Engaging Parents with Preschools: Evidence from a Field Experiment, Chicago, Illinois, 2018-2019

Head Start and other publicly supported preschools are required to spend substantial funds promoting family engagement, which is a key element of improving child skills. Yet, parent engagement with preschools tends to be low. To increase parental attendance at school-sponsored family engagement events, a 17-week randomized controlled trial was conducted. Results showed that the treatment increased the likelihood of attending an event by 28%. Treated parents were also more likely to attend unincentivized events, which is consistent with habit formation.