characteristics and pre-pandemic learning outcomes, we document gaps in children’s literacy and math test scores, with food insecure and low-SES children, as well as children enrolled in public schools before the pandemic, performing significantly worse than their peers (0.2-0.3 SD gap). Finally, children in households that experienced more economic hardships during the pandemic engaged in fewer remote learning activities and had lower literacy and numeracy assessment scores. The findings speak to the potential consequences of increased inequalities due to the pandemic as schools re-open in Ghana and around the world and provide insight into how schools may address these inequalities as children return to the classroom. DA - 2021/08// PY - 2021 DP - Zotero LA - en PB - Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) UR - https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=cpre_workingpapers KW - ⛔ No DOI found ER - TY - RPRT TI - The Impacts of Teacher Training and Parental Awareness on Kindergarten Quality in Ghana AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Aber, John Lawrence AU - Behrman, Jere DA - 2019/09// PY - 2019 PB - Innovations for Poverty Action UR - https://www.poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/publications/QP4G%20Final%20Results_11.15.19.pdf Y2 - 2020/05/16/11:25:47 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Experimental Impacts of the “Quality Preschool for Ghana” Interventions on Teacher Professional Well-being, Classroom Quality, and Children’s School Readiness AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Aber, J. Lawrence AU - Behrman, Jere R. AU - Tsinigo, Edward T2 - Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness AB - We assessed the impacts of a teacher professional development program for public and private kindergartens in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. We examined impacts on teacher professional well-being, classroom quality, and children’s readiness during one school year. This cluster-randomized trial included 240 schools (teachers N ¼ 444; children N ¼ 3,345, Mage ¼ 5.2) randomly assigned to one of three conditions: teacher training (TT), teacher training plus parental-awareness meetings (TTPA), and controls. The programs incorporated workshops and in-classroom coaching for teachers and video-based discussion groups for parents. Moderate impacts were found on some dimensions of professional well-being (reduced burnout in the TT and TTPA conditions, reduced turnover in the TT condition), classroom quality (increased emotional support/behavior management in the TT and TTPA conditions, support for student expression in the TT condition), and small impacts on multiple domains of children’s school readiness (in the TT condition). The parental-awareness meetings had counteracting effects on child school readiness outcomes. Implications for policy and practice are discussed for Ghana and for early childhood education in low- and middle-income countries. DA - 2019/01/02/ PY - 2019 DO - 10.1080/19345747.2018.1517199 DP - DOI.org (Crossref) VL - 12 IS - 1 SP - 10 EP - 37 J2 - Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness LA - en SN - 1934-5747, 1934-5739 UR - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19345747.2018.1517199 Y2 - 2020/05/16/12:37:48 KW - Ghana KW - ___working_potential_duplicate KW - classroom quality KW - early childhood education KW - kindergarten KW - school readiness KW - teacher training and coaching ER - TY - JOUR TI - Examining sustained impacts of two teacher professional development programs on professional well-being and classroom practices AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Peele, Morgan E. T2 - Teaching and Teacher Education AB - We examine second-year impacts of a 1-year pre-primary teacher training and coaching program, delivered with and without parental-awareness meetings, evaluated with a school-level randomized trial. Outcomes included teachers’ professional well-being and classroom practices. Most gains observed during the program year faded out. However, there were small sustained impacts on the implementation of training activities. Counteracting effects of the parental-awareness meetings were evident, with suggestive evidence that teachers in this treatment group displayed lower scores on one dimension of classroom qualitydSupporting Student Expressiondcompared to controls. Implications for professional development and educational quality are discussed. DA - 2019/11// PY - 2019 DO - 10.1016/j.tate.2019.07.003 DP - DOI.org (Crossref) VL - 86 J2 - Teaching and Teacher Education LA - en SN - 0742051X UR - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0742051X18315853 Y2 - 2020/01/28/13:07:50 KW - _proposed-for: Scoping review ER - TY - JOUR TI - Measuring school readiness globally: Assessing the construct validity and measurement invariance of the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) in Ethiopia AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Halpin, Peter AU - Yoshikawa, Hirokazu AU - Dowd, Amy Jo AU - Pisani, Lauren AU - Borisova, Ivelina T2 - Early Childhood Research Quarterly AB - The post 2015 context for international development has led to a demand for assessments that measure multiple dimensions of children's school readiness and are feasibly