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Parent–teacher meetings and student outcomes: Evidence from a developing country

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  • Islam, Asad

Abstract

We conduct a randomized field experiment involving regularly scheduled face-to-face meetings between teachers and parents over a period of two academic years. At each of these meetings, the teacher provided the parents with a report card and discussed the child's academic progress. We find that the overall test scores of the students in the treatment schools compared to control schools increased by 0.26 SD in the first year, and 0.38 SD by the end of the second year. The program also resulted in improvements in both student attitudes and behavior, and teachers’ pedagogical practices. The intervention encouraged parents to spend more time assisting their children and monitoring their school work. The treatment effects are robust across parental, teacher, and school-level characteristics, and the findings indicate that programs for stimulating parent–teacher interactions are cost-effective, easy to implement, and easy to scale up.

Suggested Citation

  • Islam, Asad, 2019. "Parent–teacher meetings and student outcomes: Evidence from a developing country," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 273-304.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:111:y:2019:i:c:p:273-304
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2018.09.008
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    Cited by:

    1. M. Perez-Alvarez & M. Favara, 2023. "Children having children: early motherhood and offspring human capital in India," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1573-1606, July.
    2. Hossain, Mobarak, 2021. "Does greater community involvement mean more parent-teacher interaction? Evidence from seven developing countries," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. Xu, Lei & Tani, Massimiliano & Zhu, Yu, 2024. "Can the Teaching Style Reduce Inequality in the Classroom? Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 17135, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Islam, Asad & Lee, Wang-Sheng & Nicholas, Aaron, 2021. "The Effects of Chess Instruction on Academic and Non-cognitive Outcomes: Field Experimental Evidence from a Developing Country," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    5. Hashibul Hassan & Asad Islam & Abu Siddique & Liang Choon Wang, 2024. "Telementoring and Homeschooling During School Closures: a Randomised Experiment in Rural Bangladesh," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(662), pages 2418-2438.
    6. Joana Elisa Maldonado & Kristof De Witte & Koen Declercq, 2022. "The effects of parental involvement in homework: two randomised controlled trials in financial education," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 1439-1464, March.
    7. Huang, Wei & Li, Teng & Pan, Yinghao & Ren, Jinyang, 2023. "Teacher characteristics and student performance: Evidence from random teacher-student assignments in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 747-781.
    8. Dong, Xiaoqi & Liang, Yinhe & Yu, Shuang, 2023. "Middle-achieving students are also my peers: The impact of peer effort on academic performance," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Parent-teacher meeting; Educational outcomes; Field experiments; Bangladesh;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development

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