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Rogers & Feller, 2017: Mailing parents letters emphasizing that “absences matter and you can help” reduced school year absences among Philadelphia school district students

Reference:

Rogers, T., & Feller, A. (2017). Intervening through influential third parties: Reducing student absences at scale via parents. Work. Pap., John F. Kennedy Sch. Gov., Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA.
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Summary:

Parents of students (K-12) in the Philadelphia school district (28,080 households across 203 schools) were sent mailings five times throughout the school year emphasizing “absences matter and you can help” (reminder condition). In a second group, the mailing also included the number of absences their child had had so far in the school year (total absences condition). A third included a comparison to the modal number of absences among the student’s classmates (relative absences condition). Both treatments reduced absences over the school year (total absences: 16 days absent; relative absences: 15.9 days absent; reminder: 16.4 days absent; no-mailing control: 17 days absent). Other students in the same households as target students showed nearly as large reductions in the total absences and relative absences conditions. There was no moderation by student grade. There was no effect on end-of-year standardized test scores among students in grades 4-8.

Psychological Process:

What Desired Meaning is At Stake?

What is the Person Trying to Understand?

Selves (My Own and Others')

Approach to Desired Meaning

What about it?

Changing beliefs about goals

How?

Psychological Question Addressed

What were my goals?What were my goals?

Psychological Question Addressed

What were my goals?

Psychological Process 2:

Need

What is the Person Trying to Understand?

What Desired Meaning is At Stake?

What Desired Meaning is At Stake?

What About it?

Approach to Desired Meaning

Approach to Desired Meaning

How?

Psychological Question Addressed

Psychological Question Addressed

Psychological Question Addressed

Psychological Process 3:

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What Desired Meaning is At Stake?

Approach to Desired Meaning

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How?

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Social Area:

Intervention Technique:

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Posted By:

Greg Walton & Timothy Wilson