Browsing by Author "Snow, Catherine"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Aftershocks of Chile's Earthquake for an Ongoing, Large-Scale Experimental Evaluation
    (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2011) Moreno, Lorenzo; Trevino, Ernesto; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Mendive, Susana; Reyes, Joaquin; Godoy, Felipe; Del Rio, Francisca; Snow, Catherine; Leyva, Diana; Barata, Clara; Arbour, MaryCatherine; Rolla, Andrea
    Evaluation designs for social programs are developed assuming minimal or no disruption from external shocks, such as natural disasters. This is because extremely rare shocks may not make it worthwhile to account for them in the design. Among extreme shocks is the 2010 Chile earthquake. Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), an ongoing early childhood program in Chile, was directly affected by the earthquake. This article discusses (a) the factors the UBC team considered for deciding whether to put on hold or continue implementation and data collection for this experimental study; and (b) how the team reached consensus on those decisions. A lesson learned is that the use of an experimental design for UBC insured that the evaluation's internal validity was not compromised by the earthquake's consequences, although cohort comparisons were compromised. Other lessons can be transferred to other contexts where external shocks affect an ongoing experimental or quasi-experimental impact evaluation.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Experimental Impacts of a Preschool Intervention in Chile on Children's Language Outcomes: Moderation by Student Absenteeism
    (2016) Arbour, Mary Catherine; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Willett, John; Weiland, Christina; Snow, Catherine; Mendive Criado, Susana; Barata, M. Clara; Treviño Villarreal, Juan Ernesto
    Despite consensus that school absenteeism has negative consequences for children's life outcomes, until recently, little was known about the prevalence of absenteeism or its potential to moderate the impacts of school-based interventions. This study provides evidence from a randomized experiment of a preschool intervention involving 1,876 children in 64 schools in Chile that chronic absenteeism develops in preschool and is predicted by multiple risk factors for poor academic achievement. We find moreover that individual children's likelihood of absenteeism moderated the intervention's impact on children's language and literacy outcomes such that there were positive impacts of the intervention only for children with the lowest likelihood of absenteeism. Experimental evaluations of school-based interventions that do not take absenteeism into account may thus mask heterogeneous effects. In the context of policy pushes to expand early education and preschool access in the United States and globally, these moderation analyses may prove essential for appropriately interpreting the results of experimental studies of school-based interventions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Opening the black box : intervention fidelity in a randomized trial of a preschool teacher professional development program
    (2016) Mendive Criado, Susana; Weiland, Christina; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Snow, Catherine