Turning Parents into Learning Partners: Testing the Complementarity Between Home and School Investments in Ghana

Despite strong evidence that school quality and parental engagement each boost literacy, experimental evidence on their interaction is lacking. I will test whether equipping parents with reading assessment data, leveled workbooks, and training interacts with school quality improvements from training principals to support teachers via in class coaching. I will randomize 2,000 first-graders in Cape Coast, Ghana into a 2x2 design across 103 schools receiving: (1) a parent intervention (smartphone app with high-frequency assessments, workbooks, training); and/or (2) a principal intervention (video-based coaching modules to help improve instruction and parent engagement). Both are low-cost and scalable, leveraging existing school structures. Working with implementation partner Inspiring Teachers, the intervention will run December 2025-June 2026, measuring reading ability via Early Grade Reading Assessments. This design directly tests whether home- and school- based inputs are complements or substitutes in learning production. Either outcome will have important design implications for scaling education interventions, and addresses a critical policy question of whether and how resources should be directed towards involving parents. If complementary, successful education interventions could leverage parental engagement to improve literacy and address the learning crisis.