Parents and students make important choices every day about education, sometimes without the full set of facts. Parents may not have sufficient information to choose the best school for their children. Research shows that if they or their children underestimate the value of education, parents may invest less effort or money in finding good quality schools, and students are less likely to work hard in their classes.

Simple messages—about school quality, students’ grades, or future income—helps close knowledge gaps, correct misperceptions, boost parent involvement and student motivation, and improve kids’ learning. These types of information increased parents’ engagement, student effort, or both, leading to better student learning. 

Information alone isn't enough if it doesn’t overcome other barriers, or if it discourages recipients. Messages about health and financial aid programs did not improve health or learning on their own. This information was effective only when paired with complementary programs that helped parents or students act on information provided.

Well-designed information campaigns are simple to run and inexpensive to scale. Governments or implementers are well-placed to deliver accurate, actionable information through text or in-person sessions at a low cost. When tailored to address specific information gaps or misperceptions families have, information can be a cost-effective and scalable way to help improve learning. 

Readily available data—contact information for parents, and access to students’ records—is an important prerequisite. School administrators should also keep parental literacy, internet access, and electricity access in mind when choosing how to deliver information; in places where internet or electricity access is a challenge, in-person meetings can be effective.

Information should be context-specific and tailored. Exactly what kind of information is useful and relevant to parents and children in shaping their decisions about education will depend on their existing information gaps or misperceptions. Implementers should understand these aspects and tailor messages to fill the gaps.

Scale can increase the cost-effectiveness of information campaigns, especially when good data is available. Reaching many people at once can reduce the cost of campaigns. Good data on education outcomes, like test scores, can help to assess campaigns’ impact.