NCT02889640

Brief Summary

The inability to consistently deliver at large scale promising education interventions is an important contributing cause to inequality in the U.S. The research team applies insights from price theory and field-based randomized controlled trials to examine the effect of implementing a promising academic skills development program at large scale before implementing at scale. The project is designed to provide evidence of direct scientific and policy value for attempts to scale up a specific intervention, but also stimulate a much more thorough investigation of social policy scale-up challenges by refining these methods and demonstrating their feasibility and value. The research team examines the challenge of program scale up for a promising intervention studied in Chicago at medium scale in the past - SAGA tutoring. Past work has demonstrated that SAGA's intensive, individualized, during-the-school-day math tutoring can generate very large gains in academic outcomes in a short period, even among students who are many years behind grade level. This study will explicitly explore the extent to which there is a trade-off between effectiveness and scale for this intervention. By taking advantage of the power of random sampling, this study will also allow for observation of the program's effectiveness as if it were running at three-and-a-half times the proposed scale in a subset of the study population.

Trial Health

35
At Risk

Trial Health Score

Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach

Trial has exceeded expected completion date
Enrollment
6,600

participants targeted

Target at P75+ for not_applicable

Timeline
Completed

Started Sep 2016

Longer than P75 for not_applicable

Status
unknown

Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.

Trial Relationships

Click on a node to explore related trials.

Study Timeline

Key milestones and dates

First Submitted

Initial submission to the registry

August 31, 2016

Completed
1 day until next milestone

Study Start

First participant enrolled

September 1, 2016

Completed
4 days until next milestone

First Posted

Study publicly available on registry

September 5, 2016

Completed
1.7 years until next milestone

Primary Completion

Last participant's last visit for primary outcome

June 1, 2018

Completed
2.6 years until next milestone

Study Completion

Last participant's last visit for all outcomes

January 1, 2021

Completed
Last Updated

April 24, 2020

Status Verified

April 1, 2020

Enrollment Period

1.7 years

First QC Date

August 31, 2016

Last Update Submit

April 22, 2020

Conditions

Educational Achievement

Keywords

Educational AchievementIndividualized TutoringMathematicsAcademic MismatchAchievement Gap

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

  • Difference in math achievement

    Performance on math standardized achievement tests

    1-year, 2-years, 3-years

Secondary Outcomes (14)

  • Difference in math course grades

    1-year, 2-years

  • Difference in absentee rate

    1-year, 2-years, 3-years

  • Difference in index of schooling outcomes

    1-year, 2-years, 3-years

  • Difference in student misconduct

    1-year, 2-years, 3-years

  • Difference in total courses failed

    1-year, 2-years, 3-years

  • +9 more secondary outcomes

Study Arms (3)

Control group

NO INTERVENTION

These youth will receive standard mathematics instruction and support (including possibly other tutoring interventions), but not the daily, intensive, during-the-school-day math tutoring provided by SAGA.

Scale-up SAGA math tutoring

EXPERIMENTAL

These youth will receive intensive, daily mathematics tutoring, and students will be paired with scale-up tutors. Tutors will be hired using the randomization process, and will be randomly assigned to youth.

Other: SAGA InnovationsOther: Scale-up tutors

Standard SAGA math tutoring

EXPERIMENTAL

These youth will receive intensive, daily mathematics tutoring, and students will be paired with tutors hired via SAGA's standard process, which does not involve randomization. Tutors will be randomly assigned to youth.

Other: SAGA InnovationsOther: Standard Tutors

Interventions

SAGA InnovationsOTHER

An intensive math tutoring program

Scale-up SAGA math tutoringStandard SAGA math tutoring
Scale-up tutorsOTHER

Tutors who have been selected for hire via the one in three-and-a-half randomization process

Scale-up SAGA math tutoring
Standard TutorsOTHER

Tutors who have been selected for hire via SAGA's standard hiring process, which does not entail randomization

Standard SAGA math tutoring

Eligibility Criteria

Sexall
Healthy VolunteersNo
Age GroupsChild (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

  • Chicago Public School and New York City Department of Education high schools students attending schools in low-income communities. Schools in the study are chosen in collaboration with the Chicago Public Schools and New York City Department of Education based on criteria such as dropout rate, test scores, scores on academic rating scale, etc.
  • School administrators are enthusiastic about the program and agree to terms and conditions of the experimental design
  • Male and female youth within these schools who are rising 9th and 10th graders in academic year (AY) 2016-17 and 2017-18
  • Applicants who apply to be a tutor for SAGA Innovations

You may not qualify if:

  • In Chicago (where the randomized controlled trial is being run), youth who have missed \>60% of days during AY2015-16 or AY2016-17 (through March), and so would not be expected to show up in school enough during intervention years (AY2016-17 and AY2017-2018) to benefit from school-based programming
  • In Chicago, youth who have failed \>75% of classes during AY2015-16 and AY2016-17 (through March)
  • In Chicago, youth who have designations for autism, "educable mentally handicapped," and/or traumatic brain injury

Contact the study team to confirm eligibility.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Related Publications (3)

  • Cook P, Dodge K, Farkas G, Fryer RG, Guryan J, Ludwig J, Mayer S, Pollack H, Steinberg L. Not Too Late: Improving Academic Outcomes for Disadvantaged Youth. Northwestern Institute for Policy Research Working Paper, February 2015.

    BACKGROUND

  • Cook P, Dodge K, Farkas G, Fryer RG, Guryan J, Ludwig J, Mayer S, Pollack H, Steinberg L. The (Surprising) Efficacy of Academic and Behavioral Intervention with Disadvantaged Youth: Results from a Randomized Experiment in Chicago. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper No. 19862, 2014.

    BACKGROUND

  • Fryer RG. Injecting Charter School Best Practices into Traditional Public Schools: Evidence from Field Experiments. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 129(3): 1355-1407, 2014.

    BACKGROUND

Study Officials

  • Jonathan Guryan, PhD

    Northwestern University

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

  • Kelly Hallberg, PhD

    University of Chicago

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

  • Jens Ludwig, PhD

    University of Chicago

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

Study Type
interventional
Phase
not applicable
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Masking
SINGLE
Who Masked
OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
Purpose
TREATMENT
Intervention Model
PARALLEL
Sponsor Type
OTHER
Responsible Party
SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

First Submitted

August 31, 2016

First Posted

September 5, 2016

Study Start

September 1, 2016

Primary Completion

June 1, 2018

Study Completion

January 1, 2021

Last Updated

April 24, 2020

Record last verified: 2020-04