Student absenteeism has remained high following the COVID-19 pandemic, and districts need low-cost strategies to improve attendance. During the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 school years, the National Center for Rural Education Research Networks (NCRERN) conducted a randomized trial of a personalized messaging intervention that had promising results in an early pilot with eight rural districts. NCRERN worked with a student information system to test the intervention in 47 districts in 16 states. We find that the personalized messages reduced student absences by between 1. 7% (p <. 05) and 4. 5% (p <. 05) and cost, on average, 4. 07 per student. While generally cost-effective, these effects represent a modest 0. 2 to 0. 5 days saved. We discuss implementation challenges and heterogeneous effects that suggest caution prior to full-scale adoption.
Swanson et al. (Tue,) studied this question.