Using Nudges to Prevent Student Dropouts in the Pandemic

Abstract

Using a cluster-randomized control trial with 18, 256 high-school students across 87 schools in the State of Goiás, Brazil, this paper documents that behavioral nudges, sent through text messages to students or their caregivers during remote learning in the context of COVID-19, significantly increased test scores in a standardized assessment test conducted with high-school seniors on the following year. Impacts were positive across the entire test score distribution, but nudges increased inequality in test scores. Relying on missing scorecard grades as a proxy for dropout risk across all high-school grades during remote learning, we show that nudges decreased this metric by 20% (although the effect is only imprecisely estimated). In contrast to test scores, nudges decreased inequality in dropout risk. Additional experiments that varied the content of nudges at the student level illustrate the opportunities and challenges of using behavioral insights to motivate students in the context of remote learning.