@article{42f7b539b053423aa869a0f1fa09556b,
title = "Using behavioral insights to increase attendance at subsidized preschool programs: The Show Up to Grow Up intervention",
abstract = "We implemented a field experiment called Show Up to Grow Up designed to increase attendance and diminish chronic absences at subsidized preschool programs in Chicago. We sent personalized text messages to parents targeting malleable factors that potentially drive absences from preschool. Using administrative records from preschools, we find that the intervention increased attended days by 2.5 (0.15 standard deviations) and decreased chronic absenteeism by 9.3 percentage points (20%) over an 18-week period. Our results suggest that the treatment impact is stronger among those in the bottom quantiles of the attendance distribution. Survey data collected at baseline suggest that our intervention made the importance of preschool more salient to parents who initially reported lower expectations for attendance and weaker beliefs about the importance of attendance to their children's development. Preschool centers may save resources by implementing low-cost light-touch interventions to meet attendance requirements.",
author = "Ariel Kalil and Mayer, {Susan E.} and Sebastian Gallegos",
note = "Funding Information: We wish to thank seminar participants at Princeton {\textquoteright}s Education Research Section Workshop, the APPAM and SRCD annual meetings, and members of the Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab for their contributions to study design, data collection, and copyediting support, including William Delgado Martinez, Keri Lintz, Jill Gandhi, Sophie Milam, Beth Ordaz, Paula Rusca, Jessica Chen, and the field research assistant team. Gallegos thanks Jacob Shapiro and the ESOC (Princeton University) and the Center for Studies of Conflict and Social Cohesion (CONICYT/FONDAP/15130009). This experiment is listed in the American Economic Association Registry for Randomized Controlled Trials— #AEARCTR-0002549. The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Center for Human Potential and Public Policy and the Joyce Foundation . The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Inter-American Development Bank . Funding Information: We wish to thank seminar participants at Princeton's Education Research Section Workshop, the APPAM and SRCD annual meetings, and members of the Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab for their contributions to study design, data collection, and copyediting support, including William Delgado Martinez, Keri Lintz, Jill Gandhi, Sophie Milam, Beth Ordaz, Paula Rusca, Jessica Chen, and the field research assistant team. Gallegos thanks Jacob Shapiro and the ESOC (Princeton University) and the Center for Studies of Conflict and Social Cohesion (CONICYT/FONDAP/15130009). This experiment is listed in the American Economic Association Registry for Randomized Controlled Trials— #AEARCTR-0002549. The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Center for Human Potential and Public Policy and the Joyce Foundation. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Inter-American Development Bank. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Elsevier Inc.",
year = "2021",
month = mar,
doi = "10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.11.002",
language = "English",
volume = "163",
pages = "65--79",
journal = "Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes",
issn = "0749-5978",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
}