Showing papers by "Susanna Loeb published in 2018"

One Step at a Time: The Effects of an Early Literacy Text Messaging Program for Parents of Preschoolers

Abstract: Large systematic differences in young children's home learning experiences have long-term economic consequences. Many parenting programs place significant demands on parents' time and inundate parents with information. This study evaluates the effects of READY4K!, an eight-month-long text-messaging intervention for parents of preschoolers that targets the behavioral barriers to engaged parenting. We find that READY4K! increased parental involvement at home and school by 0.15 to 0.29 standard deviations, leading to child gains in early literacy of about 0.11 standard deviations. The results point to the salience of behavioral barriers to parenting and the potential for low-cost interventions to reduce these barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational Goods: Values, Evidence, and Decision-Making

Abstract: In Educational Goods, two philosophers and two social scientists address this very question. They begin by broadening the language for talking about educational policy: “educational goods” are the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that children develop for their own benefit and that of others; “childhood goods” are the valuable experiences and freedoms that make childhood a distinct phase of life. Balancing those, and understanding that not all of them can be measured through traditional methods, is a key first step. From there, they show how to think clearly about how those goods are distributed and propose a method for combining values and evidence to reach decisions. They conclude by showing the method in action, offering detailed accounts of how it might be applied in school finance, accountability, and choice. The result is a reimagining of our decision making about schools, one that will sharpen our thinking on familiar debates and push us toward better outcomes.

More Than Just a Nudge: Supporting Kindergarten Parents with Differentiated and Personalized Text Messages

Abstract: Recent studies show that texting-based interventions can produce educational benefits in children across a range of ages. We study effects of a text-based program for parents of kindergarten children, distinguishing a general program from one adding differentiation and personalization based on each child's developmental level. Children in the differentiated and personalized program were 63 percent more likely to read at a higher level (p < 0.001) compared to the general group, and their parents reported engaging more in literacy activities. Effects were driven by children further from average levels of baseline development, indicating that the effects likely stemmed from text content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Intersection of Health and Education to Address School Readiness of All Children.

Abstract: Children who enter kindergarten healthy and ready to learn are more likely to succeed academically. Children at the highest risk for not being ready for school live in poverty and/or with chronic health conditions. High-quality early childhood education (ECE) programs can be used to help kids be ready for school; however, the United States lacks a comprehensive ECE system, with only half of 3- and 4-year-olds being enrolled in preschool, lagging behind 28 high-income countries. As addressing social determinants of health gains prominence in pediatric training and practice, there is increasing interest in addressing ECE disparities. Unfortunately, evidence is lacking for clinically based, early educational interventions. New interventions are being developed asynchronously in pediatrics and education, often without knowledge of the evidence base in the other’s literature. In this State-of-the-Art Review, we synthesize the relevant work from the field of education (searchable through the Education Resources Information Center, also known as the “PubMed” of education), combining it with relevant literature in PubMed, to align the fields of pediatrics and education to promote this timely transdisciplinary work. First, we review the education literature to understand the current US achievement gap. Next, we provide an update on the impact of child health on school readiness and explore emerging solutions in education and pediatrics. Finally, we discuss next steps for future transdisciplinary work between the fields of education and pediatrics to improve the health and school readiness of young children.

More than Just a Nudge: Supporting Kindergarten Parents with Differentiated and Personalized Text-Messages

Abstract: Recent studies show that texting-based interventions can produce educational benefits in children across a range of ages. We study effects of a text-based program for parents of kindergarten children, distinguishing a general program from one adding differentiation and personalization based on each child’s developmental level. Children in the differentiated and personalized program were 63 percent more likely to read at a higher level (p

Trends in Student Social-Emotional Learning: Evidence from the CORE Districts. Working Paper.

Abstract: Trends in Student Social-Emotional Learning: Evidence from the CORE Districts Mounting evidence demonstrates that social-emotional skills are important for students’ academic and life success, yet we have limited evidence on how these skills develop over time and how this development varies across student subgroups. In this study, we use the first large-scale panel survey of social-emotional learning (SEL) to describe how four SEL constructs—growth-mindset, self-efficacy, self-management, and social awareness—develop from Grade 4 to Grade 12, and how these trends vary by gender, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity. Our results are based on self-report student surveys administered in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years to roughly 400,000 students within the CORE districts, a network of urban school districts in California. We simulate cohort trends for students continuously enrolled in six districts within CORE by adding the mean change at each grade level observed among students surveyed in both years to the mean scores of Grade 8 students in 2015-16. We find that, with the exception of growth mindset, social-emotional skills do not increase monotonically as students move through school. Self-efficacy, social awareness, and to a lesser degree self-management decrease after Grade 6. Trends in SEL also vary by subgroup. Female students report higher self-management and social awareness than boys, but their self-efficacy drops sharply relative to boys in middle and high school. Economically disadvantaged students report lower levels of each social-emotional construct, but gaps in self-management, growth mindset, and self-efficacy narrow in high school. White students report higher levels of social-emotional skills than African American and Latinx students; Asian students report levels of self-management similar to White students but exhibit declining self-efficacy over time. While our findings cannot be generalized beyond the California districts we study, the scope and scale of our data far exceeds anything in the extant literature. Martin R. West Harvard University

Good education policy making: Data-informed but values-driven:

Abstract: In this article, based on their book Educational Goods: Values, Evidence and Decision Making, Harry Brighouse, Helen Ladd, Susanna Loeb, and Adam Swift encourage education decision makers to give c...

Too Little or Too Much? Actionable Advice in an Early-Childhood Text Messaging Experiment

Abstract: Text-message based parenting programs have proven successful in improving parental engagement and preschoolers' literacy development. The tested programs have provided a combination of (a) general information about important literacy skills, (b) actionable advice (i.e., specific examples of such activities), and (c) encouragement. The regularity of the texts – each week throughout the school year – also provided nudges to focus parents' attention on their children. This study seeks to identify mechanisms of the overall effect of such programs. It investigates whether the actionable advice alone drives previous study's results and whether additional texts of actionable advice improve program effectiveness. The findings provide evidence that text messaging programs can supply too little or too much information. A single text per week is not as effective at improving parenting practices as a set of three texts that also include information and encouragement, but a set of five texts with additional actionable advice is also not as effective as the three-text approach. The results on children's literacy development depend strongly on the child's pre-intervention literacy skills. For children in the lowest quarter of the pretreatment literacy assessments, only providing one example of an activity decreases literacy scores by 0.15 standard deviations relative to the original intervention. Literacy scores of children in higher quarters are marginally higher with only one tip per week. We find no positive effects of increasing to five texts per week.