Year of publication
2017
Recent studies have shown that texting-based interventions can produce educational benefits in children across a range of ages. These studies vary in their focus from broad curricula on child development, to reminders about missing work, to steps needed in order to enroll in college. Given the potential effectiveness of texting, as well as the ease of systematically varying texting programs so as to assess the effects of different approaches, texting provides a productive venue for learning about mechanisms behind program effects. This study tests the effects of a text-based parenting program for parents of kindergarteners, distinguishing the effects of a general program for all children from a program that adds differentiation and personalization based on the child's developmental level. We find that the personalized and differentiated program is more effective than the general program and that these benefits are driven by the gains of children further from the average learning levels of development. Overall, children in the differentiated and personalized program were 50 percent more likely to be reading at a higher level (p
