Community-based monitoring interventions blend multiple components difficult to identify separately. The literature reports mixed impacts of these interventions. We designed and conducted a field experiment in 126 schools of the Angolan province of Kwanza Sul, aiming to distinguish the impact of the information and the collective action components of a scorecard intervention.
Specifically, we explore a design with three treatments: (i) decentralized information to parents on the performance of schools, (ii) organization of meetings with parents without external information on performance, and (iii) the full scorecard, i.e., information on performance through meetings with parents. Our measurement of outcomes includes: students’ test scores, parent, school, teacher, and school director surveys, as well as lab games, and also administrative data. Despite no impacts on students’ test scores and absenteeism, we find positive effects of the full scorecard on school management outcomes and teachers’ performance.
Collective action, especially when combined with information, is a relevant component of these effects. A key mediator of these effects seems to be parents’ mobilization, for which we found information is its main activator.
With Vincenzo Di Maro, Danila Serra, and Pedro C. Vicente.
