Parent Engagement Interventions Are Not Costless: Opportunity Cost and Crowd Out of Parent Investment

• In Event: Considering Diverse Stakeholders in Large-Scale Education Reform

Abstract

Research suggests interventions that encourage parent engagement can improve various educational outcomes. We present a randomized field experiment (N = 3,483) where we sent middle and high school students’ parents text messages about what their child learned about in science class. The intervention increased parent-child at-home conversations about science but did not have a discernable impact on students’ science test scores. However, the intervention decreased the likelihood that students reported their parents engaged in other school-preparation behaviors. This pattern shows that parent engagement interventions are not costless. Successfully directing parental investments toward some parent engagement behaviors can crowd out other, potentially productive, behaviors. Parents have limited time and attention, so there can be opportunity costs to shifting parental effort.

Authors

• Carly D Robinson, Brown University

• Raj Chande, The Behavioural Insights Team

• Todd Rogers, Harvard University