Schools that need parent engagement the most will avoid it

A study in Kenya found that text messages to parents improved student test scores and were very cheap to run. But these messages also made parents more likely to pull their kids out of school, especially if the school was not very good.

Programs that help parents get more involved in their children's education can make students learn more. But these programs also make parents better at judging school quality, which means they might move their kids to a different school. This creates a problem: schools that need to improve the most might avoid these programs, even if they are free, because they don't want to lose students.