administered in low-resource settings. The present study assesses the construct validity of the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) developed by Save the Children using data from a sample of children (∼5 years of age; N=682) from rural Ethiopia. The study (a) uses exploratory and confirmatory bi-factor analyses to assess the internal structure of the assessment with respect to four hypothesized domains of school-readiness (Early Numeracy, Early Literacy, Social-Emotional development, and Motor development); (b) uses latent regression to examine concurrent validity of the domains against a limited set of child and family characteristics; and (c) establishes measurement invariance across three focal comparisons (children enrolled in center-based care versus home-based care; girls versus boys; and treatment status in a cluster randomized controlled trial of a center-based program). The results support the conclusion that the IDELA is useful for making inferences about children's school readiness. Implications for future use of the IDELA and similar instruments are discussed. DA - 2017/10/01/ PY - 2017 DO - 10.1016/j.ecresq.2017.05.001 DP - ScienceDirect VL - 41 SP - 21 EP - 36 J2 - Early Childhood Research Quarterly LA - en SN - 0885-2006 ST - Measuring school readiness globally UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200617301357 Y2 - 2022/12/02/15:02:19 KW - Ethiopia KW - Factor analysis KW - Measurement invariance KW - School readiness KW - Sub-Saharan Africa ER - TY - JOUR TI - Improving Literacy Instruction in Kenya Through Teacher Professional Development and Text Messages Support: A Cluster Randomized Trial AU - Jukes, Matthew C. H. AU - Turner, Elizabeth L. AU - Dubeck, Margaret M. AU - Halliday, Katherine E. AU - Inyega, Hellen N. AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Zuilkowski, Stephanie Simmons AU - Brooker, Simon J. T2 - Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness AB - We evaluated a program to improve literacy instruction on the Kenyan coast using training workshops, semiscripted lesson plans, and weekly text-message support for teachers to understand its impact on students’ literacy outcomes and on the classroom practices leading to those outcomes. The evaluation ran from the beginning of Grade 1 to the end of Grade 2 in 51 government primary schools chosen at random, with 50 schools acting as controls. The intervention had an impact on classroom practices with effect sizes from 0.57 to 1.15. There was more instruction with written text and more focus on letters and sounds. There was a positive impact on three of four primary measures of children’s literacy after two years, with effect sizes up to 0.64, and school dropout reduced from 5.3% to 2.1%. This approach to literacy instruction is sustainable, and affordable and a similar approach has subsequently been adopted nationally in Kenya. DA - 2017/07/03/ PY - 2017 DO - 10.1080/19345747.2016.1221487 DP - DOI.org (Crossref) VL - 10 IS - 3 SP - 449 EP - 481 J2 - Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness LA - en SN - 1934-5747, 1934-5739 ST - Improving Literacy Instruction in Kenya Through Teacher Professional Development and Text Messages Support UR - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19345747.2016.1221487 Y2 - 2020/05/16/10:54:50 KW - Africa KW - Classroom Observation Techniques KW - Dropout Rate KW - ERIC, Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE) KW - Early Childhood Education KW - Effect Size KW - Elementary Education KW - Elementary School Students KW - Elementary School Teachers KW - Faculty Development KW - Foreign Countries KW - Grade 1 KW - Grade 2 KW - Handheld Devices KW - Improving Learning in Sub-Saharan Africa Using Rigorous Research Designs KW - Intelligence Tests KW - Intervention KW - Interviews KW - Kenya KW - Literacy Education KW - Maximum Likelihood Statistics KW - Pretests Posttests KW - Primary Education KW - Program Effectiveness KW - Promising Interventions Are Great, but Are They Enough? KW - Questionnaires KW - RCT KW - Randomized Controlled Trials KW - Raven Progressive Matrices KW - Rural Schools KW - Statistical Analysis KW - Teacher Improvement KW - Teaching Methods KW - Telecommunications KW - What We Are Learning About Early Education in Sub-Saharan Africa KW - __:import:01 KW - __:match:final KW - __:matched KW - __:study_id:2096051 KW - ___working_potential_duplicate KW - __finaldtb KW - early grade reading KW - literacy instruction ER - TY - JOUR TI - Promoting children's learning and development in conflict-affected countries: Testing change process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo AU - Aber, J. Lawrence AU - Tubbs, Carly AU - Torrente, Catalina AU - Halpin, Peter F. AU - Johnston, Brian AU - Starkey, Leighann AU - Shivshanker, Anjuli AU - Annan, Jeannie AU - Seidman, Edward AU - Wolf, Sharon T2 - Development and Psychopathology AB - Improving children's learning and development in conflict-affected countries is critically important for breaking the intergenerational transmission of violence and poverty. Yet there is currently a stunning lack of rigorous evidence as to whether and how programs to improve learning and development in conflict-affected countries actually work to bolster children's academic learning and socioemotional development. This