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Encourage + Self + Norms attendance mailing intervention and four-condition experimental design

Design · All designs
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description

A mailed-communication intervention tested in a major metropolitan district (about 200 schools, about 30,000 students). Households were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: a no-outreach Control, an Encourage mail stressing attendance importance and parental efficacy, an Encourage + Self mail adding the student's number of missed days, and an Encourage + Self + Norms mail adding comparison to "the typical student in their school and grade". The design tests the added impact of each component, since Norms cannot be evaluated without implicitly measuring Encourage and Self.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • Random assignment of households; only one targeted student per household to avoid cross-treatment contamination; opt-out consent procedure

Constraints

  • When a Norms-assigned student had fewer absences than classmates, the Encourage + Self mailing was sent instead, so condition effects reflect being sent at least one mailing of that type

Target Learners

  • Guardians of students in grades 1-12 who were absent more than 2 days above the modal student

Learning Goals

  • Reduced student absences through improved guardian information and engagement

Claims

Examples

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Key Sources

  • Todd Rogers, Avi Feller. (2016). Parent Beliefs and Student Absences: Large Absence-Reduction Field Experiment. SREE Spring 2016 Conference Abstract. https://www.sree.org/conferences/2016/
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id encourage-self-norms-mailing-intervention
title Encourage + Self + Norms attendance mailing intervention and four-condition experimental design
description A mailed-communication intervention tested in a major metropolitan district (about 200 schools, about 30,000 students).
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-11-03
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — todd-rogers-2016

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