Online school chooser tool for low-income parents¶

Element · All elements
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 2 studies (2 causal), q3 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article evaluates an online school chooser tool through which low-income parents shop for and choose schools for their children. The experiment manipulated how school information was presented within this tool, measuring "knowledge about the schools, attitudes about using the online school chooser tool, and school choice behavior." The tool is the delivery platform for the five tested design factors, including the default sort order manipulation.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Presents school information to parents in configurable ways whose design factors can be experimentally varied

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• Low-income parents choosing schools for their children

Target Learning Goals¶

• Knowledge about schools
• Informed school choice behavior

Claims¶

• Setting the default sort order to academic performance instead of distance from home induces parents to choose academically higher performing schools [+W]
• Five school-information design factors each showed impacts on parents' knowledge, attitudes, or choice behavior [+W]
• Changing the default order in which schools are presented induces meaningful changes in the types of schools low-income parents choose [+W]

Related Elements¶

• Randomized factorial experiment of school choice website display formats
• Evidence-Based Guide on Presenting School Choice Information to Parents (with technical appendix)

Examples¶

• Default school-listing sort order to academic performance rather than distance from home

Key Sources¶

• Steven Glazerman, Ira Nichols-Barrer, Jon Valant, Jesse Chandler, Alyson Burnett. (2018). Nudging Parents to Choose Better Schools: The Importance of School Choice Architecture. Working Paper 65. Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/nudging-parents-to-choose-better-schools-the-importance-of-school-choice-architecture