study tests a theory of change derived from the fields of developmental psychopathology and social ecology about how a school-based universal socioemotional learning program, the International Rescue Committee's Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom (LRHC), impacts children's learning and development. The study was implemented in three conflict-affected provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and employed a cluster-randomized waitlist control design to estimate impact. Using multilevel structural equation modeling techniques, we found support for the central pathways in the LRHC theory of change. Specifically, we found that LRHC differentially impacted dimensions of the quality of the school and classroom environment at the end of the first year of the intervention, and that in turn these dimensions of quality were differentially associated with child academic and socioemotional outcomes. Future implications and directions are discussed. DA - 2017/// PY - 2017 DO - 10.1017/s0954579416001139 DP - Cambridge Core VL - 29 IS - 1 SP - 53 EP - 67 LA - en SN - 0954-5794, 1469-2198 ST - Promoting children's learning and development in conflict-affected countries UR - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/promoting-childrens-learning-and-development-in-conflictaffected-countries-testing-change-process-in-the-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/60172D9E82B56CD90063C3176FF18AEB Y2 - 2019/10/02/13:00:11 ER - TY - RPRT TI - The Impacts of Fast Track Transformational Teacher Training in Ghana AU - Wolf, Sharon DA - 2017/// PY - 2017 PB - Innovations for Poverty Action UR - https://www.poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/publications/FTTT%20Preliminary%20Results%20v2-2.pdf Y2 - 2020/05/16/12:17:26 ER - TY - RPRT TI - Assessing the Construct Validity of Save the Children's International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA) AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Halpin, Peter AU - Yoshikawa, Hirokazu AU - Pisani, Lauren AU - Dowd, Amy Jo AU - Borisova, Ivelina DA - 2016/// PY - 2016 DP - Zotero LA - en PB - Global TIES for Children, New York University, Save the Children UR - https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/assessing-construct-validity-save-childrens-international-development-and-early-learning/ ER - TY - JOUR TI - Preliminary impacts of the “Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom” intervention on teacher well-being in the Democratic Republic of the Congo AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Torrente, Catalina AU - Frisoli, Paul AU - Weisenhorn, Nina AU - Shivshanker, Anjuli AU - Annan, Jeannie AU - Aber, J. Lawrence T2 - Teaching and Teacher Education AB - This article examines the impacts of a partial year of implementation of Learning to Read in a Healing Classroom (LRHC), a curricular and social-emotional teacher professional development intervention in southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, on teacher professional well-being. Using a cluster-randomized control trial, this study assesses LRHC impacts on a sample of 346 teachers from 64 primary schools. We find statistically significant increases in job dissatisfaction for female teachers and increases in motivation for the least experienced teachers. Implications are discussed for the role of teacher professional development and well-being in improving education in low resource and conflict-affected contexts. DA - 2015/11/01/ PY - 2015 DO - 10.1016/j.tate.2015.08.002 DP - ScienceDirect VL - 52 SP - 24 EP - 36 J2 - Teaching and Teacher Education LA - en SN - 0742-051X UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X1500116X Y2 - 2020/01/29/11:13:24 KW - Democratic Republic of the Congo KW - International education KW - Motivation KW - Teacher professional development ER - TY - RPRT TI - Opportunities for Equitable Access to Quality Basic Education (OPEQ): Final Report on the Impact of the OPEQ Intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo AU - Aber, J. Lawrence AU - Starkey, Leighann AU - Tubbs, Carly AU - Torrente, Catalina AU - Johnston, Brian AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Shivshanker, Anjuli AU - Annan, Jeannie DA - 2015/10// PY - 2015 UR - https://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/document/642/ed-opportunitiesforequitableaccesstoqualitybasiceducation.pdf Y2 - 2021/06/23/19:12:05 ER - TY - JOUR TI - Cumulative Risk and Teacher Well-Being in the Democratic Republic of the Congo AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Torrente, Catalina AU - McCoy, Marissa AU - Rasheed, Damira AU - Aber, J. Lawrence T2 - Comparative Education Review DA - 2015/// PY - 2015 DO - 10.1086/682902 VL - 59 IS - 4 KW - C:DRC ER - TY - CONF TI - Cluster Randomized Trial of a Large-Scale Education Initiative in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Pilot Year Impacts on Teacher Development. AU - Wolf, Sharon AU - Aber, John Lawrence AU - Torrente, Catalina AU - Rasheed, Damira AU - McCoy, Marissa T2 - SREE Spring 2014 Conference C3 - Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness DA - 2014/// PY - 2014 DP - Google Scholar ST - Cluster Randomized Trial of a Large-Scale Education Initiative in the Democratic Republic of Congo KW - ⛔ No DOI found ER -