Information, Knowledge and Behavior - Evaluating Alternative Methods of Delivering School Information to Parents

Jul 19, 2026

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This paper evaluates alternative approaches to disseminating information about a school-based management program in Indonesia. Low-intensity methods—such as sending letters or colorful pamphlets home with children—failed to improve outcomes. In contrast, facilitated meetings with stakeholders and targeted SMSs increased parents’ knowledge and engagement. Meetings strengthened perceived transparency and expanded feedback participation through formal channels, while SMSs improved understanding of specific program details and encouraged informal participation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages51

Reading Time2 h 9 min

Introduction

School-based management and accountability

How information is conveyed to stakeholders

Study design and research questions

Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Accepted Author Manuscript Information, Knowledge and Behavior: Evaluating Alternative Methods of Delivering School Information to Parents Pedro Cerdan-Infantes World Bank Deon Filmer World Bank Santoso World Bank Abstract This paper evaluates alternative approaches to disseminating information about a school-based management program in Indonesia. Low-intensity approaches—sending a letter from the principal, or sending a colorful pamphlet, home with the child—had no impact. Holding a facilitated meeting with school stakeholders or sending targeted SMSs to parents increased knowledge and participation. Facilitated meetings increased overall knowledge and fostered a feeling of transparency, and increased participation in formal channels for providing feedback to the school. SMSs increased knowledge about specific aspects of the program, such as the grant amount, and increased participation through informal channels. 1. Introduction Many countries have embraced school-based management reforms to improve the quality of their education systems, based on the notion that decision-making will be improved by devolving responsibility to those who can more easily identify the needs of schools (BarreraOsorio, Fasih and Patrinos 2009) . Decentralization also has the potential of increasing the accountability of school-level decision-making agents to local communities, which could in turn increase effort and ultimately learning outcomes (World Bank 2004) . Several studies have identified the role of providing information in increasing the ability of parents to hold school actors accountable for performance, but a review of these suggest that the details of implementation matter (Bruns, Filmer and Patrinos 2011) . A key part of implementation is the way information is conveyed to stakeholders. Studies have provided information in a number of different ways: through village or school meetings (Pandey, Goyal and Sundararaman 2009, 2010; Banerjee et al. 2010), through posters at schools (Reinikka and Svensson 2004, 2010), through “school report cards” distributed to parents (Andrabi, Das and Khwaja 2017), through newspapers (Mizala and Urquiola 2011; Reinikka and Svensson 2004, 2010) or through meetings at students’ homes (Jensen 2010) . In this paper we take advantage of the fact that different approaches to disseminating information to parents about a government program were implemented in different districts in Indonesia in an approach that allows estimation of the impact of each approach. This We thank Mayla Lestari for excellent research assistance, as well as Dina Abu Ghaida, Nazmul Chaudhury, and Futoshi Yamauchi who provided valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper. All errors and omissions are, of course, our own. Funding for this work was provided by The World Bank and the Dutch Government. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. Contact the corresponding author, Deon Filmer, [at dfilmer@worldbank.org](at dfilmer@worldbank.org). information dissemination came in the context of a school-based management reform that consisted of (1) grants to schools coupled with (2) the establishment of School Committees that were given a formal advisory role to promote transparency and accountability; as well as play a mediating role between schools, governments, and communities at large. The ultimate aim of this information dissemination was to improve the effectiveness of School Committees in performing their functions, largely (but not exclusively) in relation to overseeing the use of the grants. We use this set up to compare the impact of alternative approaches on parental knowledge and participation in school management. The experiments consist of a group of four separ

FAQs

Which low-intensity information approaches showed no impact on parents?

Sending a principal’s letter or distributing a colorful pamphlet home with the child did not increase knowledge or participation.

Why did facilitated meetings increase knowledge and participation?

Facilitated meetings boosted overall knowledge, improved perceptions of school openness and transparency, and increased participation through formal feedback channels.

How did SMS-based information differ from meetings in improving outcomes?

SMSs increased knowledge about specific program aspects, such as the grant amount, and led to more informal engagement through communication channels.

Jul 19, 2026

Upload by Noah